Sunday Conversation: When Ads Go Bad

Good mornin’ ya’ll. I hope you all enjoying the last of freedom before you go back to work/school or whatever you during the the week. So this past week, I have been browsing the web, and usually you tend to always see ads this days. Either your on Facebook or Gmail, ads will popping up on either side of the browser. The days of the annoying pop-up ads are over, but the days of ads that actually try to relate to your interests are not. For example, Gmail (incase you lived under a rock, is Google’s Email Service), uses it’s Google Adsense technology to deliver ads to you. Basically, how this works is that Gmail “reads” your email, and search it’s Ad database for similar topics. For example, if you get an email from your friend saying that she wants to meet you for drinks at a bar, you might see some ads about beer and night clubs. The privacy freaks of world, will go bonkers once they understand this, even though its been happening with your searches on Google, and if your man enough to download Google Chrome. Google tracks everything you do – even if you don’t know it. There greatest asset is their information, and they try to obtain of much it as they can. Of course, Google will say they don’t “read your email”, but they do – otherwise how do they get those Ads? The information, according to Google, is never stored permanently, so its not possible for them to “sell it”. But sometimes, Google messed up with their ads, when it has nothing to do with the message. I got an email from my friend, who took a picture of me next the Traveler’ Umbrella located in Hartford, CT during the week. The email title was “Picture”, and did not contain any text what so ever, so I was surprised when I saw the ads for this email.

Mmm..Britney Spears in my email. Click for a bigger picture.

As you can see by the picture, I got 4 ads. 3 for Britney Spears, and one for Silicone Bakewear. I mean – this ad is far from anything I could of mentioned in the email. Basically – Google was like, “Fuck you don’t have any information in this email – let’s just put something about the sexy Britney Spears, everyone loves her, I know I do.” But Google – I do not like Britney Spears, so don’t give me ads about her, because it has nothing to do with my email. It just shows to tell you that, sex is the #1 thing in the internet world this days. If don’t have any information to do a search query to get related ads, just put something about sex up there, and 1 out of 3 people will click it. Why do you think the top 10 videos on YouTube always have thumbnails of a sexy girl or have a title with something about sex in it? Sex sells.

So later on this week, as you know for now, I got a new MacBook, and I registered it for the first time a couple of days. I got an email late last night when I was going to bed, on my iPhone, and I ignored it, saying it was probally an email from LinkedIn or Facebook about a event that someone has sent me called “I LOST MY CELL PHONE AGAIN, I NEED YOUR NUMBERS”. God – I hate that. Not only because its annoying, but it’s also because EVERYONE always put its in CAPS. Yes – we get the point, your an IDIOT. But back to the story – so I woke up this morning and got this in my email:

WTF?! Click for a bigger picture

So your probally wondering why I bought an iPod Touch, if I have a iPhone? The answer is that I don’t own a fucking iPod “Can’t Touch This”. I mean, I just registered my MacBook last night, but instead of “Thank You for using your Whole Paycheck on MacBook” email, I get this junk. I didn’t include the whole email, because it actually listed my whole address, full name and phone number. Either a big mistake was made, or I have a twin brother out there that bought the the “Better iPod Ever”, Needless to say, this was a big mistake by Apple – they think my $1,300 MacBook is a $200 iPod Touch. God – I love when computers mess up, it makes me feel like I am smarter. Than I think about it, and realize that I’m not – and that makes me sad. At least I don’t crash like computers do. My hard-drive won’t die…ever…and if it does at least there is Viagra.

So, I understand that computers mess up, but when people mess up that’s a whole different story. People trust newspapers, more than the internet sometimes (not for long), because of the “organic” feel. The papers are written by actually people, and the stories are all collaborated together to make a final project. Well, this past week, the day after the MacBook launch, I received a USA Today at the door step of my hotel, quickly glance it, and then do a double take in the Finance section:

Bad USA Today. Click for a bigger picture

If you don’t know. The only two MacBooks that were available the day after the event was the 13 inch MacBook, and the 15 inch MacBook Pro. The MacBook Air will not be released until November. I mean – this was on the front page of the Money section. Steve Jobs said clearly in his keynote on Tuesday that the Air would be release in November along with the 24 Inch Apple Cinema Display. I know this a minor mistake – but I would expect that USA Today would be thrilled to cover this event, but maybe after the last event, maybe they didn’t really care at all. 

So what do you think about Google’s Adsense reading your email, and displaying ads based off of it? Do you feel that privacy has been exposed? Sound off in the Poll below. Thanks for reading, ya’ll come back now.

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