Got an internet quershun.....

[Big Muddy]

Just noticed in the past few weeks that whenever I surf for a particular product or info., it won't be but a few minutes that a pop-up appears on my screen, which advertises the very product or info. that I was searching for.

How the h3ll do "they" know I was searching for that???....it's not really annoying....but, sometimes it's helpful and sometimes it's not....just wondering.

[BarryBobPosthole]

It's a thang Google does. Other search engines do the same thing I think. Google uses the information it gets from all of the searches you make and tries to do 'smarter' searches and return results that it thinks matches what your likes and dislikes are.

BKB

[Big Muddy]

For instance, last week when I was looking for info. about the schematics for the hydraulic steering on my pontoon, in about 5 minutes, the website for the very info. I was looking for, popped up on my screen....btw, as a result, I fixed my steering problem....schematic showed me where and how to check it out....it was just a low fluid level.

[hotshot]

Hmmmm. I was looking for clearance goose decoys a few weeks back.... I keep getting pop ups for those.... Pice goes down once in awhile. May buy some by the end of the month.

[DeputyDog]

Yahoo will do the same thing. I've noticed the adds on yahoo's main page will usually be something I've searched recently.

[Buckrub]

Yeah, ticks me off. Can't stop it.

Every time I go ANYWHERE that has ads...........the ads are dang sure targeted to ME!.....they are for things I've bought online, and even LOOKED at online. Cookies, I guess. I suspect there's a ton of illegal, immoral, and fattening activities going on behind our back when we use this. I doubt it's very 'pristine' any more.

[jb]

Use your pop up blocker, I don't get them.

[Sunshine]

What jb said and delete your history and cookies everyday.
I don't get them either. :D

[Buckrub]

Pop up blocker has nothing to do with this. I block all popups. These aren't popups, they are cookies........I suspect. Len could answer better. "Get them" isn't the issue. Go to most websites and watch the ads that show up on the site (NOT popups).........the ads are tailored to you.

[BarryBobPosthole]

The ads don't bother me. Neither does the way, for example, that amazon knows my reading habits and makes suggestions for books when I visit their sites.

BKB

[Buckrub]

Yet the Patriot Act sends you into apoplexy.

You deranged hypocrite, you.

[BarryBobPosthole]

I highly doubt amazon is going to put me on some watch list other than for a new book. and the FBI snooping out our internet interests are only one aspect of the intrusion into our privacy that I think is unconstitutional about the Patriot Act.
BKB

[LJ3]

It's bigger than just google, or bing or the commericals you see about getting "scroogled". Akamai is the company that provides the platform for watching pretty much everything you access on the internet. There are varying flavors of the same thing but at this point it's pretty much a given that (a) anyone can see cookies, can see what sites you hit, most can see some or all of your browser history. even if they can't, the sites you visit have a record of you and your browser, what you looked at, etc. That's all at a client/server browser/application layer.

Then you got your networking technologies and the data that can be correlated from that...

the only way to not particiapte or contribute to this madness is to lock your PC and application down so tightly that using the internet becomes a struggle, at best. Or just turn your PC off. There's not any middle ground to be had that I know of.

[Arty]

I have never had one. Ever. But I've heard of people talk a out them