How relevant are the ads, we see ?

As mentioned in the previous blog post I have been doing Understanding Media by Understanding Google course on Coursera and as part of second peer graded assignment I have to log the next 20 ads I encounter from Google, whether as the result of a search on google.com or through one of its partner sites and summarize what those ads get right about me and my interests, including at least one example, and what you believe they get wrong.

So I logged them and here they are:-

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AlVUJuil1-urdFVPNGNWYUo4cHVfM1RxblByenRYa0E&usp=sharing

and to summarize.

I  :-

– am male
– am married
– reside in Bangalore, India
– work for a Linux based company
– Interested in cloud technology
– have been searching for training in hadoop and a cars using Google
– have been searching for books in flipkart
– fly often
– do banking
– buy consumer goods

From the above list following advertisements are right about me and my interests :-

– Consumer Electronics
– Training
– Air Travel Agent
– Online retailer
– Banking
– Cloud Product
– Online yellow pages
– Car dealer

Following advertisements are somehow interest me :-

– Hardware Vendor (Dell)
– Beverages
– Tyres
– Real State
– Greetings, Gifts

Following advertisements do not interest me and are wrong :-

– Matrimony (as I am already married)
– Forex Trading

If I look at the advertisement more closely then just on one page I am seeing ads about real estate, travel, retailer, matrimony, gifts.  Just look how commercial a web page has become. And on top that we now see ads based on personal needs, preferences. This is what can be called as serving the long tail.  Web companies are collecting more and more data about us and we giving them for free. But the web companies are charging their advertiser aka our seller.