Let's mess with the Internet

[Swift]

On a related note, I see that in the ads on Facebook now, I have ads for collar extenders. Don't you love the evidence that everything you do on the Internet gets sold to someone for advertising.

I've on and off thought about this for a while.

We all know that when we do searches and browsing on the Internet, that the various entities like Google and Amazon track those searches, so as to use or sell that info to people who then pester us with ads related to those searches. Do a search on "ovens" or "Peru" and you'll suddenly see all these appliance and travel ads.

What I've wondered is could we drive them at least slightly nuts? Search for zany things so as to confuse their little profiles on each of us. I would guess that we can't make it too weird; I assume their algorithms are "smart" enough to ignore searches "electric squid polishers". So how silly can we make it, and still have the searches get confused about us?

[SciFiFisher]

The algorithms are getting better and better. But, I suspect there are still ways to throw them off a bit. For example, looking for a left handed adjustable swizzle stick might be an interesting one to try. I mean who doesn't want a left handed adjustable swizzle stick with flashing lights and a musical chime that tells you when the cocktail is perfectly mixed?

OTOH the algorithm just might default to just swizzle sticks without the embellishments.

[geonuc]

This has potential for fun although I doubt we can defeat (confuse) The Great Internet. It's too powerful and shit.

I'm annoyed at the ads for Subaru. Yeah, I did a fair amount of surfing in that direction, and then I bought one. I don't need another one quite yet.

[Sigma_Orionis]

I use an Ad Blocker And Javascript is disabled by default. The days I'm more paranoid than usual I use Tor

[FZR1KG]

Search for alligator sex.
See what kind of ads pop up

[brite]

I use an Ad Blocker And Javascript is disabled by default. The days I'm more paranoid than usual I use Tor

More paranoid?

[grapes]

How much worse is crocodile rock? Unless it's by Gnomeo