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Home » Gmail ad targeting says I speak Chinese, Really…?!?

Gmail ad targeting says I speak Chinese, Really…?!?

by Dennis Goedegebuure Leave a Comment

Ever thought how Google is targeting you in your inbox in Gmail? It used to be based on relevancy, wasn’t it? Relevant Ads were shown on the pages based on the content of your emails.

I have a slight suspicious that Mr. G has changed the way they determine relevant Ads for you. Today I saw the following ad above my inbox:

image

 The ad is from a Chinese company selling Karaoke machines. The JBK m-4000 midi is a top of the line karaoke machine.  

image

Now I never have searched for such a machine, neither was I working on planning an evening of karaoke fun with the team from work or some friends. WTF, what is Google targeting me on?

Then I was thinking it was targeting based on sites I visited that day, archived in my web history. I remembered I visited the eBay.cn site today, and quickly opened up the Google web history. Nope, I must have visited the Chinese eBay site while I was logged out of my account.

But when I tried to do a search on the websearch of Google, I saw that the advertiser was also showing up there:

image

So, what is this advertiser trying to accomplish, conquer the US with Karaoke…?  Spread the message, Do Karaoke not War? It’s sure they spend a decent amount of money on the campaign, as the ads are popping up all over the place. Here on image search as well:

image

On Product search:

image

 Question for you: Why am I targeted for a Karaoke machine in my Gmail, and why is Youzgist.com targeting the US searchers with an Ad in Chinese? And do you happen to know what this means:

JBK M-4000 Midi??OK?
4?3???????3700?????
??????3-5?????????

I know! It means, “Get off your lazy ass and stop playing Rock Band. Your should start doing some more Karaoke, the real Rock Band!” I guess they feel bad Rock Band has taken over traditional Karaoke in the US.

BTW> Did you see the image

image

Clicking on the link under  it, you come to a page with only images of Shopzilla: (try this search querry: site:image01.shopzilla-images.com jbk m-4000 midi). Anybody knows what triggered this?

Filed Under: Internet Tagged With: Gmail

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