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I was concerned about this a few weeks ago - since then, I haven't had much time to spend on this (or any other) forum. In the past 3 days I have purchased nail varnish remover, researched sunhats for my Grandson and purchased make-up from e-bay, all of them as a direct result of a Google search. I also regularly research Chambers for anagrams (not that I'd EVER ACTUALLY cheat of course!!

http://www.chambersharrap.co.uk/chambers/puzzles/word_wizards/wwizards.py/main

I am sad to report that today on certain threads here, I have seen all of these (slightly differing) objects being advertised down the right-hand side of the webpage on our Forum. I have often wondered quite what is in it for Ash and now I think I know. It's a great Forum and one while I enjoy but please, all of you, take a good look at the adverts and see whether they are connected with your recent searches in the net.

Sorry to spread dissention in the ranks, but it has to be said.

Surely this can't only be happening to me...?

It is not just this site that does it, I do not know the technical jargon for it and the simple answer is to turn off Adverts - my daughter did it for me.

Mamya,

I understand that, but what worries me is that "they" are able to collect information based on the things I search on. Not that I'm given to searching porn sites (I should be so lucky at my age) but Lord only knows what would appear if I did!

hi,

The last few days on this site, I only have to hesitate a split second over the bottom right hand corner and a video advert pops up.Very annoying.

Will check this out with my daughter...

Eh..by..the..way...Wendy?...Mamya? you got about an hour for Clueless. Not that I'm nagging, much.

Hi Pastille,

Sure Mamya's busy knitting up a storm (or tsunami) and as for me, I haven't come up with anything even remotely good enough to stand against our other contributors. I'm sure the trick is to get in there quickly and not look at others' (is that the correct apostrophe?) posts!

lol

Take care Wendy. x

It is slightly disturbing when you browse for something and then 'coincidentally' start seeing lots of ads for it. I use AdBlock -- it's free, and the only thing I see on this site is the ad for the iPhone App. Sorry Ash!

I use Firefox since the virus scams that appeared, with an addon to firefox called NoScript, this allows only what parts of any page you want, and blocks all others, the other useful thing is it allows you to see what other things are trying to load up on any page, one of them on this site is google-analytics. This is obviously how they get the information from your previous searches on google, getting your keywords to display the appropriate banner ads. It is search based advertising, and nothing illegal with it, but can be stopped using firefox if you so wish it

Siamcat,

I've used Firefox (my mate calls it Mozzarella Firefox which I think is rather good) for a couple of years now. I don't have the add-on you mentioned but I will consider it. What I find worrying is that it's a bit like taking a painkiller when you're not well which could be covering up something much more sinister. How on earth can "they" tell what I've been doing on my 'puter and who profits from it?

Is it Ash? If not, how do these related adverts appear?

Wendy

On the Google page, click on the (very tiny) privacy link. This takes you to Google's Privacy Policy, two-thirds down the page, and when you click on that it gives much info, including "Cookies" (second bullet point)

This is obviously how your searches end up as banner advertising, so disabling cookies may be another solution.

I am sure this is a universal business practice for all search engines, ethical or not (?)

Hope this helps.

S