Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google will use Chrome browsing data for ad tailoring

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 213 posts

Re: Google will use Chrome browsing data for ad tailoring

#191

Post by MarkMc »

corecoder wrote: post #103

I don't know, I'm starting to think that all this is either propaganda for ad sellers or a prank Google, Facebook et all are doing to me. Google has my full search history, all my hangout chats, all my e-mails, and yet: * On my Android, it keeps proposing ultra boring "stories to read" about soccer, wannabe celebrities and YouTube videos of stupid teenagers doing stupid things; * With the sole exception of when the s…

In my case Google know even more than that. With my use of Android they know where I work, where I do my shopping, what time I get up and go to bed, how much time I spend at the gym. In short, they could have a hugely detailed profile on me. Yet like you I find their ads not particularly targeted. (This is odd, but as a Google shareholder I'm glad there is a lot more room to improve)

Re: Google will use Chrome browsing data for ad tailoring

#192

Post by earlz »

jobigoud wrote: post #175
stefanix wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same. Although Youtube recommendations are very good at times.

I wouldn't have said "good". They are very relevant to what you watched recently. But watch one random shit once and your side bar is now defaced with thumbnails you can't throw away. I really wish I could opt out altogether from this one.

You can! Go to youtube, then History, and there should be an option in there to have it stop tracking your history. I'm sure they still track it, but at least they don't give me recommendations anymore. This was especially annoying for me when I would step outside of my normal youtube zone by clicking on some youtube video from reddit or some such, and for the next week I'd have all sorts of crazy weird and at times NSFW recommendations from it.

Re: Google will use Chrome browsing data for ad tailoring

#193

Post by swsieber »

kevinjcliao wrote: post #80
swsieber wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope - we thought that wasn't quite needed since they were being set up as a public service, not a monetization platform. We need a project like the Linux kernel, except for a good browser.

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/

I don't consider this a good rebuttal - Firefox has done stuff like pocket (not monetary but invasive) and search engine deals (monetary). Though it is pretty close.

Re: Google will use Chrome browsing data for ad tailoring

#194

Post by swsieber »

drdre2001 wrote: post #105
swsieber wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope - we thought that wasn't quite needed since they were being set up as a public service, not a monetization platform. We need a project like the Linux kernel, except for a good browser.

Don't we have a couple of "Linux" like browsers already? Like Konqueror? Or are those not good enough?

Nope - they aren't good enough. It's not easy to install. What I would love in a browser:

* An organization set up to oversee it that does not need to care about money (pipe dream part here).

* Easy to install.

* Standards compliant.

* Open source.

All in all, Firefox is the closest (imo). What rubs me wrong about chrome is that originally it was to be monetized - at least I don't remember such.

Re: Google will use Chrome browsing data for ad tailoring

#196

Post by happyslobro »

jobigoud wrote: post #175
stefanix wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same. Although Youtube recommendations are very good at times.

I wouldn't have said "good". They are very relevant to what you watched recently. But watch one random shit once and your side bar is now defaced with thumbnails you can't throw away. I really wish I could opt out altogether from this one.

Yeah, this is why I open clickbait vids in a private window.

Re: Google will use Chrome browsing data for ad tailoring

#197

Post by happyslobro »

corecoder wrote: post #103

I don't know, I'm starting to think that all this is either propaganda for ad sellers or a prank Google, Facebook et all are doing to me. Google has my full search history, all my hangout chats, all my e-mails, and yet: * On my Android, it keeps proposing ultra boring "stories to read" about soccer, wannabe celebrities and YouTube videos of stupid teenagers doing stupid things; * With the sole exception of when the s…

With Facebook ads, the price of impressions reflects FB's perception of the relevance of the ad to the targeted audience. It could be that most advertisers are just really fishing for that one in a million conversion that leads to a car sale, or a Viagra dependency (if that's even a thing).

Re: Google will use Chrome browsing data for ad tailoring

#198

Post by frankquist »

abenga wrote: post #150
dingaling wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What's wrong with advertising? It is psychological warfare, conducted by corporations instead of States. But the objective is the same; trick you into changing your behavior to benefit them.

I don't know ... thinking selfishly, I'm employed and paid by a a corporation that uses advertises to increase revenues from their products/services. As are almost everyone else here. Even the "altruistic" non-profits and whatever are largely funded by the very same corporations. Will there ever be a time when economic activity is largely carried out by people and organizations that do not seek profit? If advertising…

If corruption increases said economic activity, is it a good? If destruction of the environment increases certain economic activity, is it a good? I'm not saying these things are similar to advertising, but the reasoning is flawed. That in the current setup of our economic system something makes economic sense, does not necessarily make it a good thing.

Re: Google will use Chrome browsing data for ad tailoring

#199

Post by madmax96 »

oneloop wrote: post #161
madmax96 wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> firefox is really sluggish Statements like this are very hard to quantify in a meaningful way. Especially on Windows, over a time interval I can notice a definite performance degradation of programs. Often times, completely deleting all program data and reinstalling seems to fix the problem. On GNU + Linux and macOS systems, I've noticed that Firefox is usually snappier to render pages. But I wouldn't go so far as…

I'm on Ubuntu. The installation isn't really fresh any more, but on a fresh installation, Firefox was sluggish. I only have 4gb RAM, but that seems acceptable for chrome. Could you ELI5 Chromium's license to me? Is the whole thing open source, or just part? Can I build the whole thing myself, or does it rely on Google's magical binaries? EDIT: also, smooth scrolling. If there's something that ruins my day is going on…

Hmmm... can't say I've seen that before. I agree that 4gb of RAM should be more than enough for Firefox. Chromium has a history of fetching and installing binary blobs w/o asking for user permission.

I'm curious about the frame skipping is caused by -- I've never seen that problem. I'm wondering if maybe it's video card related? Might be worth asking someone involved in the project about to see if it's a known issue.

Re: Google will use Chrome browsing data for ad tailoring

#200

Post by blowski »

MichaelMoser123 wrote: post #187
blowski wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like all profit-making businesses, they try to balance the interests of both in the short term to maximise shareholder value in the long run. A few Hacker News users being opposed to this doesn't make Google evil. A lot of people don't care, and I've met some who think it's a good idea.

so in the beginning Google has declared to have valued such things as customer privacy (the "don't be evil" motto seems to indicate that), my guess is that this was a deliberate strategy in order to gain trust and influence. Nowadays all that seem to be less of a priority for Google; now what happens with the shareholder value when a large proportion of the customers again start to value their privacy over convenienc…

If that happens, then they will either change or go out of business. But so far, it doesn't seem to be happening (though I wish it would).
Post reply on HN