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Did you guys change your advertising scheme recently on dakka? For years, I'd only get the wargaming specific banner ads and for a few weeks I've been getting eclectic ones that have nothing to do with the hobby like political ads, services, and random goods mixed in with wargaming stuff.

Just had exam tutorials and a fitness ad. Then shapeways.

Most peculiar.

We have two types of ads: sponsor ads (where people pay us directly to run their advertisements) and affiliate (google) ads. The former are gaming companies, the latter target you based on your google behaviors (like every other google adsense ad on the internet), and so can put up some pretty crazy banners depending on what your preferences are.

It has been this way for as long as we've owned the site (2007), but the google ads have gotten more sophisticated over the years (adding in animation, etc).

I've just noticed a definite change in the type of ads being shown in the past month and I haven't changed browsers, settings, add on's or anything in the same time period. I almost exclusively for years got only wargaming ads and now I'd say less than half are. Maybe google changed their algorithm. In the end, it doesn't actually bother me (although I do prefer the wargaming ads overall) but I was just curious about the perceived change on my end.

Maybe. Any ads shown are at the mercy of the google programing.

Any change would change it.

 yakface wrote:
and affiliate (google) ads.

Does your browser history impact the "type" of google ads that show up?

I'm asking for a friend.

 kronk wrote:

 yakface wrote:
and affiliate (google) ads.

Does your browser history impact the "type" of google ads that show up?

I'm asking for a friend.

In my case, my internet viewing history is no more or less raunchy than it was 6 months or 16 years ago so no change there that would cause it... but that's not the type of targeted ad I'm talking about anyways. For instance, I never got any political ads during the entire grueling almost 2 year presidential election cycle but got two different ones recently for a regional congressional election and I'm not politically active whether offline or online.

edit: Just got a State Farm insurance ad after posting with the page refresh... don't recall getting those before either.

Again, I don't have a problem with it but I was just curious about the rather abrupt change.

If it's a Google search based algorithm then it still doesn't explain why I get so many Roblox ads.