I was on weather.com the other day, checking to see if this godawful Midwest winter is ever going to end. Usually, I ignore the sponsored ads to the right of my screen, but I happened to glance at them this time. What I found was pretty damn bizarre.
Normally, these ads will tell you how to avoid paying your taxes, pay less for auto insurance, lose weight quickly, etc., etc. Oftentimes, they’re even personalized to your search history, pulling in ads that are more relevant to your interests. Given all that, I’d really like to know how in the world one of the following videos was recommended for me:
- “Trying to Escape the Cold and Snow” with a picture of a sunbather—Totally get it. I frequently look up the weather, and I live in the Midwest.
- “87 Year Old Personal Trainer Shares Her Secret Behind Limitl…” (It cut off.) with a picture of a fit older woman—OK, makes sense. I’m nowhere near 87, but I often look up weight- and health-related information.
- “Top Ten Cheap All-Inclusive Resorts” with a picture of a beachside resort—Also makes sense. I went on vacation not too long ago and looked up a lot of hotel and travel sites during that time.
- “6 Months of Agony. Then DEATH!” with a picture of a spider crawling on a nickel—Uh, what? What the hell does that mean? What the fuck did I search for that resulted in me being shown that?
Part of me was tempted to click on the headline just to see what the hell it was linking to, but a fear of flooding my computer with spyware won out over my curiosity. I guess this means I’ll never know what that bizarre headline meant. But I definitely think I might want to review and analyze my Internet search history, because something contained therein is clearly being read by the Internet web crawlers as a bit off.
The Procrastinating Writer 