Possibly I’m being paranoid but it seems that lately ads for the specific PC hardware I’ve researched recently come up with astonishing frequency when I visit multi-ad portals like the Straight Dope or various news sites. Coincidence or not? Is Google stalking me?
yes google tracks your search history and yes they use it to display relevant ads where possible
eta: assuming you’ve accepted google’s cookies and/or have an account of some form with them, i.e. gmail, apps etc
They’d be fools not to. That’s how you make money from targeted ads.
It’s odd that I never noticed it before re specific products. I always thought Google was making it’s money if you happened to click though any ad that happend to catch your fancy when surfing and they charged the advertising company. I never noticed my specifc searches being used before.
Try searching Google for something like “Rosie O’Donnell’s Left Nut” and you’ll often see ads like “Find Rosie O’Donnell’s Left Nut on eBay.”
Right now search for “Freedom Fries” and there’s an ad that sends you to a book on Amazon.com called Freedom Fries.
Here in the UK the whole process of targetting ads seems to have gone a step further.
Phorm - who used to be called 121 Media - have joined with BT, our largest ISP, to intercept all browsing requests and place their own ads on a site instead of any existing ads. This is seen by some as illegal.
This link will explain it better than I can.
I think it’s the same technology that was used by NebuAd in the US.
Wow.
OpenDNS does the same thing.
I never look at adds. I block all I can and even if I am looking for something, I never, never click on an online add. That way lies malware and problems. If I am looking for the left handed monkey wrench, I use a search engine and then go to the sites I think would have what I want but to actually click on an unasked for add here on SDMB or anyplace else is to me shear madness. No, I am never that curious… YMMV
That’s correct, the companies pay Google when you CLICK on their ads, no click no cost to the company.
So if you want to cost companies money, click through to their ad but don’t buy.