# Where does your browser think you want to go? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 7, 2019, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-your-browser-think-you-want-to-go/829138 "2019-02-07T21:29:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2019, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-your-browser-think-you-want-to-go/829138/1 "2019-02-07T21:29:39Z")
When I start typing into the address bar in my browser, the browser pops up a guess as to where I want to go – based, I assume, on where I’ve most often gone in the past. Out of boredom, I just typed the alphabet, letter by letter, to see the results. Most were what I’d have expected (Amazon Google IMDB Netflix StraightDope (where else?) Yahoo) and a few had no one-letter suggestions filled in (clearly I have no favorite “K” or “Q” sites.) What baffles me are a couple I would have sworn I’d never visited in my life: Cropchatter and PrimalPasture. Do I have some homeless farmer breaking in to use my computer?? Anyway, if your browser does this, take a look. Do you have any really strange sites popping up as your ‘favorites’? ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2019, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-your-browser-think-you-want-to-go/829138/2 "2019-02-07T22:01:04Z")
I got through the whole alphabet without anything weird coming up. I must have a boring browser. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2019, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-your-browser-think-you-want-to-go/829138/3 "2019-02-07T22:18:35Z")
Nothing. Nada. Zilch. I have autofill turned off everywhere. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2019, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-your-browser-think-you-want-to-go/829138/4 "2019-02-07T23:22:11Z")
Most of mine are pretty much what I expected. A lot of straight dope pages, wikipedia, credit card, phone, gas, electric, the company I work for, etc. For whatever reason, “a” popped up outlook, because apparently Firefox thinks that [outlook.office.com](http://outlook.office.com) has an “a” in it somewhere. Outlook and craigslist both come up for “e”. Must be a hidden “e” in there somewhere that I don’t normally use. Stupid Firefox. Craigslist comes up under “j” too. I was kinda surprised that I had regularly visited web pages for every letter except X and Z, though it still tried to auto-fill in some youtube videos for those letters (X and Z show up in the gibberish letters that youtube uses to code their videos). I was also surprised that Amazon didn’t come up for “a”. I don’t shop there much, just mostly a few items around the xmas season, but I still do go there every once in a while. K brought up user profiles here that I had taken a look at, and Q brought up both our time card system at work (which has a Q in its name) and an online comic that I read. As for your homeless farmer links, those may have come from pop-up ads or something like that. I have my browser fairly tightly locked down so I don’t get any weird links like that. ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2019, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-your-browser-think-you-want-to-go/829138/5 "2019-02-07T23:55:51Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > As for your homeless farmer links, those may have come from pop-up ads or something like that. I have my browser fairly tightly locked down so I don’t get any weird links like that. Huh. Even if you’ve never clicked on an ad for a site? I mean, I don’t even garden, let alone grow ‘crops’ or deal with pastures. Though I’ve realized another weirdness. J came up with JCPenny, which, okay, I have gone there while price checking something. OTOH, there’s a site called “Jigzone” which has a daily jigsaw puzzle, and I must go there at least 3-4 times a week when I want a little mindless break. So… a site I _may_ have visited six times last year outranks a site I’ve absolutely visited 150+ times? Strange. Though… I use a bookmark to get to jigzone. Maybe bookmarks don’t count? ---
**Author:** ![aurora\_maire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aurora_maire/32/328_2.png) [@aurora\_maire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurora_maire)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2019, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-your-browser-think-you-want-to-go/829138/6 "2019-02-08T02:39:17Z")
D brought up Dominos - I’ve never ordered pizza from them. Delta was down the list and I was just checking flights a couple weeks ago. N brought up NBA - I’m not a basketball fan. Strangely M and Z brought up basketball players. Great. Now I’ll probably be followed around the net by bad pizza and really tall guys. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2019, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-your-browser-think-you-want-to-go/829138/7 "2019-02-08T04:20:37Z")
It’s probably using [Google Autocomplete](https://www.blog.google/products/search/how-google-autocomplete-works-search/). The browser may partially be showing your previous searches/websites, and partially Google’s guesses, based on the searches of other people.