Tuesday, February 20, 2018

WFW - Always a target

This month our Words for Wednesday is provided by our friend River over at Drifting through life.

The purpose of the words is to encourage us to write a story, poem, or whatever. Simply pick some of the words or all of the words and then go by River's blog and let her know so we can all enjoy what you have written.

This week's words are:

refocusing, theatrically, unimaginable, olive oil, footrest, relieved
and/or:
roughly, mythology, disconnected, expansive, campfire, singing

My story this week targets Targeted Advertising

Always a target

Online advertising? Some of these THEATRICALLY designed ads are really a pain in the...

I really feel violated, especially after researching a product on our EXPANSIVE world wide web, and all of a sudden every page I go to after that has a banner ad for the exact same product that I was looking at. Targeted advertising is what they call it and to me this is ROUGHLY the same practice as the telemarketers who continue to dial your phone number over and over, even after you have asked for your number to be removed or have added your phone number to the "Do Not Call" list. It's UNIMAGINABLE to think that this may be where some of the telemarketers get your number.

Stopping these online targeted ads is not as simple as kicking back with your feet propped upon your favorite FOOTREST, nor as easy as sitting around a CAMPFIRE holding hands while SINGING Kumbaya and telling fables and fairy tales. But actually getting away from the ads completely is indeed a fairy tale.

Finding the actual place to help get you DISCONNECTED from these targeted advertising nightmares is supposed to be as simple as tapping on the little sideways triangle at the top of the ad, and then selecting the ad choices to opt out of those targeted ads, my problem is figuring out how to hit the triangle without tapping the ad itself.

Man throwing a dart directly towards your point of view.
Targeted Ads are just like a dart thrown at you.
This can be done, but with my hand/eye coordination, the size of my fingers compared to the size of that little triangle, and the closeness of the links, my accomplishing this is sometimes a feat straight out of Greek MYTHOLOGY. And once there most of the time the page opened is more confusing than the ad.

Blocking the targeted ads is possible by opting out through links like the Network Advertising Initiative, or Web Choices. You have to do this on each of your devices and computer too, but the bad thing is when you clean out the stored cookies on your computer or device after that, you have to again go through the process from start to finish, because you are now a target once again.

REFOCUSING the ads is really all you can do, the ads don't go away only the targeted ads. Now rather than seeing the exact same shoe or noise cancelling headphones that you were looking at, now the ads have adjusted to every thing from OLIVE OIL, to those yogurts that help you ladies find relief within a week, I wouldn't be surprised to see a targeted ad that claims drinking castor oil can help a man to get RELIEVED a whole lot quicker than the yogurts.

I'm not suggesting that you drink castor oil, but if you hate targeted ads like I do, I suggest that you opt out through sites like I mentioned earlier, and don't download anything because that's a whole other problem.

24 comments:

  1. Fantastic, Jimmy...really fantastic! Brilliant!

    You did go for something different...and it paid off! Well done! :)

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    1. Thank you so much Lee, Now I am glad that I went ahead with it.

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  2. Great job Jimmy and great advice....those ads are a pain in the....

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    1. Delores those ads really aggravate me, not the random ads so much but the ones of items that I have just been looking at. Thank you my friend.

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  3. I hate the ones that make your phone vibrate, super annoying

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  4. It's quite embarrassing if you try to show somebody something on your computer, and the border on both sides is advertising granny panties...

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    1. Val, I hate it when that happens...Around Christmas shopping time it seems anything that I was looking at for Cindy popped up on the screen whenever she was right there.

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  5. Jimmy; what a great way to use the words. Very handy information too. I've learned to ignore the ads and just focus on what I'm reading on the screen. Even the ones that look interesting only get a passing glance. The ones I hate the most are those that have flashing or blinking, any kind of animation. I have to use something like an exercise book to block that out if I don't want a migraine.

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    1. Thank you River, I can relate 100% on those flashing ads, if I can't scroll the page to block them I simply leave because they annoy me that much.

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  6. Jimmy, your use of the words is really good. As for the subject matter, I think it will go down well with all users of technical gadgets. A long time ago I thought it coincidental that other blogs were 'advertising' the very things I had been checking out. I know better now but remember driving myself nuts trying to get rid of those dedicated followers! In the end I gave up.

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    1. Valerie, It is concerning when you visit another blog and see an ad for something that you were just shopping for, in reality it's not the blog owner, it's Google or whomever is controlling those particular ads that is tracking your moves on the internet "to make your search experiences more relevant" or some such nonsensical explanation like this. I use the opt out platforms when I see targeted ads, you can't stop them all but I feel less spied upon when the ads aren't following my every move.

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  7. I don't get a lot of advertising. But when I do I hate the ones that flash and move. They are so annoying! You've got this word 'game' down pat. Count me as one of your fans.

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    1. Thank you Jean, I am definitely a fan of yours as well. I agree those flashing and moving ads make me less likely to consider their product anyway, I can't say that any of the ads on the web has ever sold me on anything, but plenty of them have caused me to leave a site before even looking at their content.

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  8. I have ad blocker for Facebook and the web. It works pretty well so I'm happy.

    Have a fabulous day Jimmy. ☺

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    1. I'll have to look into that one Sandee, Thank you for the info.

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  9. Good info! I hate those ads also and feel spied upon!

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    1. That's exactly how I feel when I see one of those ads too Cindi, like they are looking right over your shoulder.

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  10. Or just learn to ignore them. That's what i've worked to do.

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    1. That's probably the best thing to do and I can do that with random ads, it's the targeted ads that really bother me for some reason.

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  11. I just ignore all the ads because they are just the result of algorithms and not actual people tracking my searches. I think :)

    The only ones I find hard to ignore are the flashing or jumping ones - I do as you and River and others do, I leave. They are like a rude person shrieking and waving their hands right in your face! ha ha

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    1. Exactly, those flashing and moving ads are exactly like that to me also! ha ha

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    2. A great Read. Loved it. Although it is a pity I failed to grasp a lot of the Tech stuff.

      I live with my eldest son, who is separated from his C L Wife but still keep in touch. Chris is a tech savvy analyst, I am simply a user non maintainer.I am now fully back on line after the power failure Wednesday nine days ago but managed to struggle through with other gear I was unfamiliar with,. My son is also my Carer due to my age etc. Thank you for calling on my blog.

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    3. Thank you Vest, I am happy that you enjoyed this one. Like your son Chris helps you with your tech stuff we depend on our son Tim for the same thing, it's nice to have someone in the family who can keep up with all of this.

      It's good to have you stop by Vest, it's always nice to have you visit.

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