This creeps me out

[Racket_Man]

Like I said, most places outsource their ads to just a few different companies, with Google being one of the largest.

They just match up keywords for sites you visited with keywords for targeted advertising, and then the ads follow you around the network.

Yeah, it's a bit creepy. Likely going to get creepier, too.

Yeah I can relate to that.

a couple of years ago when GraveKeeper was still working, someone posted a link to Amazon for items of clothing that shall remain nameless. I followed the link just for laughs and for the next week I got many many ads at various sites I visit for that were Amazon ads featuring that particular clothing item. I am not sure what will happen now since I let my Amazon account lapse.

[wolfie]

YI am not sure what will happen now since I let my Amazon account lapse.

My guess is that the manufacturers of pink camo clothing will need to find some other way to get their ad in front of your face.

[Shangri-laschild]

Well Amazon just managed to up the creepy. I haven't searched shower heads on Amazon for almost a year. A couple of weeks ago I happen to pick one up at Walmart. I really don't think it was one of the ones I was looking at on Amazon. What do I get in my email today? A listing for shower heads, all of them looking fairly identical to the one I bought, including the one I actually bought. That was disturbing. And no, there haven't been any other recent shower head emails at all recently.

[Andara Bledin]

I'd think it was Walmart (who I totally expect to be selling everybody's purchasing information) or your bank (who I would hope doesn't but am pretty sure they do with "partners") who upped the creepy factor.

[HYHYBT]

Why would the bank know what was purchased, instead of only the amount?

[Aragarthiel]

This is causing problems with a site I frequent. The ad service it uses is supposed to provide family-friendly advertisements, however, they had to open an adults-only "Advertisement Report" forum so the admins could see what exactly was being posted. It was mostly anime-looking pictures of scantily clad women, but there were a few that were obviously a bit more targeted...

The ad service is getting some heat from this site, from what I understand.

[Andara Bledin]

A site I'm on is getting rogue ads through their network, too. I wonder if it's a problem with the ad network failing to keep control, or if they've had their network exploited.