Who does Google Think you are?

by Bryon D Beilman

Did you ever wonder how Google targets ads to you browser or who Google thinks you are?  When you use GMail, or Google search, you of course see ads to the left and above your search (or mail).   The ability to target ads to you of course is their "cash cow" and they have alot of different technologies at work to do this. There are entire books and businesses devoted to search engine optimization (SEO) and how to make your ad or company standout in a sea of other competitors.

So if a Google advertising client wants to target 40+ year old males who has an interest in computers, networking and perhaps music, how do they display ads to those people for that client?  Their methods and algorithms would take more than a blog to describe, but perhaps a more interesting question is, who does Google think you are?

In your browser of choice, go to Google and search "ad preferences manager", or just go to http://www.google.com/ads/preferences.   What does it say about you?

IT thinks that I am a 35-44 year old male, who has interest in computers, electronics, Internet and music, which is pretty accurate. I use Chrome as my primary browser, so in Chrome, that is what came up, but in Internet Explorer, it did not know much about me, largely because I only use IE for websites that require it, so it doesn't have as much "cookie data" about me.

Check out who Google thinks you are and see how accurate it is.  If you don't like what you  see, you can clear and edit this information or make it more accurate if you like.

Happy Googling.