Every morning when I turn on my computer, Yahoo! has some news headlines on their homepage, and the last three are local stories for me - news from The Boulder Daily Camera, the Denver Post, etc. But sometime around 6PM, these three links switch to stories from the Star-Tribune, the Pioneer Press, and WCCO.
What is happening here?
I have no idea, but your question intrigues me enough to subscribe.
Hope you get an answer…
Usually a website guesses your location by your IP address. Unless you ask for a dedicated IP address (for which there is usually an extra monthly charge) your internet provider cannot guarantee that it won’t change occasionally. I’m guessing that, for whatever reason, your IP address changes around 6PM everyday. As far as I know, it’s unusual for it to change everyday, and even more unusual for it to change at the same time every day. Do you by any chance have dialup? That would explain the IP address constantly changing.
That’s just part of the answer. As I said, websites guess your location from your IP address. This is called geotargeting. Geotargeting - Wikipedia. Geotargeting is not 100% accurate. It may be that you are being assigned an IP address that some database mistakenly says is in Minnesota.
You can check out whether your address is changing around that time everyday. If you go to http://www.ip2location.com it will show you your current IP address and where it thinks you are approximately located (actually the location of your ISP). Go there earlier in the day and note the IP Then go again after 6 and see if it has changed and if it now thinks your ISP is in Minnesota.
davidm gave an excellent response; I just wanted to touch on this:
Most DHCP (the protocol that assigns internal IP addresses) leases are for multiples of 24 hours, and most ISPs (IME) lease for only 24 hours.
So, an IP change every day at the same time doesn’t surprise me at all … except that the lease is often renewed, so the address is usually perpetuated.
All this being said, it applies to your internal IP address and not the address the website(s) should be seeing. Is there any chance your ISP covers MN as well as your current location?
Another related question: Why does my cell phone think I’m in Portland, OR rather than Phoenix?
i will get half a continent location shift or months time shift in news very infrequently. i have not done correlations though i recall it being at times not 6PM in the USA.
I have what I assume is a similar issue with the IP address when every so often all the “housewife in ______ loses 30 lbs/works at home/wants to meet you” ads change from where I live to Grand Junction, CO.
I also have a very bizarre problem with Google News. Whatever system they use correctly deduces I live in Montana, but the only news stories it ever shows under the “Montana news” category are from the Times of Malta. Not the little wide-spot-in-the-road town of Malta in eastern Montana, but the Mediterranean island nation! And let me tell you-- their coverage of Montana news isn’t very good. It usually only comes up with a new story every other week or so when either someone happens to have montana-themed name (there’s an MP named “Helena” that seems to trigger a lot of them) or when a “weird news” story from here makes its way into their paper (like the lady fending off the bear with the zucchini one).
It swithched again. I checked my IP address this morning and it showed Boulder, CO, and I checked it again just now and it hasn’t changed, but the news links are for Minnesota.
I am not on dialup, I am on cable.
Yahoo also lets you change the options based on a zip code you enter rather than your IP address. If it really bothers you, just change the default zip code.
I would find out if your IP address IS changing. DSL and Cable modems don’t usually change, but dial up does.
Try What Is My IP Address (dot) Com or google another and keep track of your IP address.
Does the website go by IP address or do you have to set a location? It could be you’ve set your cookies for one city and you have your browser set to delete cookies when you close the browser or somthing like that.
Well I guess that rules out my explanation. Maybe it has something to do with cookies but I can’t imagine why cookies would change at dusk.
Maybe it has something to do with proxies or something. I’m stumped.
So do you get news that’s months old, or do you get news of what will happen months in the future?
A WAG here. Perhaps the news source in Boulder signals they are done updating at 6pm? Google then gives you a default news provider that will continue updating through the night. If a major news event happens during the night the default news provider would have it.
And I thought it was weird that my IP would sometimes come from the next county.
That’s not weird at all. Sometimes the IP for my services (I have more than one) say I’m in the correct city, sometime in the one 5 miles north, sometimes the one 1 mile north, and sometimes the ones 50 miles south or 50 miles east. This is based on looking at both a direct IP lookup and using web page “guesses”.
I read something about Okams Razor (or another brand) on here once. Their pitch is to go with the simplest solution being the best one which I think is a good bet,
I think you need to show that you aren’t moving to Minnesota every night at dusk before you start dicking around with complicated computer questions. Stand outside tomorrow night as the sun goes down and watch what happens closely. Does it get really cold suddenly? Do you hear people saying “Doncha know?” more often? Do you suddenly crave jello based dishes for dinner? If so, there’s your answer. A handheld GPS unit can provide confirmation that this is the core problem.
I do get a chubby when I see Brett Favre on TV. But only in the evenings.