# Creepy - but effective? ad **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [February 3, 2011, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-but-effective-ad/569958 "2011-02-03T00:16:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![not\_alice](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_alice/32/7283_2.png) [@not\_alice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_alice)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-but-effective-ad/569958/1 "2011-02-03T00:16:30Z")
I just saw the first ever ad on here that I was inclined to click on. Since you guys get paid on if people click, I thought I’d sahre that, as if it repeats and works for others, it might be significant. The ad is from LinkedIn, and apparently because I am logged in to LI in a another tab, it sucked up the logged in cookies, or some other cookie that LI tossed out and _knows exactly who I am_. The ad itself consists of 3 links to jobs, very specific to searches I have on there, and my resume and other communication on that site I have engaged in, as well as the nature of my network. The jobs clearly were not picked at random, not even close. This is the first time I noticed an LI ad. Have others seen anything similar? I am not sure how I feel about this, neutral for now. On a related note, I seem to be getting a lot of tower ads below the final contgent part of the page but before the footer and these seem to be the slowest and last to load. That means even though all the content is present, if I scroll up because I am impatient, when the ad finishes, I jump back to the bottom. So I wonder if a tower ad is best for that location (lots of white space), and if there is something that makes that load slower? ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-but-effective-ad/569958/2 "2011-02-03T00:51:20Z")
> [@not\_alice](#): > > Since you guys get paid on if people click I don’t think this is necessarily the case. ---
**Author:** ![not\_alice](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_alice/32/7283_2.png) [@not\_alice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_alice)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-but-effective-ad/569958/3 "2011-02-03T01:06:57Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > I don’t think this is necessarily the case. Agreed. Since I see posts about poor ads here, I thought I’d mention one that might be very good and likely to get clicks so they can see how to optimize their returns. ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-but-effective-ad/569958/4 "2011-02-03T01:34:14Z")
From the [registration agreement](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/faq.php?faq=vb3_board_faq#faq_sdmb_rules): > [@](#): > > One of our third-party advertising providers, Google, uses IP numbers to customize ads served up to SDMB users. ---
**Author:** ![not\_alice](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_alice/32/7283_2.png) [@not\_alice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_alice)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-but-effective-ad/569958/5 "2011-02-03T01:41:51Z")
> [@TubaDiva](#): > > From the [registration agreement](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/faq.php?faq=vb3_board_faq#faq_sdmb_rules): This was a display ad that appears after the first post. It doesn’t look like any google ads I have ever noticed before. How can I tell if it was a google ad the next time I see it? Or can you tell merely from the location on the page? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-but-effective-ad/569958/6 "2011-02-03T05:22:21Z")
Using IPs wouldn’t be sufficient to know the stuff the OP mentions. It almost has to be cookies, unless you’ve been searching for those jobs using Google search. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-but-effective-ad/569958/7 "2011-02-03T08:22:31Z")
> [@](#): > > This was a display ad that appears after the first post. It doesn’t look like any google ads I have ever noticed before. How can I tell if it was a google ad the next time I see it? Or can you tell merely from the location on the page? Google text ads all say “Ads by Google” on them, and Google image ads all have something that looks sort of like the tail of an airplane (not sure how else to describe it) in the bottom-right corner that, if you mouse over it, expands into a Google logo.