Am I alone in not thinking that this is a bad thing? When I watch TV, I see non-targeted advertising: tampons, Viagra, depression meds, and many other things that I have no need for or interest in. If I have to see ads, I'd much prefer to see targeted ones.
I agree to a point.
I do find it somewhat creepy that after I was involved in an email thread related to a friend's wedding all of a sudden all of my gmail ads are for wedding gift websites.
On the other hand when if I am browsing the ASP.Net section of stackoverflow and see Windows Azure ads rather than weight loss ones then I see that as a good thing.
>I agree to a point. I do find it somewhat creepy that after I was involved in an email thread related to a friend's wedding all of a sudden all of my gmail ads are for wedding gift websites.
Ironically it sounds like you don't have a problem with targeted advertising, you have a problem with the quality of it and want it improved, which is quite a different argument than "you shouldn't use my data, give me adds at random". It's not an exact science but it's undeniable that it's reducing the signal to noise ratio.
I think it's more that email is something I generally consider reasonably private. Of course I know that in reality all that is happening is that it is being parsed for certain keywords etc.
Whereas targeted advertising based on being on a particular public section of a public website feels much less intrusive.
I suppose it's like getting adverts on TV for items that are somewhat related to the show that you just watched vs getting letters through the mail advertising debt consolidation services because on the same day you also got mail from your bank telling you that your overdraft is maxed out and your credit card is overdue.
