So I load the IMHO forum, I’m not even logged in, and above the SD banner I see:
BLANK SLATE
It leads to some training device for climbers. So, just a coincidence, right? Everyone else gets the same ads? Heh, um, heh heh. Right?
No, I don’t use ad blocker here because I figure it’s better for the board and the ads don’t bother me anyway. Usually.
No, everyone does not see the same ads. They are targeted to your own location determined by your ISP address and also by the things being discussed on the page.
You can make the ads change by the issues discussed. And if you are in, say Pittsburg, the ads will tell you about the beauty secrets discovered by a mom in Pittsburg, if you live somewhere else, the location changes.
The ads on this page will change, for me, once I make this post. You will not see the same changes.
(bolding mine)
No shit? I truly did not know that. :eek:
This is one of the reasons that I just love the SDMB, I learn something new almost everytime I sign in.
And here all along I thought it was just women from Houston, that were discovering all of those neat new tricks for “whitening your teeth, getting rid of wrinkles, etc.” 
That hot mom sure gets around. She appears in just about every location in the world, effortlessly.
Pittsburg, my ass.
I somehow managed to confuse the location algorithm for the ads at a website I visit occasionally. Everytime I’d go there, I’d see, “Hot women are waiting to hear from you in San Quentin!”
Pretty sure those aren’t women waiting for me there.
I understand how the geographically targeted ads work but I’m pretty sure there isn’t an algorithm tossing up banner ads in response to our usernames.
It responds to words on the page. It doesn’t differentiate between usernames and other content.
You say it doesn’t differentiate, but it bothers me that you’re serving up cooked pages including the usernames back to the ad companies, which could scrape the pages and connect our usernames with our IPs, and collect which threads we read and post to.
Not trying to be snarky, but…
Please enlighten me, as to how exactly that would be a bad thing. 
I don’t think that is what’s happening.
From the registration agreement:
We log your Internet address (IP number) each time you post. <snip> One of our third-party advertising providers, Google, uses IP numbers to customize ads served up to SDMB users.
Ads are targeted based on ISP location and seem to be influenced by key words from the other content on the page, such as topic of discussion. Not exactly sure how they do it and it doesn’t always work effectively, as sometimes the results are quite comical.
As far as we know that is all that happens; the location of the ISP is used geographically.
Creative Loafing/The Straight Dope does not sell or disclose other information. Again from the registration agreement:
**We won’t give or sell your e-mail address to bulk mailers, brokers, or similar entities. **
Recent articles concerning Google and its data practices certainly make you wonder what is being collected and what is being done with it. The Straight Dope is not actively contributing to this effort. Short of abandoning cyberspace altogether – not just the Straight Dope site but all sites everywhere – I’m not sure that there’s anything you could do to avoid this.
The OP was written tongue-in-cheek, it wasn’t intended to arouse actual paranoia. Juat a startingling coincidence, particuliarly because of the text “Blank Slate” in large caps at the top of the page. I don’t think a scheme to match usernames to IP’s would work very well…in my case, I wouldn’t even see them on other sites because of ad blocker. On the other hand, if Coca Cola wantss to pay me to change my username to The Real Thing…