Google thinks I'm a woman...

[Candice Mae]

Google uses your cookies (sites you've visited) to determine your age and gender. From this it picks ads that would be of interest to you.

I have two computers, a laptop and a desktop. The desktop I don't use very often, mostly only when streaming or watching youtube. Anyways I was using it today and I noticed something a little odd. I was checking up on my usual blogs that I read, and noticed a VS ad on the page. Nothing out of the ordinary, but as I continued going through sites the ads were geared towards women. I seen ads for heels, dresses and perfume, and then finally kotex.

This is when I really noticed something was different compared to my laptop. So I did a google search on it, and found this.
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2012/01/30/why-google-thinks-you-are-a-male-and-b-old/

See what google thinks of you.
www.google.com/settings/ads/onweb/

As it turns out since the last time I cleared my destops browser history, I had a pretty womanly history. So if you want to "pass" on google feminize your internet usage... :D

Kind of makes it feel like big brother is watching your every click. :devil:

[Mickitv]

Very interesting. I am going to have to investigate this further. Thank you for pointing this out.

[Daisy41]

Google pegs me as a 25-34 year old female, which is completely fine. My advertisements generally lean towards sites with cute shoes and clothing. I know what Google does with my cookies and if it means my ads are catered towards want, I'm fine with that.

[DanaR]

Thanks for the heads up.

[sandra-leigh]

I used google's opt-out a few years ago, so it either doesn't know or won't say about me.

[KateSpade83]

I get ads all the time related to my interests so Google cookies sure are working for me. But they know I'm a man, because of my bmx bikes interests.

[LelaK]

Oh, I thought you were a woman too.

[Stephanie47]

I probably confuse the heck out of the Internet. Mixed messages. I noticed when I was playing a word tile game on my granddaughter's account it was displaying on the advertizing bar on the right edge of the screen ads from Roaman's. I had not cleared my history by logging off yet. I use Mozilla Firefox and it clears the history automatically. It could be interesting if my granddaughter were to log onto the site under her account number at her home without having the history cleared. It also irritates the heck out of me when eBay throws up your "Last Viewed" and "Watching" history if you have not logged out entirely. I wouldn't want to irritate my wife with my favorite searches of "slip," "bras," etc.

[Jamie Ann]

Like several others, I want to say thank you for the information. I was not aware that Google followed the sites I had visited and used that information to put me into categories. Again, thanks, Candice Mae.

[Rogina B]

I just made myself a little younger..girls can do that!

[Candice Mae]

Like several others, I want to say thank you for the information. I was not aware that Google followed the sites I had visited and used that information to put me into categories. Again, thanks, Candice Mae.

No problem.

If you want to disable this google invasion, use the link below and click "opt out" on the left hand side of the page.
www.google.com/settings/ads/onweb/

A reason to actually read the "terms and conditions" page I guess.

[Cynthia Anne]

I just made myself a little younger..girls can do that!

Yeah! They known I'm female! Bless their pea size brain for thinking I'm in my twentys!

[Jorja]

I have Google so confabulated they don't know if I am a 16 year old boy or a 60 year old woman. My interest are so varied I get ads for young men in cute shoes cooking a turkey while nailing trim to a cabinet and young girls in welding helmets wearing briefs reading Shakespeare while riding Harleys.

Variety is the spice of life, my dears

[MissTee]

It pegs me as a girl, too -- Albeit an old one . . . meh, I suppose the virtual eye cream isn't working

[Beverley Sims]

I have Google so confabulated they don't know if I am a 16 year old boy or a 60 year old woman. My interest are so varied I get ads for young men in cute shoes cooking a turkey while nailing trim to a cabinet and young girls in welding helmets wearing briefs reading Shakespeare while riding Harleys.

Variety is the spice of life, my dears

I do have to add here Google also thinks I am of European, Asian and American origin.
When you access the net in different countries all sorts of rubbish is embedded onto the system and I get Poppy day notifications, Oktoberfest, Memorial day and lots of money making ideas and credit card swapping from Nigeria.
Oh! the last bit. Everyone gets letters from Nigeria about new found wealth. :)

[calebsmithxd]

Yeah, google thinks I'm a 25-34 year old female who knows English and French. I'm actually a 27 year old male who speaks English and knows a little French and a little Spanish.

[Tracii G]

It thinks I'm 45-54 wrong and male oh well thats true but I'm always on womens clothing sites browsing.
Should I file a complaint?

[ReineD]

I clear up my history, cache, and cookies every time I close my browser. I hate leaving a trail. I hate it when I'm shopping for something, say a household good, and then the exact same item shows up as an ad later in an unrelated site I'm visiting.

Also, it's a good idea to clear everything out of your browser immediately after you've paid a bill or checked bank accounts online.

I'm refinishing my SO's bathroom lately and shopping for things like wet saws, silicone sealant, ceiling fans, register grilles. lol Google would likely peg me as a 40 year old man. :rolleyes:

[EddieMaiden]

What the...well, that's nice...Google just made me 10 years older than I am, which is kinda funny because one of the "prefered" ad category is Games - Computer & Video Games - Shooter Games...ah, well...Google works in mysterious ways...

[betty1253]

Candice, I have always wondered why the ads that Flicker hits me with are for Viagra.

[Shari]

And everybody thinks the government doesn't care about us anymore.
This proves that we're loved and are always being watched over.

Sorry for doing this twice, but I tried the link and it said I was a +65 female. That hurt. Not the female part, the other part.

Anyway, I went in and cleaned my computer, tried it again and voila! It didn't know who or what I was.
Lesson learned. Keep the machine clean if you want to stay as private as you can.

[ChelseaErtel]

Oh My God. Me too. How absolutely wonderful, and they put me in the 25-34 age range - just knocked off 20-30 years. I just think that is sooooo funny, now I love google.

Let's make it so.


P.S. I surf in "Private Mode" and don't allow cookies, and this still happens. So, if you don't want it "out" there, don't put it out there I guess.

[Vanessa Amber420]

Thanks for sharing the info.

[mirandacdgirl]

Age: 18-24Remove
Gender: Female

hehe seems a bit right in my head!

[CorsetAngel]

I'm pretty sure almost all Search engine companies like Google and Yahoo do this. It's marketing 101. They get paid for putting ads online. So they try to define users so they can put appropriate ads, to where potential customers are at.

[Eryn]

I did the opt out thing long ago, so Google supposedly knows little about me. However, I still don't trust that they don't collect data.

Another word for "targeting" is "discrimination." Suppose that a company doesn't want African American patrons in their stores. They could use Google's services to identify that demographic and then not display advertisements or discount offers to persons of that race. The same goes for any group. That's the flip side of that warm fuzzy picture that Google paints for us, and it seems to be perfectly legal.

[ArleneRaquel]

Google Chrome places ads aimed at women at every site, just about, that I visit. I actually like it that I receive female ads.

[freeindress]

Not using Google, but I hate to think that my eBay account could out me with various lists (feedbacks, viewed/watched items) if I forgot to log out of a shared computer (hoping it does not have a keylogger or a hidden VNC server!)... need to become an expert of bootable Linux USB sticks.

[Kate Simmons]

You gotta love demographics Hon. The aim is to always sell you something one way or the other.:)

[linda allen]

And everybody thinks the government doesn't care about us anymore.
This proves that we're loved and are always being watched over.
It's not the government, it's private entrprise. How do you think Google and the other companies survive if they let us use the service for free.


........... Suppose that a company doesn't want African American patrons in their stores. They could use Google's services to identify that demographic and then not display advertisements or discount offers to persons of that race. The same goes for any group. That's the flip side of that warm fuzzy picture that Google paints for us, and it seems to be perfectly legal.

I think that's a stretch. Most companies want paying customers in their stores regardless of race. In many parts of the USA, Black people make up 40% or more of the population. Stores would have a hard time surviving if they excluded 40% of the potential customers.

Besides, how would Google or any other browser, know the race of a user?

I use the "InPrivate Browsing" feature of Internet Explorer 8. No records of where I've been when using that feature.

[TinaMc]

Like several others, I want to say thank you for the information. I was not aware that Google followed the sites I had visited and used that information to put me into categories. Again, thanks, Candice Mae.

For quite some time google has been tailoring their search engine results on the basis of your search history. It's a bit of a weird one, instead of being open to the huge world wide web you are being pushed further into a corner of it that is custom built for you (generally without your awareness or true consent). But if you search for something and I search for the same thing we will almost certainly get different results on the basis of our previous usage. I don't like it, I opted out of it quite a while ago. You have to be careful to opt out under your google account if you have one and log in across several machines, and google on your machine where it stores cookies.

[~Joanne~]

Google has been known to invade peoples privacy forever now and keep bring out new algorithms to go even deeper. They also have vans that drive up and down streets now doing god only knows what.

I use Firefox when I browse the web. It clears everything upon being closed. History, cache and I have disabled cookies on all sites. Added a few add ons for even more protection and i am surfing a bit safer than say when my GF uses IE lol

[Eryn]

I think that's a stretch. Most companies want paying customers in their stores regardless of race. In many parts of the USA, Black people make up 40% or more of the population. Stores would have a hard time surviving if they excluded 40% of the potential customers.

Besides, how would Google or any other browser, know the race of a user?

the same way they determine the gender of a user, by the sites they visit. The "they want everybody's money" argument does not hold for all organizations.

[erika_kerrie]

Candice, that is both funny and scary, but let's go with funny :)

But you can't blame google, you do make one fantastic looking woman :)

[Melissa73]

wow im a 35-44 yr old fenaLE :)

[ArleneRaquel]

I can't think of a more welcome compliment as something/somebody thinking that I'm a woman.

[mikiSJ]

Google pegs me as a 25-34 year old female, which is completely fine. My advertisements generally lean towards sites with cute shoes and clothing. I know what Google does with my cookies and if it means my ads are catered towards want, I'm fine with that.

Well, you at least look the part, and nicely, I might add.

Google has me in my thirties (of course, I am NO!) so the stuff they plop on my browser is from Nordie's, Macy's, Zappos and ... usually showing me something dressy that is a tad more than the CDing budget will allow.

Miki

[kimdl93]

my "cookies" are disabled. so the link didn't work for me. However, I've been getting ads for Avenue and Coldwater Creek among others, so I presume my shopping history is pretty well known! Big brother - or sister - can watch all they want. It won't be all that intereasting.

[Foxglove]

Funny: Google has me down as a 25-34 year old female whose first language is French. I don't mind that description--and if Interpol is looking for me, that should lead them a merry chase. I think I'll leave those cookies in place.

Annabelle

[linda allen]

It's not just google. Many websites look at tracking cookies and display adds taylored to your viewing habits.

I visited several wig vendors on line without using the InPrivate Browsing feature of IE8. Later, I was on a web forum (unrelated to crossdressing) and had Paula Young and wigs.com adds embedded in the web forum.

If you look at items on amazon.com or ebay.com, they will remember what you looked at and suggest similar items. OK for some of us, but not for those hiding something from others. Use the InPrivate Browsing feature.

[Richelle423]

Freaky .Google thinks I'm a woman 45-54 yrs.