Regarding more general comments about my observation, I realize that the algorithms are not paying close attention to context, thus the resulting ad I mentioned. My point was to note that it is a direction that seems would be fruitful to follow. It seems like so many people are working at these companies (like Google, but others as well), one would imagine some of these products may improve over time. I suspect they will, they just haven’t gotten too far as of yet.

With lots of time to kill, the president of our club suggested “adopting” a stretch of road to clean. Other PR ideas had bombed, but he said getting our name on the roadside sign would keep our recognition levels shooting higher every week, as people would drive by it over and over. “Throw out better ideas if you’ve got ‘em.” We didn’t, so we spent rounds bagging trash each week, from cans and paper to road-kill. The president praised our efforts every time he gave out assignments, but eventually we compared notes and noticed that none of us ever had him sharing our rounds. After that, our club participation dropped. The bomb this time was a time bomb: the time it took to realize he’d volunteered us, not himself.

Oh… hi, guys! How ya doin’? My, what pretty, shiny badges you have!

You could have written, “I hate Thai food! I loathe and despise Thai food! I won’t go within 100 miles of a city that has Thai food anywhere within its borders! I’ll go on a rampage of mass murder if anyone ever again mentions Thai food to me!”

And you know that Gmail would, accordingly, attach some sort of ad for Thai food.

(The opera in question was Smetana’s The Bartered Bride, in case you wonder).

Inspired by an earlier post here on CT, I bought Sheri Berman’s Primacy of Politics. When Amazon sent its shipping message to me, Google took that as a cue to offer investments in Slovakian property.

Huh?

Now if some health site decided to buy the adword ‘Thai food allergy’ (unlikely they would get that specific), or maybe just ‘food allergy’, then you might get their ad instead if you wrote the same thing again.

Knowing the content of any text proposition is MUCH HARDER than detecting its topic, thus selling of Thai restaurants to someone who just said she can’t eat Thai food. (Like that wonderful Far Side cartoon about what dogs hear: “blah blah blah blah Ginger blah blah”…)

My fave (ugh) is when gmail gives me garbage dating advice books when my classmate has just written to me about her meeting with a Faculty Senate rep, should she call him, etc.

Cheers!

Regarding “Thai food allergy”, you’re right tps12 that it’s not all Thai food. The problem is that I haven’t been able to figure what it is about Thai food that I am extremely allergic to. I can smell it and certainly taste it (although avoid it now), but I don’t know what it is. It is not peanuts and it is not coconuts (as I can eat both on its own), but it is something sweet so it may be a sauce that has one of those.

Incidentally, I really don’t appreciate it when people suggest that I call it an allergy even though it’s simply a dislike. I assure you that I have very obvious and visible reactions (not to mention the pain associated with it), which I think qualifies as an allergy. I used to like Thai food, this all started happening a few years ago.

Moriarty – my point was that given the allergy, there’s just no way I’m going to be interested in clicking on a link advertising a Thai restaurant. The word “allergy” was right next to the words “Thai food” so the link was there in the message.

The location data comes from the internet address of the computer from which you’re requesting the page at the moment. (although, for this same reason, Google has a very good idea of where and when you live, work and travel)