[projectvrm] Do Amazon & Google Make Strange Webfellows?

[Dean Landsman < >]

Doc suggested that I post this to the VRM List for discussion, and perhaps some technical insight. It has to do with search, advertising, privacy,data mining and tracking.

Here's the background: Recently i was trying to recall a movie title, in order to be sure I recommended the correct one to a friend. i recalled a specific scene, but was not sure just which of three very similar movies of this genre it might be.  Honestly, I'd converged all three movies into one, as they were quite similar in plot, dialog and story content.  The one scene in particular, though, was unique and very entertaining.

I recalled the titles of two of the three films.  i looked them up, via Google and Bing, and also checked Roger Ebert's reviews to see if he might have made mention of the one scene in question.  During this process I also searched the names of a few actors, using Wikipedia and IMDB.

Never once did I attempt to purchase a movie, nor did I seek them out on Amazon (or any other online shopping vehicle, such as Craigslist or eBay, etc.).  Repeat: I  NEVER ATTEMPTED A PURCHASE.  The entire exercise was pursuit of a film title; in particular: a specific scene of note.

A day or two after launching this search I began to receive offers from Amazon via email to PURCHASE two of the three films.  Note: at that point I hadn't yet remembered or discovered the name of the third film.  

How does Amazon know I have an interest in these films?  Is Google sharing my searches with Amazon?  Same question holds for Bing, Wikipedia and IMDB.  IMDB is less the suspect, as I looked up a few actors' filmographies, and clicked on a number of titles to see if I could locate the film in question.  None of those films were offered to me by Amazon, just the two films I researched via Google and Wikipedia.

Is there, perhaps, a third party, capturing, collecting and doing some machine-driven analysis of my [film] searches and the providing this data, thereby advising, Amazon to pitch me these purchase offers? 

Could Google be selling this to Amazon for a percentage of the [potential] sale? On this list we have often discussed that each and every user query on Google seems to be handled as though it represents a transaction opportunity.  Those ads on the side and the top would verify such assumption.  But is Google sharing this information that is of potential internal value?  I doubt this, as the Google strategy seems more to position itself to be a conduit to sales from within its own infrastructure.  

My guess is that it is much more insidious.  I run Ghostery to block much of the rampant tracking, and regularly check Collusion to see what I might next be careful to block via Ghostery or other utilities.  All of this web activity took place on the most recent release of Firefox.  The culprit, I believe, is (are?) third party (parties?) who surreptitiously  lurk in the background, gather data and send it to Amazon.

Doc suggested that the VRM List might offer some insight and discussion about these such practices.

Oh, and by the way, completely by accident on a different search I discovered the name of the third movie, the very one with the scene I recalled.  This happened Saturday.  Amazon has yet to offer me a copy of that one for purchase.  Of course, the day is young..

Looking forward to The List's comments and response.

--Dean