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Stuff we've looked at whilst shopping online - it's following us!


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We do quite bit of shopping online, busy lives and all that, and find online shopping an easier option to the 'real thing'

 

We've noticed lately though that stuff we've searched for online, or stuff we've had in our 'basket' (we may have bought it or not) tends to follow us around the net.

 

For example the ad image to my left on the Sheffield Forum Discussions page is the EXACT four items Mrs D had in her John Lewis shopping basket but didn't buy here's a screen shot of the ad (not to my taste BTW, we had to come to an agreement that we'd go out into the real world and shop properly together) ;)

 

It's a bit of a chuff when your shopping basket follows you around the web though isn't it.

 

Anyone shop with Ann Summers? :D

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Stuff follows me as well, even if I have bought it. I click on it anyway just to cost them money.

 

We've only noticed it in the last few weeks, friends have commented on it too - a new step 'forward' in online advertising?

 

I suppose we'll get used to it :(

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You need to make sure you clean your cookies regularly, and opt-out of googles ad tracking "service"

 

That said, you may prefer to get ads for things you might at least be interested in.

 

I'll look at the 'opt out' option auto98uk, thanks - I'm one of a rare breed that never clicks banner ads - indeed I fail for the most part to even see them - when you see your shopping basket on an 'inappropriate' page it does tend to get your attention though :suspect:

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Ironically you are helping it to happen - as far as (for example) google are concerned, it statistically means their ads are more successful than they actually are, but the company the ad is for may end up paying if click-through. So google can use the stats to continue selling the ads.

 

Exactly. I know it costs them so I click. I even saw a "You are our 1,000,000,000,000th customer glitzy ad on the BBC News website this week. Like someone said, I can clear cookies if it gets too much.

 

Anyone seen Facebook recently? It has really gone over to the dark side.

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I saw a talk on this on TED.com.I`ll try to find it.It was very interesting about googles preferred search.Its not only advertising by the way.If you google something on somebody elses computer it will turn up wholly different set of search results based on your browsing preferences.I`ll try to find it and link it in.(only about a 10 minute vid)

 

 

Just to emphasize this if you clicked "Like" to this vid... YouTube will spit out "You liked this video. We'll use this to improve your recommendations.".Google will in the future decide what you like and give you results based on it.Scary.

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I saw a talk on this on TED.com.I`ll try to find it.It was very interesting about googles preferred search.Its not only advertising by the way.If you google something on somebody elses computer it will turn up wholly different set of search results based on your browsing preferences.I`ll try to find it and link it in.(only about a 10 minute vid)

 

 

Just to emphasize this if you clicked "Like" to this vid... YouTube will spit out "You liked this video. We'll use this to improve your recommendations.".Google will in the future decide what you like and give you results based on it.Scary.

Thanks for posting the link - interesting and thought provoking stuff.

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