Odd ads appearing on my new Gmail account

A week into having my spiffy new Gmail account, I've come to like it. Its concept (no folders and search-based message finding) takes some getting used to, but it actually seems to work, particularly for the amount of e-mail I get from this blog. Better yet, I can access it using a POP client if I wish. It serves its purpose as the contact e-mail address for thiis blog better than the old Hotmail account (which, by the way, I'm checking on less and less often).

One thing I've noticed, though, is ads appearing on the side of the browser. Supposedly, these ads are chosen based on an automated computer algorithm that screens the text of your mail and somehow picks links or ads that it calculates you will be interested in. Yesterday, I was perusing my blog mail, and noticed this link to the side of my mail:


Hmmm. Maybe that Google algorithm isn't so ridiculous after all.

Comments

  1. What a strange ad to place in the first place.

    -Ali

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your post reminds me of the time my husband got all annoyed at the Tivo for deciding to record a marathon of Green Acres episodes... then half an hour later I heard him in there watching them and laughing uncontrollably. Amazing how well a compuer alogorithm can get to "know" your tastes, eh?

    As for the abandoned sanitarium photos... as an aspiring psychiatrist, I found them fascinating. Thanks for sharing the link.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Absolutely Dickensian -- those photos and stories. Thanks for posting the link on a subject that has always held fascination for me.

    ReplyDelete
  4. hmmm

    Reminds me of another movie on my to-be-seen when I get netflix and they invent a 26 hour day - Session 9 (starring pre CSI post NYPD Blue David Caruso) horror/ghost movie set in an abandoned asylum.

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0261983/
    Filmed at real life old asylum in Danvers MA, right down the road from me. The place is very creepy.

    ReplyDelete
  5. My favorite thing about Gmail is the collated emails under the same subject. If you carry on a conversation by repeatedly replying to one another, gmail will combine them as a single thread entry in your inbox; as long as none of the participants changes the subject line. Very handy, works great with message group emails also.

    If you use Firefox, I believe the "adblock" extension will elininate the side ads, leaving only the one at the top. I think.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wow, a whole webring dedicated to abandoned asylums and sanitoriums? Interesting. And a bit of relief to see I'm not the only one with a weird and morbid fascination with old looney bins.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts