Re: [projectvrm] Do Amazon & Google Make Strange Webfellows?

[Mary Hodder < >]

Amazon bought IMDB a few years ago. They are the same essentially and share 
data.

On Sep 10, 2012, at 9:38 AM, Dean Landsman wrote:

> 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
> 
>