So, I was emailing my StudMuffin from my Gmail account and I noticed the google ads...they were oddly appropriate for my message. Hmmm, coincidence? I didn't think so. Since I'm at work and it is the middle of the afternoon I realize it's the perfect opportunity to see what's up.
Emails from Aabra are by far the best place to start. Next to an email entitled, "Funny, I thought the Smurfs were *Socialists*" there are ads for Smurfs, Smurf ringtones (my mind can't even begin to comprehend how annoying that would be!) and women's shirts. With "Scary Mary Poppins" I find links to buy tickets to see Mary Poppins on Broadway, an official site of a movie I've never seen, and a site to email Al Gore. And, with "A dragon needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle," I found a link to dragon gear...like my dragon needs sunglasses.
Then I realized it, Google is reading my mail! The reason I have Gmail is it's the only mail provider I've found that does a halfway decent job of keeping the spammers away and now I realize that they've just added spam onto every single message. Evil evil evil!
So, here's the thing, nothing you send on gmail (or, lets face it, anything in cyberspace) is completely private. I'm okay with that...I'm not okay with my email being exploited for commercial purposes. However, luckily for gmail, one thing I'm even less okay with is spam.
And, now, words of wisdom...this time dedicated to my Studmuffin who is still trying to figure out what is up with Carmel....
"Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a function."
-Garrison Keillor
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When Gmail was first announced, the idea to display ads relevant to the e-mail in question was controversial. Lots of press about that. But you know what they say--you get what you pay for. Gmail accounts are "free" in the sense that you don't have to pay money for them, but Google still needs to buy servers to run them, pay people to maintain and improve the site, etc, etc. All things considered, an automated system for reading e-mail and displaying Google Ads isn't that bad. *shrug* It's kind of fun to watch what comes up. =)
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