What does your Googling say about you?

I can't claim that this was my idea, alas, but a friend of a friend (of a friend) found the place where Google Ads tells you what it thinks you like based on what you've searched for.

Google Ads Preferences

I tested this with both IE and Firefox on my work computer. On Firefox it actually guessed my gender (correctly - some of my friends weren't so lucky, but I guess that's what happens when you hang out with female physicists).

Here's my IE page:

Google tells me who I am

Most of it makes sense to me. Music, definitely. Travel - historical sites and buildings makes a lot of sense since I've recently been to Rome for visiting exactly those things. History, biography, both things I use for work frequently.

But I have no idea where Autos & Vehicles - Vehicle Brands - Jeep comes from! It makes me wonder what on earth I must have searched for that to have appeared. Not only that, but that was one of the few that appeared in both my Firefox results and my IE results. The plot thickens...

Just coping with Web 1.0 for now...

I thought I'd write merely because it's been over a week since the last post and I don't want to give up on this blog, even when nothing's happening! Which isn't technically the case, but I've not really done much more Web 2.0 stuff since the last time I wrote. Mostly because of Freshers' 'Flu (curse them!), which has knocked me off my feet quite considerably.

Still, today I added to my Twittering ability and learnt the proper way to search for people, and in doing so have added myself as a follower of @LAT_Network (Librarians as Teachers). I checked out the website too, but haven't registered because - and this is going to sound really snobby - the layout is really offputting. I find the text very difficult to read when there's a busy background, and the contrast isn't very pronounced, so for now I'll avoid the migraine and only visit when I know there's a reason to! (Sorry!) Of course, I don't do all that much teaching as a librarian anyway, but it's another resource worth knowing about.

One thing I still dislike about Web 2.0 is that I still feel as if you drop off the radar if you're absent for a short time. Being ill, I haven't felt like checking into Twitter, iGoogle, and people's blogs, and while I'm not about to read everything in order to catch up (seriously, I have a hard enough time keeping up with everything as it is!), I seem to keep doing double takes as I try and figure out what's happened since I last checked in.You thought yesterday's news in real life was dated? On the web it's so historic it's practically obsolete! You see terms bandied about that you've never come across before, and it turns out they're loosely derived from the ones that replaced the ones you used just last Thursday. Oh well, minor gripe over and best catch up with all that reading...