Adverts, giant or small

Earlier on, I was on Google looking for a specific type of holiday, which we might be taking later in the summer.

lazland wrote: Earlier on, I was on Google looking for a specific type of holiday, which we might be taking later in the summer. Lo and behold, when I returned to PA later, adverts at the top of my browser were for Thompsons and other holiday companies. Spooky, really. Is nothing I do sacred? These have never appeared before, BTW. Looking on the funny side, it's a good job I wasn't Googling porn, I suppose. However, this type of lack of privacy does bother me a little bit. I have absolutely no objection to M@x raising money from advertising at all. Having said that, I am slightly concerned when my other internet activities have a direct bearing on what I see here. I say this as a slight moan more than anything else, but comments on how to stop it would be welcome (and, no, I do not want to Google porn!!)

Interesting....that is worrying if indeed true

Search engines = no privacy

Wow, you guys have not been paying attention if you're shocked by the "invasion" of targeted ads. That is the way that it works (WSJ ran some high profile articles about it a year ago, but those require a subscription so here is Forbes instead from a year before that) and even if Max wanted to turn it off (which I assure you he does not), I'm not sure he could except by personally selling ads from each advertiser.

But as for stopping it, Scroogle will block the cookies Google uses for ad targeting. I think you could also use a whitelist to block all cookies except the sites you go to frequently who you want to store your login data.

Also, there is nothing you could Google that would cause porn ads to appear on PA. Porn advertising is a totally different thing.


Edited by Henry Plainview - June 26 2011 at 18:47

Well, I definitely like music ads on a music site.

The idea of advertising in general annoys me because they all say the same "We're better than everyone else" message, and yet are the same crap that no one actually needs, so that they have to brainwash people into thinking they need it.

I was just on allmusic.com and there was an ad for a cell phone in Spanish.  At first I was sort of confused then I realised I opened a Spanish website 10 min ago... that just doesn't feel right. 


Edited by Eärendil - June 26 2011 at 19:16

Andyman1125 wrote: Eärendil wrote: Well, I definitely like music ads on a music site. The idea of advertising in general annoys me because they all say the same "We're better than everyone else" message, and yet are the same crap that no one actually needs, so that they have to brainwash people into thinking they need it. I like the music ads, but I don't understand why there are so many goddamn death metal and grindcore ads!

Same here too.  And lots of Queensryche now.  The worst music-related ones are the "Free mp3 converter!" ones.  If anyone downloads software from a random site advertised as "Free!!"  they should reconsider their lives.

Eärendil wrote: Same here too.  And lots of Queensryche now.  The worst music-related ones are the "Free mp3 converter!" ones.  If anyone downloads software from a random site advertised as "Free!!"  they should reconsider their lives.

Yeah.  Years ago I signed a form that said "Free Nelson Mandela!"   I never received mine.