Amazon is a bit scary

[Dave McClung]

On another thread, Ryan Scott recommended that I read a book, 1491. On his recommendation, I Googled it and read the Wikipedia Review. I did not check on Amazon.Com.

This morning, I went to Amazon to check on something totally unrelated. What did Amazon suggest that I would be interested in? 1491!!

I knew that Amazon tracked what I do on their own web site, but I didn't know they tracked what I was looking at on Google and Wikipedia. It really is a bit scary how much Amazon knows.

[Andy Mistak]

I agree.

[Jon Twitchell]

We were researching vacuum cleaners recently...

Suddenly, ads for Oreck began appearing on another message board that I frequent.

[Ryan Scott]

On another thread, Ryan Scott recommended that I read a book, 1491. On his recommendation, I Googled it and read the Wikipedia Review. I did not check on Amazon.Com.

I know it's unrelated to this particular thread, but thanks for looking up the book. It's always nice to know when people take your suggestions seriously. Again, not to hijack this thread, but I do think 1491 is intriguing, although I will admit, doesn't have enough physical evidence to prove its own theory, but enough to require a good rethinking of the traditional interpretation.

[Shea Zellweger]

Amazon does love cookies :D.
Chances are your search pinged their website, and if you're like me, you're semi-logged in to Amazon at all times, so it recognized that you were searching for the book.
The whole responsive advertising thing creeps me out. Every once in a while, I'll come across an acronym or term I don't know and search for it, at which point I discover it's somewhat inappropriate and I'm inundated with ads for "adult" "friend" finders for the next hour or two.

[Dennis Bratcher]

On another thread, Ryan Scott recommended that I read a book, 1491. On his recommendation, I Googled it and read the Wikipedia Review. I did not check on Amazon.Com.

This morning, I went to Amazon to check on something totally unrelated. What did Amazon suggest that I would be interested in? 1491!!

I knew that Amazon tracked what I do on their own web site, but I didn't know they tracked what I was looking at on Google and Wikipedia. It really is a bit scary how much Amazon knows.


This is also why I don't use any of the free toolbars or toolbar search tabs. Most of them contain data trackers. I also have the browser "Related Sites" feature turned off. It's also not a bad idea to have a program like WebRoot or the advanced features of Norton to clean secret data miner cookies that track sites visited. They won't catch them all but I figure most is better than none.

Dennis B.

[Daniel Hamlin]

On another thread, Ryan Scott recommended that I read a book, 1491. On his recommendation, I Googled it and read the Wikipedia Review. I did not check on Amazon.Com.

This morning, I went to Amazon to check on something totally unrelated. What did Amazon suggest that I would be interested in? 1491!!

I knew that Amazon tracked what I do on their own web site, but I didn't know they tracked what I was looking at on Google and Wikipedia. It really is a bit scary how much Amazon knows.


Are you sure that book wasn't "1984"? :)

[Mike Fraley]

I knew that Amazon tracked what I do on their own web site, but I didn't know they tracked what I was looking at on Google and Wikipedia. It really is a bit scary how much Amazon knows.


I suspect that Dr. Bratcher is correct. It's not just Amazon itself. I tried several times browsing the internet for items related to very distinctive (and sometimes very popular) book titles. Amazon never brought up anything related. You probably inadvertently installed something that is data mining.