Google are creeping me out now ...

So earlier this morning I visited the on-line shop for a certain clothes brand.  I looked at a couple of sweatshirts and a few pairs of jeans.

Now when I was killing time waiting for VS to compile, I went to some sites on the ICHC network and now not only are they consistently showing ads for that site, they're also showing specifically the clothes I was looking at earlier.

Starting to think that using Chrome might not be the best idea, despite how much I like it as a browser. Damn cyber-stalkers!

Herbie

41 minutes ago, Dr Herbie wrote

So earlier this morning I visited the on-line shop for a certain clothes brand.  I looked at a couple of sweatshirts and a few pairs of jeans.

Now when I was killing time waiting for VS to compile, I went to some sites on the ICHC network and now not only are they consistently showing ads for that site, they're also showing specifically the clothes I was looking at earlier.

Starting to think that using Chrome might not be the best idea, despite how much I like it as a browser. Damn cyber-stalkers!

Herbie

It's not chrome (or at least it happens with IE9, too).  If I go to Newegg.com and browse for hardware, the very items I browsed for will show up as ads on other sites.

What's worse, is that I've noticed a distinct increase in spam mail that contains filter tricking words similar to searches I've done within a day or so.  It could be coincidence, but it's happened far too often.

As long as it doesn't start associating me with people from here ... 

Herbie

Hi Herbie,

This isn't Chrome itself doing this, rather it's the website you went to. It's called re-targeting, basically, the website signs up with a third party advertising supplier (I believe Google also does this), they send small amounts of supposedly anonymous data from their site back to the advertising supplier in realtime. They set a cookie on your machine. Now anytime you go to a site that has signed up with the same supplier to show adverts, the ads are tailored to the fact that there's a cookie on your machine that says you went to Site XX, looked at Product YY.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/30/technology/30adstalk.html

Yes, it's a little freaky when you first see it, but believe it or not, these adverts do work quite well (unfortunately!)

This technology almost got me into trouble this year - I was looking on bluenile for engagement rings (my now fiancee didn't at this stage know I was going to propose!), they use similar technology and so I had a hard time explaining why, when she went to various websites, blue nile was advertised everywhere! Almost blew my suprise proposal!!

Well, I guess porn-mode has a legitimate use after all.

Herbie

I would much rather see ads that might be of interest to me than ones that I will never have anything to do with.

This is true. While I haven't seen this particular retargetting thing yet, I despise Blip.tv for making me sit through random US and UK ads that I have no chance of doing anything with. This is even more annoying because not only can you not skip them, they've recently also started automatically pausing them when they're not visible, so I can't even switch to another tab and do something else until they finish.

@Dr Herbie: I dropped Chrome like 2 months after it was initially realeased, for that reason.

I switched to Iron, based on Chrome you can get it from here http://www.srware.net/en/software_srware_iron.php, since it is based on Chromium, is virtually identical to Chrome but without the google creepy stuff plus it supports url blocking lists.  On the link there is even a portable version so you can try it without actually installing it. (In fact that's the way I use it)

Now I expend 50/50 between Iron and IE9 (which also supports url blocking in the form of "tracking protection")

If you block all cookies by default, then add exceptions for the websites you use, you can build a customized white-list. Chrome makes it easy to adjust cookies, using the cookie icon on the right of the address bar.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDW_Hj2K0wo

Bill hicks was right.

MSN is crazier. I was talking to my bro about Liberace without using internet . I did remember his name too. Then I open my ie to search hid name and bamn. His face is on th front page talking about completely different topic. maybe it is luck , still strange .

@Dr Herbie:

Channel 9 is sending all your data to Webtrends, a 3rd party that does exactly what you're describing, yet I see nothing about that.

        <img alt="DCSIMG" id="DCSIMG" width="1" height="1" src="http://m.webtrends.com/dcs1wotjh10000w0irc493s0e_6x1g/njs.gif?dcsuri=/nojavascript&amp;WT.js=No&amp;WT.tv=MS.3.0.0"/>

It's right in the source code of any HTML page on the site.

@beerinbelgium: Of course they are, sunshine.

There'd be no other reason to monitor this information other than for advertising, would there?

@ScanIAm:

http://www.webtrends.com/AboutWebtrends/PrivacyPolicy

I don't need to copy bits and pieces here. Read their policy. It's no different than any DoubleClick style user tracking network.

http://blogs.webtrends.com/blog/2011/06/23/the-downside-of-prior-consent-demonstrated/

Looks like your buddy at Webtrends is crying about opt-in. I would love to see that in America too.