How the hell can Google read my mind???

[Anonymous]

Google collects information. It's Googles main business.

[Anonymous]

Your browser caches information about recent searches, links, etc. Google looks through all of that and looks for matches of similar information. For example, if you had done some searches recently about the topic of your court case and one of those references included the opposing counsel's name, then when you put in "Robert" it will use that as one of the possible completions based on your recent searches. If you want to see what it would give without that information, clear your browser's cache and then type info into Google. It will have less information to generate possible completions and you'll get more generic completion articles.

[Anonymous]

I think the Target article nailed it. Data mining at it's finest. Google has perfected the algorithm that predicts what you're going to ask before you even ask it based on your search history, your browsing history, everything. And if you have Google Desktop, do you think they don't get stats from that?

BTW, I was totally a recipient of all the Target coupons and had no idea how. I found that article very intriguing.

[Anonymous]

yes google tracks all your past searches, gmail stuff etc... by cookie and also IP location. What happens is the search engine will attempt to guess by using the above information and probably some other stuff like it can try to determine who you are based on computer type, browser, last websites visited, google ad words etc...

Although this is very cool I find it alarming and a breach of privacy so I use add-ons that kill my cookie trails. Another thing that mines your data is facebook.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the Target article nailed it. Data mining at it's finest. Google has perfected the algorithm that predicts what you're going to ask before you even ask it based on your search history, your browsing history, everything. And if you have Google Desktop, do you think they don't get stats from that?

BTW, I was totally a recipient of all the Target coupons and had no idea how. I found that article very intriguing.

Same here.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks for the info as well as the link to the Target article. Which I found really interested. I'm glad to see that Google and the Powers That Be can't actually read my mind (at least not yet), but it still is unsettling that we are all being individually tracked and targeted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love this feature of google.

Try typing in:

why do women

My personal favorite, try typing in:

The Duggars are

[Anonymous]

Ok, so I've just been noticing the same thing about this Google searches suggestions, and today a buddy if mine at work was telling me about the country he is from, I've never herd, spelled, spoken, NOTHING about this country, so I Google searched, the country of b... Boom, Belize, so I home alone, I think to myself, how many layers are in lasagna, I type in how many layers are in l... No suggestions, then I say out loud to myself, I want to make lasagna, I wonder how many layers are in lasagna, boom 6 different lasagna suggestions, wtf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ok, so I've just been noticing the same thing about this Google searches suggestions, and today a buddy if mine at work was telling me about the country he is from, I've never herd, spelled, spoken, NOTHING about this country, so I Google searched, the country of b... Boom, Belize, so I home alone, I think to myself, how many layers are in lasagna, I type in how many layers are in l... No suggestions, then I say out loud to myself, I want to make lasagna, I wonder how many layers are in lasagna, boom 6 different lasagna suggestions, wtf

I've noticed something too. That you keep bringing up posts from February of this year. Your poor typing and spelling skills give it away. You don't even add anything of value! wtf.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:yes google tracks all your past searches, gmail stuff etc... by cookie and also IP location. What happens is the search engine will attempt to guess by using the above information and probably some other stuff like it can try to determine who you are based on computer type, browser, last websites visited, google ad words etc...

Although this is very cool I find it alarming and a breach of privacy so I use add-ons that kill my cookie trails. Another thing that mines your data is facebook.

Some of the information is a feature of your browser (e.g. Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Macintosh Safari). As the PP mentioned, there are data packets called cookies that are stored by your browser that track what you do with your browser, where you go, what you entered into search engines, etc. All of the major search sites will use the cookie information in your browser to augment their data collection. If you don't want this information used, then go to your browser menu and clear the cache. Then that information will not be available. Of course, then you also will not have auto-complete in web-site addresses that you type into your browser. If you clear the cache, then when you type something into a search engine, you'll see what would come up normally based on the search engine storing frequency information and generic guessing based on most common searches. It will be less tailored for you as an individual and more generic of what is currently popular.

[Anonymous]

Happened to me yesterday and always freaks me out! It was cloudy and I couldn't remember the name of the the stringy looking clouds. So I typed in 'types of' and the 1st choice was 'types of clouds.' EEK!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok, so I've just been noticing the same thing about this Google searches suggestions, and today a buddy if mine at work was telling me about the country he is from, I've never herd, spelled, spoken, NOTHING about this country, so I Google searched, the country of b... Boom, Belize, so I home alone, I think to myself, how many layers are in lasagna, I type in how many layers are in l... No suggestions, then I say out loud to myself, I want to make lasagna, I wonder how many layers are in lasagna, boom 6 different lasagna suggestions, wtf

I've noticed something too. That you keep bringing up posts from February of this year. Your poor typing and spelling skills give it away. You don't even add anything of value! wtf.

Umm this is my first post about this subject. Anyways, people keep saying that google tracks my cookies and search history. As I said, the country I was going to search for and the one my friend and I were discussing, I've never herd of, searched, spoken, anything. What information would google gather to make that country there top suggestion?

[Anonymous]

Type in the word askew

The annoying thing for me is when I want to do a search for something outside my usual and the google results keep being on the predictable topic rather than what I want.

[Anonymous]

I love askew.

If you want, keep another browser on your computer "clean" - logged out, cleared cookies, and compare searches. I do that since I am often appalled at the order of results/pulls from g+, etc-and them I go to safari, reset safari, and then google just has my ip. I can see a less personalized version and it usually isn't so freaky.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok, so I've just been noticing the same thing about this Google searches suggestions, and today a buddy if mine at work was telling me about the country he is from, I've never herd, spelled, spoken, NOTHING about this country, so I Google searched, the country of b... Boom, Belize, so I home alone, I think to myself, how many layers are in lasagna, I type in how many layers are in l... No suggestions, then I say out loud to myself, I want to make lasagna, I wonder how many layers are in lasagna, boom 6 different lasagna suggestions, wtf

I've noticed something too. That you keep bringing up posts from February of this year. Your poor typing and spelling skills give it away. You don't even add anything of value! wtf.

Umm this is my first post about this subject. Anyways, people keep saying that google tracks my cookies and search history. As I said, the country I was going to search for and the one my friend and I were discussing, I've never herd of, searched, spoken, anything. What information would google gather to make that country there top suggestion?

Have you ever searched for your work friend's name before? If so, there's a cookie for him in your cache and when you put in country of b...he was in your cache and it knows that he's from Belize.