File under: Unexpected things seen in banner ads

[just brew it!]

I was just browsing news sites a few minutes ago, and one of the banner ads I got after following a link to the LA Times web site was for a 10TB SSD (yes, you read that correctly, 10TB). The click-through leads to this product page. This thing is quite a beast -- all SLC flash, and 10GB/sec throughput via multiple Fibre Channel interfaces.

No price listed on the company web site, but CDW will apparently sell you one for just shy of $400 grand!

(But how fast will it boot Windows 7...? And what makes the LA Times think that their readership is interested in dropping nearly half a mil on an SSD? )

[cynan]

Pshhhhhh. Useless. For 400k they could at least have fit in a 3.5" form factor.

Now what am I going to use for a boot drive in my next build?

[UberGerbil]

I doubt anybody at the LA Times is in any way aware of it. That sounds like something one of their ad partners customized for you (and did a reasonable job of targeting, all things considered).

[just brew it!]

I *have* noticed banner ads getting much more targeted lately. It used to be they just tended to be customized based on the page content; e.g. ads here in the forums would frequently relate to the topic of the thread. In the past few months, ads on many sites seem to be much more sensitive to your recent browsing history as well. For example... if I've been searching for reviews of a particular product, I will start seeing ads for that product from TigerDirect and other e-tailers, even on non-tech sites. Or, a while back I was reading up on virtual hosting services, and for several days thereafter I was getting lots of ads for Rackspace and Linode cloud servers.

It's a little creepy...

[Thatguy]

Yeah i actually noticed that in the past few months too. I did a search for motorcycle helmets to replace my old one. The amount of targeted ads from google, amazon and other various sites was astonishing. I had even cleared my browswer cache. Very creepy indeed.

[codedivine]

I *have* noticed banner ads getting much more targeted lately. It used to be they just tended to be customized based on the page content; e.g. ads here in the forums would frequently relate to the topic of the thread. In the past few months, ads on many sites seem to be much more sensitive to your recent browsing history as well. For example... if I've been searching for reviews of a particular product, I will start seeing ads for that product from TigerDirect and other e-tailers, even on non-tech sites. Or, a while back I was reading up on virtual hosting services, and for several days thereafter I was getting lots of ads for Rackspace and Linode cloud servers.

It's a little creepy...

Try emptying your cookies. I have set firefox to delete cookies upon exit every time. I have also installed BetterPrivacy and Ghostery for firefox. BetterPrivacy allows you to delete flash LSOs. Ghostery shows the number of tracking/advertizing and social "things" running on the current website. I have noticed sometimes even 30+ trackers of various kinds on a single webpage

You use chrome, but similar plugins are probably available.

[just brew it!]

Yeah i actually noticed that in the past few months too. I did a search for motorcycle helmets to replace my old one. The amount of targeted ads from google, amazon and other various sites was astonishing. I had even cleared my browswer cache. Very creepy indeed.

Guess they must be using IPs to track people who clear their cookies...

[Captain Ned]

Yeah i actually noticed that in the past few months too. I did a search for motorcycle helmets to replace my old one. The amount of targeted ads from google, amazon and other various sites was astonishing. I had even cleared my browswer cache. Very creepy indeed.

Guess they must be using IPs to track people who clear their cookies...

OK, explain to me why Bergdorf Goodman (the department store in Arthur) is trying to sell me Manolo Blahniks.

[just brew it!]

OK, explain to me why Bergdorf Goodman (the department store in Arthur) is trying to sell me Manolo Blahniks.

Maybe you've got a "hobby" you're not telling us about...?

[derFunkenstein]

I've noticed this for a little while, too - lately I see lots of ads on TR for Waves and Native Instruments plugins, and not-so-coincidentally I bought the Waves Musician 1 and 2 bundles and NI Komplete Elements with cash I got for Christmas. I'm sure it's all related to this stuff since I'm using Chrome. Clearing cache isn't good enough; I'd have to opt-out, too, I'm sure. But at the same time, I don't mind seeing ads for products I'm actually interested in, as opposed to Captain Ned's cross-dressing.

[bthylafh]

OK, explain to me why Bergdorf Goodman (the department store in Arthur) is trying to sell me Manolo Blahniks.

Aside from hobbies that I'm totally not judging you about, perhaps you've bought your wife something on that computer. Amazon's been known to suggest things to me based on gifts.

[frumper15]

I just noticed last week I was getting served banner ads for Grainger - and in the middle of the ad was a picture of the exact part I had looked up earlier in the day. So not only was it tracking where I was shopping but what exactly I was looking at. That weirded me out a little bit.

[just brew it!]

I just noticed last week I was getting served banner ads for Grainger - and in the middle of the ad was a picture of the exact part I had looked up earlier in the day. So not only was it tracking where I was shopping but what exactly I was looking at. That weirded me out a little bit.

I get stuff like that for computer parts all the time now.

[thegleek]

Native Instruments plugins, and not-so-coincidentally I bought the Waves Musician 1 and 2 bundles and NI Komplete Elements with cash I got for xmas.

Cool! I'm a big fan/supporter of NI as well. But my purchasing leans towards the DJ aspect of their hardware and software, mainly Traktor Scratch Pro, Traktor Audio, and Traktor Kontrol.

[ludi]

Google Ad Serve: It knows when you are sleeping. It knows when you're awake...

[UberGerbil]

Yeah, some companies are definitely running with this as hard as they can. I know every time I visit A2Hosting.com I start getting Google-driven banner ads for them on other sites -- which is kind of stupid, really, since I'm already a customer. But Google likes to take their money, I'm sure, and (self-evidently) I am exactly the person A2 would like to serve ads to except for that one unfortunate fact. Amazon seems to be picking up on everything also. And, since I frequently use Chrome, Google presumably knows all about what I'm looking at on Amazon, so that just compounds things. I know there aren't supposed to be cross-site cookie hacks, but it sure wouldn't surprise me if people are still trying: just about everybody would love to know what you're looking at on Amazon, for example.

OK, explain to me why Bergdorf Goodman (the department store in Arthur) is trying to sell me Manolo Blahniks.

Aside from hobbies that I'm totally not judging you about, perhaps you've bought your wife something on that computer. Amazon's been known to suggest things to me based on gifts.

We've got to be right on the verge of somebody discovering their spouse is having an affair because of suspicious ads getting served in the wake of the spouse using a shared computer (and covering tracks except for things like this). If it hasn't happened already. Heck, if "Law & Order" was still around that would be a perfect plot McGuffin behind a murder.