Ads based on pages from 3 pages ago

[ganderla]

This has probably been discussed here, but I was unable to find anything on it.

There have been several times where I go to a site and the ads displaying are relevant to a site I visited 3-4 pages ago.

I just went to a site of one of the mods here and was shown ads about defensive driving. The site had noting to do with driving or cars at all. However, about 4 pages before that I was on a site about driving and cars.

Why would they show ads that are not even relevant anymore?

[red_pony]

They're tracking you and the ads are relevant to you. Ads are based on more than just the current pages content, the also consider your browsing history if they can track it. I believe this is why they are requiring us to make disclaimers about web beacons.

[zett]

Why would they show ads that are not even relevant anymore?

Too many PhD's thinking too many thoughts in too many directions that are too far away from real life.

Your observation is indeed a perfect example for the problems of personalized web ads; I believe that ads work best when they are in context with the page you are viewing (because the page content is what you are interested at that time). A few pageviews later I am probably not interested in the previous topic any longer. Showing unrelated ads will result in CTR dropping.