Just a Strange Coincidence? I'm Sure That it Must Be!

OK, I put this forth for your amusement, but why can't this type of coincidence win me some lottery money?

Lately, I've been checking out bicycle shops online and looking up parts and accessories and in doing so I must have built up some cookies because every website I've been to lately has advertisements for bicycle parts. This has been annoying and I even pointed it out to my GF's daughter who told me, "They know everything you're doing online." Yeah, I tried cleaning up my cookies, but I kept seeing bike ads, even here on ATS.

So I took a break from the computer for most of the day and just a little while ago I was watching Dr. Who, something I hadn't done for awhile, and once that ended I got online and came to ATS.

Can you guess what the first ad I saw was about this time? If you said Dr. Who, you win a cigar!

I'll just leave it at that, because I don't want to believe it could possibly be anything more than a coincidence.

reply to post by MichiganSwampBuck


My family and I are avid motorcyclists. A few days ago I was looking at some "pink flame" helmets for my daughter. Now I'm getting adds for pink helmets. You're right!

when you say youve cleaned your cookies. you dont just mean you wiped the crumbs off you lap do you?
maybe you should just check out a popular add-on for firefox.

You've been googled by the sound of it. Hey, take heart and smile!! I found this little quirk after doing a few hours research on a story for another site regarding hard core substance abuse. Not to say more in that direction but to let you imagine what the ads were on every friggen site I went to for weeks afterward.

Oh that made for some interesting moments when others were around to realize the same topical ads seemed ot be following me as if I had a personal interest in asking for them.

Isn't targeted advertising just swell?

I must be the only person who never pays attention to the ads. I don't know what these people are trying to sell me. And the few times I do, it's always off. There doesn't seem to be anyone tracking everything I do and watch, because the ads are always off. Is your cable and internet provider the same company, that could be why?

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
Isn't targeted advertising just swell?

Talked about this years ago before Google and a colleague asked me, "Well, would you rather see ads for things you are NOT interested in?" My grandkids got on the iPad and now my wife is complaining about all the paintball ads, so it can be annoying, but the basic concept of seeing ads for things you are actually interested in, it seems to me, is a lot better than seeing ads for lawn furniture when you don't give a rip.

reply to post by MichiganSwampBuck


Well I keep seeing adds for mature dating and often here on ATS, I don't know where the hell they got the idea that I'm interested from but it is quite anoying. I very often use my daughters laptop and often when she passes me there's a big pic of some chav looking middle aged woman half dressed in an IKEA bedroom.


MESSAGE TO ADVERTISERS, IF YOU INSIST THAT I NEED A DATE WITH A MIDDLE AGED WOMAN FOR CHRIST SAKES TELL THEM THAT TATOOES ON THE ARMS AND BREASTS ARE NOT ATTRACTIVE!!

Hm, as an afterthought they may think I do look like my avatar perhaps I better change it and get a better class of woman to keep me company while I surf.

reply to post by AnnKoontz


No possible connection exists between my TV and computer. I'm in the sticks and so I use dial-up (believe it or not), and the TV is broadcast because there are too many trees for dish and no one's running a cable down my road. Like I said, a strange coincidence, or I'm not really paranoid, because they really are after me.

Just had a thought, wait, that TV didn't have the digital to analog converter box. Never mind.

reply to post by ChristianJihad


Don't change the eraser head profile pic ChristianJihad, I think it's a real lady killer!

reply to post by Rikku


Ummmm, cookie crumbs. Yea wiped them right outta my beard! LOL

I hear you!

I clear my history and cookies every day in both my browser and my computer (have been for as long as I can remember) but for the past week every single You Tube video I go to has a side-bar suggestion for a liposomal vitamin C video. I Ixquicked the topic about ten days ago for my Dad...and Ixquick is supposed to be a "privacy first" search engine.

Kerazy!

reply to post by kosmicjack


Are you the wasp woman?

I have Ixquick as my home page but only use it for sensitive stuff. I guess from your experience, I shouldn't use it for that.

Thanks for the heads up on that one Kosmic!

Happens to me when I'm on ATS. I wrote a post today that mentioned hiking club, and soon after I see an ad on ATS page about "Fitness Singles" and hiking. Same post mentioned fitness, working out, and I see an ad for becoming a certified fitness trainer. Come on! I'm not even googling these things - I'm just posting. Makes me feel very creepy on a site like ATS. Not the first day I've noticed these immediate ad responses to my posts.

reply to post by Galadriel


I thought that I'd been "googled" like Wrabbit2000 posted above, but what you are saying is pretty scary. Of course, if I was googled then why don't I get some less than wholesome advertising some times? Perhaps those particular websites don't do targeted advertising.

Happens to me when I'm on ATS. I wrote a post today that mentioned hiking club, and soon after I see an ad on ATS page about "Fitness Singles" and hiking

reply to post by Galadriel


Hey, how about we do a swap, my tattoed middle aged chav women for your fitness singles se how we all get along ?

It's weird that you post this thread because i haven't watched live football for so long so i decided to watch two FA Cup matches today.
Yet since i have came online after the football all the adverts i have seen are for ESPN Coverage of the FA Cup.
Not saying its anything sinister but just weird.

www.technewsdaily.com...

The above link might explain somewhat these target adverts. I also know that Google and such target based upon searches and such, but watching something on a separate device, then coming back to the computer and having ads for it... well, could be they're already using the above linked technology.

I actually had a similar thought the other day. I went to the Student Center to plug into their high-speed internet instead of using their wi-fi at my gf's house. I was doing some research into video game development and farting around on ATS. On the TV I was watching the news in the background. A commercial came on starring some quarterback (I think Stafford from the Lions). I'd never seen the commercial before. I watched the news a little longer then turned back to my computer. Lo and behold, one of the ads on my sidebar was for the very TV commercial I had just watched even though I hadn't done any sort of searches recently for that product.

Kinda weird...

btw: s&f

reply to post by MichiganSwampBuck


Coincidence? Could Be... although If cookies in your browser are enabled and you're still seeing an error message that your browser's cookie functionality is turned off, try opening a new window in your browser. Sometimes a browser's cookies will not work properly when you are using multiple tabs in a browser window.

Thanks for the replies everyone, I seriously thought I'd get a bunch of wise cracks, but maybe there is something to this. I started this thread believing that it was just a million to one type of coincidence, now I'm not so sure. I'm not to the point of paranoia, but I might have to test this to put my mind at ease. I guess that is paranoid.

It's against the regulations here on ATS, but I recommend an "Ad-Blocker" or Ghostery.
ATS is the only sites with ads because I turned it off for ATS, the rest of the WWW is 99.99% ad-free for me.