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Banner ads-an observation, not complaint

Miss Shelf

Miss Shelf

New Member
I've been noticing with interest that whenever I click on a topic, somehow banner ads appear at the top relating to the subject of the topic I'm looking at. I find this a bit disconcerting, like someone is watching mover my shoulder and saying "Hey, if you're interested in that subject, try these websites!".

Now no matter what I click, I get that Pathways to Abandon banner ad. Before that, it was the annoying Scientology ad. For a book site that frowns on religious discussions, I find this amusing. I know that Darren has no control over banner ads (he doesn't, right?) but I'm wondering why there have been so many religious themed ads lately. I guess it's better than ads for porn, right?
 
Other forums I visit have made experiments with this. If everyone wrote the word gorilla in their posts a banner-ad for adopting a gorilla through a wild-life protection programme came up. Then everyone edited their posts to place the words Dungeons and Dragons and immediately banner-ads fro RPG's, bookstores and conventions show up.

'Tis very amusing.

But I must say, it is not so much about what you click as it is what's on the page. The ads' systems check what's on this page and asign an ad to fit the theme. There's a reason Icewind Dale forums often have RPG ads and the like. They can't see who clicks it but merely send out a banner ad for it to be ther when someone slicks it - at least that's as far as I know :p
 
The ads are context sensitive; they read the page and provide the appropriate ads. Of course, appropriation is also decided by spend.

Because the relgious groups pay more money ro Google, in order to try and sell their shit.
 
so if I start a topic about insurance (life, health, car, whatever), I would see banner ads for insurance?

The day I start getting banner ads in my emails keyed to certain words, that's the day I blow the dust off my stationery and pens and buy stamps again.
 
Miss Shelf said:
The day I start getting banner ads in my emails keyed to certain words, that's the day I blow the dust off my stationery and pens and buy stamps again.
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GMail does this. It's not as if they are reading your emails, the software evaluates the words and picks ads that, statistically, have the greatest relevance to you. There's no record kept by Google of emails from your Aunt Sally, etc.
 
Stewart said:
GMail does this. It's not as if they are reading your emails, the software evaluates the words and picks ads that, statistically, have the greatest relevance to you. There's no record kept by Google of emails from your Aunt Sally, etc.
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I understand that, it's just offensive to me that I'd get banner ads in email in the first place. I view email as correspondence, not an opportunity for others to send me junk mail. I'm not using GMail, I'm happy with what I use already.

The Amish way of life looks better to me every year. :(
 
Miss Shelf said:
I view email as correspondence, not an opportunity for others to send me junk mail. I'm not using GMail, I'm happy with what I use already.
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I don't mind it with GMail as it's a free account and the ads are unobstrusive. I have a problem with AOL, whom I pay for an email/internet service, and still get flashy adverts that I dont want.

The Amish way of life looks better to me every year. :(
Click to expand...

Admit it, you're only interested in growing a beard.
 
I use gmail and am very happy with it. Mostly because my Firewalls block all banner ads except a few, so when people ask me about banner ads I usually go "Huh?"

I had a homepage on geocities some time back (long gone now) and one fo my friends asked how I placed the banner ads where I did. I had no idea what she was talking about, because I didn't place any ads anywhere, I hadn't even seen they were there due to aforementioned adblocking firewalls :p It took some confusion before we realised what was going on hehe
 
Google AdSense

The ads are provided by Google and are called Google AdSense. We get paid a few cents every time somebody clicks on a link. Some links pay more than others of course.

They're a good way of helping to fund TBF without being too obtrusive, and at least they're supposed to be relevant to the page you're viewing.
 
So does anyone click on banner ads? I never have, I tend to tune them out since alot have nothing I would be interested in, but I often wonder about certain marketing plans. I mean while I can't stand telemarketers obviously someone buys from them or they would not keep doing it, I know my parents have a weakness for those as seen on tv infommercials. So do a lot of people buy things from the banner ads?
 
Being a former telemarketeer I can confirm that it definitely works. We speak to incredible amounts of people and only very few of them actually buys anything, but considering how many calls you can make in an hour the pay can get quite good - even if only 3 % of the people we call buy something.

I sometimes click on banner ads mostly haphazardly, switching from window to window and inadvertently hitting a banner ad in the process. Someone makes money on my fumblyness? Fine by me. I never buy anything from banner ads, but sometimes I *have* been led to an internet shop where I did browse for some time - and wished intensely that I was living in the US, since many shops don't ship across the pond. And when I can feel like that, I suppose those actually living within shipping range buy stuff at times.
 
I can't say that I've ever clicked on an ad on purpose - I do frequently click on them by accident though. I'm a total klutz :eek: I have a pop-up blocker to block out most of the ads on my computer though, pop-ups annoy me like nothing else :mad:
 
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