Banner Ad Content.. Coincidence?

[InlandMariner]

Just curious... does everyone see the same banner ads on the start page? Or are these somehow being selected by hidden adware running on our PCs? It almost looks like “something” is monitoring my browsing history and online shopping patterns, and presenting ads with similar offerings. Of course, my system is securely locked down (hey, I’m a sailor) and I’ve run an up-to-the-minute subscription of McAfee Security Center since day one. Anyone share my paranoia?

[David M]

Without advertising, this site would not exist. There is software available for stopping the tracking that you are concerned about. I seriously doubt anything nefarious is occurring.

[DeepFrz]

I use Adblock Plus with Firefox to get rid of the advertising that I don't want. There are other ad. blocking software for MS Explorer.

[camaraderie]

The google ads respond to your IP location and the content key words on the page.

[David M]

Advertising that sits politely off to the side of the window does not bother me. Pop-up ads that block my view of the content do bother me. Advertising is a necessity if we want to keep much of the internet free...this site included.

I suggest you click on some of the ads in this forum if it looks like something that might interest you.

Inland Mariners concern was of being tracked, not the ads themselves. My suggestion was to get software that blocks tracking, not software that blocks advertising. There are also settings you can make to your browser that reduce tracking.

Lets not get in to a discussion of how to block internet advertising. That just defeats the purpose of how this website remains free for you to view.

[Kiteboarder]

On most sites these days, the code running the ads will read your cookies and select ads accordingly. Spend a bit of time searching for something in particular, say... out of the blue... SNOWBOARDING GEAR. You'll notice that you'll be seeing lots of ads pertaining to snowboarding and snowboarding gear. And I mean throughout the web... Not necessarily this forum.