Who does Google think you are?

Ah --- you are all men! I bet you are the old son in the basement trolls...

OK here is mine:

Your categories
Finance
Food & Drink - Cooking & Recipes - Meat & Seafood
Jobs & Education - Education - Homeschooling
Shopping - Apparel - Women's Clothing
Travel - Cruises & Charters


Your demographics
.Age: 55-64
Gender: Male

I didn't realize an old man is interested in cooking, homeschooling, women's clothing and cruises.

What 55 - 64 year old male is looking at women's clothing! Maybe they have me as a cross dresser.

And the apparel sites I now remember clicking on (one about a year ago for a company that was showing stuff I liked not to buy but to see the site, a new to me name, and the others, American Apparel, just to get to look at Sartorialist photos) seem to market primarily to women, at least at first glance.

Now I'm wondering if my hitting an ad in passing with my cursor, say on a football game tracking site, where there are things like Mercedes ads, has added up to demonstrate to them that I'm a male. Um, always take your finger off the mouse when moving cursor, osso..

well I once when going to type in google.com missed the first g and I got quite an eyeful of that website. Maybe that pegged me as an old guy.

And also some one recommended a certain pant style that fits wide girthed men well on a thread here - I clicked on that as well - I could see that combination pegging me for an old man - although it doesn't list those as my interests.

Maybe that website above could be where the homeschooling came in...

<giggles>

I use Firefox with AdBlock Plus.

They got the age and gender right.

Why I'm listed with anything related to computers is a mystery. I know diddly and have diddly interest.

Arts & Entertainment - Music & Audio - Rock Music
Computers & Electronics - Software - Multimedia Software - Audio & Music Software - Audio Files Formats & Codecs
Games - Computer & Video Games - Casual Games
Games - Puzzles & Brainteasers
Pets & Animals - Pets - Cats
Reference - Language Resources
Shopping


Your demographics
We infer your age and gender based on the websites you've visited. You can remove or edit these at any time.Age: 65+
Gender: Female

I saw something on all this earlier today.


Google announces privacy changes across products; users can’t opt out
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/google-tracks-consumers-across-products-users-cant-opt-out/2012/01/24/gIQArgJHOQ_story.html

Seems to be planned for March.

However, yesterday I spent some time looking for an odd item, something that would help me to reach the middle of my back with lotion, as I have dry skin, an all year condition for me in New Mexico, land of sand. I had an idea of something I could rig up that could work, and tried it and it did work, but in the meantime, I looked at sites about loofahs, Amazon and one other, thinking loofah with a handle, that maybe I could wrap or use as is. Turns out, should you be interested, there's tons of stuff out there for this, undoubtedly available at beauty supply places that I never frequent.

So... this morning, I think when I was checking the LA Times or possibly some other website, what do I get but a fat set of ads for loofahs and lotion rollers.
Sooooooo, unless that was a magical coincidence, they're already tracking via sites I go to, not just ads I look at.


Edit - I've just noticed some headlines out there that there is a big backlash about this.
So far I'm not too worried, since I'm a middle aged male who searches out loofahs.

Candy now on several websites I look at - hah!

Day before yesterday, I ate the last caramel that Butrflynet had made for Christmas treats. They were beyond delicious and I made five of them last for a month as I moderate my sugar consumption. Oh no, they're all gone! I thought about making my own for about two seconds, and quickly arrived at no. But.. what if I made some of those fondant type sweets See's Candies used to have in their shops? So, I looked the See's site up to see what they called them. No luck, but I found similar with a recipe elsewhere.

Yep, now I have See's Valentine truffles on my a2k pages. Very pleasant, I must say. I may even click on some candy sites on purpose to get better looking ad banners for the future. Heh, that'll skew their interest results.

This is a great idea -- customize your ad experience for aesthetics. I might go look up some florists. Really high-end ones.