Deja vue Katrina

[Clodfobble]

Here's the thing, though--that personalized information is honestly much less useful than people think it is. Case in point, you already bought tires. Throwing tire ads at you was less effective than throwing them at random strangers who might or might not have needed them, because you definitely didn't need them anymore. So they were banking on the possibility that you had browsed, failed to make a decision, and then were going to circle back months later? Data mining companies have pulled one over on the retail companies, because real people don't actually shop that way.

[Flint]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

Here's the thing, though--that personalized information is honestly much less useful than people think it is. Case in point, you already bought tires.

Hang on a second there. I shop online quite a bit --mostly browsing, researching, and occasionally making a purchase. Which means all my devices (not just the one I browsed on) are now littered with pretty pictures of things I probably want to buy, with links back to places where they can be purchased, easily and within minutes.

It doesn't force me to buy something, but it's as close to holding a lit match to a can of gas as they've come so far.



Anyway, I was talking about "dark ads" and news stories / headlines / photos being displayed differently to different data-mined groups --as powerful a use of money to purchase political opinion* as I think we've ever seen. Way more effective than a totalitarian authority enforcing one single, approved message.

* by altering what we perceive as reality

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

Here's the thing, though--that personalized information is honestly much less useful than people think it is. Case in point, you already bought tires. Throwing tire ads at you was less effective than throwing them at random strangers who might or might not have needed them, because you definitely didn't need them anymore. So they were banking on the possibility that you had browsed, failed to make a decision, and then were going to circle back months later? Data mining companies have pulled one over on the retail companies, because real people don't actually shop that way.

True, they were wasting their time with me, but I suppose some people will be looking in the summer for tires they won't buy until fall/winter weather when they predict they'll need them. I suspect that a pretty small share though. They didn't circle around with me it was continuous though varied in intensity. I suppose if they caught wind of me searching for something else they may have given up on the tires. Of course I'm using the tires as an example, they've done it with other things.

Hmm, maybe I should do a porn search?