Monday, January 27, 2014
What's with all the boots?
Google's pursuing popups are generally appropriate and sometimes helpful, which means the technique works. When I look on Ebay for toilet seats, Google pops toilet seats at me. When I look for percolators, Google hits me with percolators. When I complain here about problems with SVG coding, Google tries to sell me courses in SVG. All very clever and functional. Occasionally one of those ads leads to a purchase.
Lately, though, Google has been throwing boots at me. All sorts of boots. I never wear boots, never talk about boots, never shop for boots online or outside. I don't even have a fetish for boots that might shape my preference in images. There is no possible connection ...
Oh. Here it is, last week:
"After power returned, the computer gave me a scare. It didn't start up immediately. Thought it might have been fried by a surge. After two minutes the power light came on and it booted cleanly. Must be some kind of delayed breaker in the PS. ... Hmm. Looks like I. Rebooted in. Short sentence. Mode."
You can almost hear the algorithm thinking: "Aha! User writes 'I-rebooted-Mode'. User interested in fashionable boots."
Now I'm going to get slapped with twice as many boot ads! Aaaargggh!
Labels: TMI
¶ 4:03 PM
