So does she just give up and go do something else? Because that's not all bad.
The post title implies that she just sits there and watches the ad.
Huh. I suppose they do go away eventually. I've never watched one to the end.
I feel the similarly about my folks when I remember to turn my blinker off. Sometimes I just leave it on due to my own decrepitude in solidarity.
Maybe she could download Firefox and install the Ad-Block plug-in.
5: Yup, I feel similarly bad about people who don't use Adblock or similar. How can they stand to use Facebook or read Slate?
I had to disable Adblock on the machine at work a few weeks ago -- it was inexplicably keeping us from doing something -- and I was really surprised by the ads. (a) I guess I don't usually know what everybody else knows about, say, "Skechers", and (b) the internet is a much less accommodating place with all that crap on there. It's downright annoying.
I wouldn't recommend AdBlock to anybody who couldn't handle a "Skip Ad" button. It often screws up sites in unexpected ways. For instance, sites that show those kind of pre-roll (? interstitial?) ads often just won't load at all if you have AdBlock enabled.
For instance, sites that show those kind of pre-roll (? interstitial?) ads often just won't load at all if you have AdBlock enabled.
I've never had this happen, and occasionally still have to click on an ad to see the page behind it, but maybe I have it set that way?
7: My little family just got cable TV this week, after depending entirely on online viewing with no or few commercials, and we are appalled. TV ads are so so long and gross and repetitive!
8: I'd never had that happen either. Possibly had to click on a "skip this ad" button, though usually -- on, say, Salon -- that interim screen would time out fairly quickly and move to the desired target URL.
I'm a little teapot, short and stout.
Here is my handle; here is my spout.
I can't decide whether I like targeted ads or not. To break the sacred bond of off-blog communication, I recently asked Tweety to remind me of a jacket he had mentioned acquiring, and he emailed me the link. Now, every time I read TPM, I'm reminded that I looked at that jacket. Before that it was Saucony shoes, when I had been shopping for footwear.
Creepy? Yes. But possibly better than when TPM's ad server seemed to think I was sympathetic to ads prompting me to "Tell Obama to STOP CARD CHECK." Um, no.
Google lets you opt out of the targeted ad stuff: http://www.google.com/ads/preferences/
I'm a big fan of right wing Google ads showing up on liberal blogs - if you click on those ads, money goes directly from the pockets of the Koch brothers to fund the poor, impoverished bloggers that oppose them.
But mom says that doesn't matter and that I'm fine just the way God made me.
I love targeted ads. I've written tons of patent applications on different kinds and the technology is fascinating. If only the companies would use the more sophisticated technology, the ads would be so much better! At least I'm now too old to see the belly fat ads. Apparently 28 year old women are VERY concerned about belly fat. Now that I'm 30 the ads are more geared towards products associated with pregnancy and babies.
That being said, the first time that Hulu said "Elizabeth, people like you are 4x more likely to be interested in this show" I was really startled that Hulu knew my name.
15: I like how they list all the categories of interest. Google thinks I'm male, which is weird considering the categories involving pets, birds and women's clothing that are associated with me.
19: to be fair, you can figure it out pretty easily from your pseud.
15, 20: Huh. Why does Google contain no list of preferences for me? I would have thought they'd know me better than I know myself.
21: Oh I know. It's very dumb that I was surprised. The email address I use to log into Hulu is Elizabeth.Spigot(not really Spigot)@gmail.com.
22: Maybe you don't let it track your search history?
5: Yup, I feel similarly bad about people who don't use Adblock or similar. How can they stand to use Facebook or read Slate?
There are ads on Facebook?
At least I'm now too old to see the belly fat ads. Apparently 28 year old women are VERY concerned about belly fat.
Bad news--they come back when you age out of the child-bearing demo.
Apparently 36-year-old men are very concerned about belly fat too, or the targeting is not as precise as you think it is. I believe every third ad on the Internet today involves an animated shrinking-and-expanding waistline.
The child bearing demo is why I don't go to Whole Foods on the first Tuesday of the month.
24: A surprisingly common sentiment among the AdBlock-enabled.
I actually bought exactly one product due to a perfectly-targeted Gmail ad. Slavoj Zizek thinks that Cabinet Magazine makes all other magazines look pointless and shitty? YOU ARE SPEAKING MY LANGUAGE. I wish I had time to read it; I'd resubscribe in a heartbeat.
How can they stand to use Facebook or read Slate?
People can stand to read Slate? Who? Where? Can we drop a Predator drone on them?
I must be totally blind to these ads or something, though on the work computer I now see the shrinking-and-expanding waistline ad constantly.
Targeted ads on Google? It's possible I just ignore and/or don't see them. gmail creeps me out with its targeted ads having to do with keywords in recent emails I've been exchanging. I ... should probably do something about that.
LizSpigot is possibly evil for this in 19: I love targeted ads. I've written tons of patent applications on different kinds and the technology is fascinating. If only the companies would use the more sophisticated technology, the ads would be so much better!
Hm. In 31.last, the portion quoting LizSpigot's 19 should have been italicized.
28, I don't have Adblock. The Facebook ads are mostly text and not very prominent.
I click out of ads whenever possible, and otherwise I turn off the sound and wait them out in another tab, but I've never felt compelled to get AdBlock, partly because some sites I patronize have creators who get a bit of income from them.
34: That's a dilemma, I guess. On the face of it, I don't see why anybody would not use Adblock or some equivalent.
35: I'm really, really lazy. That's why I don't use Adblock.
36: Sweetheart, if you use Firefox, Adblock is here.
I might add that it's very fast to download and install/incorporate. Pretty much seamless.
Maybe she could download Firefox and install the Ad-Block plug-in.
But then she must let go of AOL. AOL has trained my mom to expect everything online to be twelve kinds of counterintuitive, which has destroyed any learning curve she might otherwise have been on. That program is wretched.
You pro-targeted-ads banner-clickers, I consider you all monsters. Listen to parsimon, people.
I also have NoScript, which really does end up being a hassle, but when I just had Adblock I had no issues at all.
I was too lazy to comment on this thread.
42: Hey. Sorry if I was inappropriate with my "sweetheart", but I'm really stumped as to why people wouldn't use Adblock. So. Huh.
adblock on chrome is even more seamless than on firefox. i was too lazy to install adblock for a long time, but it was the animated ads on okcupid that i really couldn't stand to have blinking in my peripheral vision while i tried to craft the perfect response, etc. facebook's were pretty annoying too "here's a weird tip from a [your town] mom!" what's up with the bait-and-switch ads that promise a weird tip to do tooth-whitening, but when you click it it's açai berry for weight loss? i don't know why i clicked. i guess i'm not made of pure laziness.
i also was too lazy to install chrome for a long time, but firefox kept grinding my machine to a halt. i think chrome is better and at any rate i'm definitely too lazy to switch back.
44: No worries. I was just teasing. I'll probably click on that later.
44: No worries.
An Australian horse person?
36: I had not gotten around to installing it on this computer which I had recently re-staged, but just did. For 34 you can easily turn it off for specific domains or pages.
36
I'm really, really lazy. That's why I don't use Adblock
Ditto. Also there aren't a lot of ads on Unfogged (or many of the other sites I view).
47: No worries is Australian? I say that all the time.
46: Clicking on it doesn't initiate a download, in case you were concerned about that. It just takes you to the information page where you can click to download. Duh. You are fucking stubborn. I myself am never like that.
Maybe we should start posting "Meet sexxy singles in Westchester County!" links just for James.
No worries is Australian? I say that all the time.
Yeah, me, too. I have no idea what Stormcrow's on about. (I mean, I have an idea, but she's from California.)
Wikipedia knows what Stormcrow's on about. Apparently we Americans are incapable of really grokking the phrase because we don't have the concept of "mateship".
I think there was a radio show in the UK where one of the running segments was to phone someone in Australia at random and then wager on how long it took the respondent to say "no worries." Or something like that.
These kids today don't know how much of the lingo came from Australia. Before Paul Hogan hit the silver screen, Americans couldn't even define "knife."
I don't get why people dislike targeted ads. Once you get past the idea that your activities are being tracked, the ads are actually really helpful. I've bought a lot more stuff through targeted ads because they're finally interesting.
Sometimes the ads are too targeted and I'm not ready to be that honest with myself.
59: That's fair. The targeted ads I see are usually for Ann Taylor, Tiffany's and funky jewelry stores. You know, now that the belly fat ads have disappeared for a few years.
All I ever get are ads for ammo, shovels, and quicklime.
Canadian Mom's Teeth Trick sounds both highly relevant and very professional. Much more useful than 1 Trick of a Tiny Belly, which is part of the same group.
61: Yeah, sorry. We've been using your computer to do some oppo research. You can disregard those ads.
I had a panicked moment about targeted ads. I share a gmail account with some students for an outreach project. I checked the account from home, and then wondered if it was possible that the account could then start showing targeted ads based on other sites I visited. I couldn't think of anything remotely embarrassing, but it also seemed like there could be lots of unknown variables. Jammies said that the targeted ads would only be based on the content of the emails within the account itself, but I don't really see why that would be so.
Speaking of belly fat and horses (not that anyone was doing both before now), I went by PF Chang's today and I noticed the giant horse statues, the ones flanking the front door, portrayed the horses with giant heart-shaped medallions covering the asshole. My first thought was "How have I never noticed that before?" and my second was "Why did I have to notice that at all?"
58: Once you get past the idea that your activities are being tracked, the ads are actually really helpful. I've bought a lot more stuff through targeted ads because they're finally interesting.
1. Get past the idea that my activities are being tracked?
2. I may be an outlier, but I actually don't buy much stuff at all, and what I buy isn't stuff suggested to me randomly, even if in a targeted way, on the internet. I buy food, and what are called health and beauty aids (meaning things like bandaids and toothpaste). I occasionally buy clothes, not by brand name.
Ads are an incredible annoyance, since I'm not going to buy any of the stuff they're selling.
65: I witnessed several horses pooping today. My ability to resist the urge to exclaim, with faux outrage, "That's HORSESHIT!" is apparently very strong.
Try putting a heart-shape medallion on their butts and see how that goes.
64: Jammies is right. Gmail only displays targeted ads within the gmail program based on your email content.
65: For those who like me have a poor visual imagination.
I would have googled an image, but I'm too afraid of rule 34.
You should see my targeted ads now!
I don't need to wonder. Your gmail password is in the Flicker pool.
65: I witnessed several horses pooping today.
Taking your relationship to the next level, then?
I find the way in which the NYT and Le Monde apparently exchange info for the tracked ads to be a little bit weird. I'll be getting english language ads, both generic slim down type stuff and NY stuff on Le Monde, plus French ones for electronics and underwear. On NYT, if I've been recently browsing on Le Monde I'll get French language adds for books and movies.
The gmail targeted ads for a while there were usually for "Meeting Middle-Eastern Singles." Now it's mostly ads for standardized tests and tutoring service (as a still-registered Kaplan tutor, I get a shit-ton of email about tests), no matter what the actual content of the email I'm looking at may be.
Have you guys even noticed that I comment here? My feelings are starting to get hurt.
Dead thread, and a stale story, but since this is computing-related, I do think Ken Jennings deserves a shout-out for writing "I, for one, welcome our new computer overlords" for his meaningless Final Jeopardy answer.
