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It doesn't really impress me when I approach the internet and introduce myself by name. Of course the internet is going to remember me, if I permit my cookies and request parameters and IP address linger.
Much more interesting is when the internet makes my identity without my having volunteered anything.
Oh well.
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I tried it a couple years ago with Google and once targeted ads were off, I would get many ads about gay dating sites. Once I turned targeted ads on again, these ads disappeared.
I had a similar experience, but it was single women, and there was no way to ask Google to stop showing me those types of ads. At the very least allow me to block adult advertisements. Maybe it's on purpose...
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You're underestimating how hard it would be to build such an engine. Google and Facebook have sunk $billions into their knowledge graphs so far, and not made much of a dent.
Maybe. The current heuristic is "he has bought X so show him an ad for X", but would it be so difficult to flip that to "he has bought X so show him the next thing on the list of interests we know he has" or even just "anything but X". I strongly suspect noone is doing this because there is no point, they get paid the same regardless.
Think about how you know if someone is interested in something. What does it mean to be interested? How does that translate into a sale?
A person just bought a vacuum cleaner. Does that mean they are interested in vacuum cleaners? Are vacuum cleaners things that people get interested in? Do people who are interested in vacuum cleaners buy more than people who are not interested in vacuum cleaners?
To us these answers are so obvious that it's humorous. To a computer, not so much.
There are many millions of interests, opinions, and things to buy--so count the combinations. We understand it all intuitively because we are adult humans with decades of experience in this society.
This is why search and ad companies hire so many AI researchers.
EDIT: to understand the financial incentives, see my other reply to you. In a PPC ecosystem it is better to match too greedily than to risk missing a customer ready to buy.
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I tried turning off targeted Google ads on my phone, and got only the worst ads possible from then on. Like, 100% strobing "YOUR PHONE HAS 37 VIRUSES, CLICK HERE TO CLEAN". Eventually I had to turn it back because ad-supported apps are nearly unusable with strobing banners at the bottom, which I'm sure was Google's intent.
Have you considered paying for the apps you use, or using open source apps (such as from F-Droid) that don't include ads?
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Ad companies make money based on clicks, not views. It's in their interest to make them interesting enough to click on.
I don't think that's true, because who is clicking on these ads for things they already own?
Same thing with a pool filter even. If you live in an apartment, or if you're a minor, or you don't own a pool, your chances of buying a pool filter are extremely low. So the fact that you just bought a pool filter puts you in the narrow group of people who would potentially have need for another pool filter. Even though you just bought one, you're still more likely to be a customer than a random person. Hence, generally speaking, sending you ads for the same thing you just bought may be a rational choice for the advertiser.
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An intelligent advertising engine would know the typical interval between two purchases of the same product, and start advertising similar products just before that interval has elapsed since the last purchase. Examples: pool filter: 12 months reptile UV lamp: 6 months gift-wrapping paper: 12 months oil filter, recycling box, 5 qt oil: 4 months 8-ct paper towel rolls: 2 months television: 4 years automobile: 10 years…
That's the intuition, but I wonder if there isn't a spike in near-term repurchase behavior that the algorithms are correctly exploiting? Ex: I bought a vacuum, but I'm unhappy with it. I bought a pool or oil filter, but it was the wrong one. I bought an X, but it was defective. I bought an 8-ct of paper towels because I run a cleaning service or property management company and use a lot of paper towels. I bought a pa…
- NoScript [0], First defence. Breaks 30% of sites, but you can selectively enable local scripts to ameliorate that.
- Self-Destructing Cookies [1], We all need cookies for logging in to things and etc..., but once we've closed the tab, we shouldn't have to keep those cookies with us. This means you have to log-in more often, but I prefer that. Prevents people from seeing your email/facebook/etc... when you're still logged in.
- uBlock Origin [2], You'll occasionally need to allow scripts you don't like because they're required for the proper presentation of the website. In those cases, you can depend on uBlock to get rid of awful trackers.
- HTTPSEverywhere [3], Because snoopers aren't always outside your network.
- DuckDuckGo as default search engine [4] and not-Google Chrome as your default browser, At the very least, you're not supporting the worst privacy offender on the net.
- Non-ad-supported/privacy-oriented service. In the paid category (recommended), I suggest mailbox.org, due to their track record and founding principles. In the free(-ish) category, ProtonMail.ch and tutanota.com.
- Clear Cookies/History on Browser Exit
- Forbid Third-Party Cookies
- And because I believe in magical faeries, DoNotTrack set to True
[0] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/noscript/?src...
[1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/self-destruct...
[2] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin...
[3] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/https-everywh...
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Have you considered paying for the apps you use, or using open source apps (such as from F-Droid) that don't include ads?
Many apps don't have paid versions, only ad-supported, and even more apps don't have open-source equivalents. I'm sure you're aware of this.
Most apps cost less than a coffee, and personally I get more value out of the apps I use than from a cup of overpriced coffee.