I just clicked on a link in an SDMB thread to take me to one of Cecil’s articles, and on that page was an ad that said, “Meet more buyers for these listings.”
Not remarkable so far, but scrolling thru the ad were pictures and addresses of ALL of my listings, and ONLY my listings.
So some program is making the link between my viewing of a Cecil page and my business, and targeting me rather than the general public, probably trying to sell some specialized real estate services (from Trulia).
The browser was Chrome. It would be hard to recreate it in another browser because the page ad delivery is so random, but I seem to recall the same thing happening not long ago in Firefox.
Since I have a free Trulia account, although I’m pretty sure I didn’t reveal much to set it up, Trulia must place a cookie on my computer identifying me. Then when the ad server asks for relevant cookies, that one comes up.
It doesn’t help me sell properties if I’m looking at my own listings, so I’m not too pleased about it, but I guess it doesn’t hurt.
Hmmm. I’m not sure how that would work – cookies seem like a better tool. Maybe cookies are used unless appropriate ones aren’t available to the ad server?
My IP shows as being from about 200 miles away – where Charter’s HQ is – and I don’t see how that would tie to my local real estate business. Trulia setting/sharing cookies makes more sense.
I do know some services do use the IP for location, because I sometimes get dating ads in Fond Du Lac, Charter’s HQ. Other times the ads are more local, so I guess there are multiple ways of determining origin.
Yes, Trulia is one of those sites that are constantly bombarding you with offers to upgrade your account, making pictures bigger, allowing more comments, better ad distribution, more data analysis, etc. Nothing is expensive per feature, but it can add up.