Computer Experts...I have a question

[bby31288]

Just wondering earlier today I was on the fossil watch website looking at watches for my sister. I have noticed that every website I visit including this one now has advertisements for Fossil Watches. Why is this? What causes this to show up on every web page I visit that has advertisments? Just wondering. Its kinda creepy....

 

[Hound dog]

Sounds like you picked up a trojan. Try doing a virus scan.

 

[DaisyFace]

Tracking Cookies!!!!

Your computer keeps track of every website you visit. "Cookies" are little bits of code that your computer records at every website. Web sites plant a "cookie" on your computer when you visit and it allows them to advertise you later.

If it bothers you....you can visit your computer's "Control Panel" or "Security Center" and choose "Clear Cookies". Your virus protection should do this for you, too.

And yes, there ARE programs that block the cookies completely. "Ad-Aware" is one...

Hope this helps!

 

[runawaybunny]

It's probably google adsense serving personalized ads. Here's some info copied from their blog and a way to opt out of personalized ads if they bother you.

Google has worked hard to create technology that makes the advertising on our own sites, and those of our partners, as relevant as possible. To date, we have shown ads based mainly on what your interests are at a specific moment. So if you search for [digital camera] on Google, you'll get ads related to digital cameras. If you are visiting the website of one of our AdSense partners, you would see ads based on the content of the page. For example, if you're reading a sports page on a newspaper website, we might show ads for running shoes. Or we can show ads for home maintenance services alongside a YouTube video instructing you on how to perform a simple repair.

This kind of tailored advertising does raise questions about user choice and privacy — questions the whole online ad industry has a responsibility to answer. Many companies already provide interest-based advertising and they address these issues in different ways. For our part, we're launching interest-based advertising with three important features that demonstrate our commitment to transparency and user choice.

• Transparency - We already clearly label most of the ads provided by Google on the AdSense partner network and on YouTube. You can click on the labels to get more information about how we serve ads, and the information we use to show you ads. This year we will expand the range of ad formats and publishers that display labels that provide a way to learn more and make choices about Google's ad serving.
• Choice - We have built a tool called Ads Preferences Manager, which lets you view, delete, or add interest categories associated with your browser so that you can receive ads that are more interesting to you.
• Control - You can always opt out of the advertising cookie for the AdSense partner network here. To make sure that your opt-out decision is respected (and isn't deleted if you clear the cookies from your browser), we have designed a plug-in for your browser that maintains your opt-out choice.

To find out more about what Google is doing in this important area, please visit our Public Policy blog and Privacy Center.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/making-ads-more-interesting.html

 

[bby31288]

Wow, what great information! Makes sense now. I am a google queen....Now that I understand it, its not so creepy!! LOL. Thanks everyone!