creepy google algorithm

[AuxArmesCitoyens]

My 8 year old is reading a book from school. It was first published in 1991, so not a new release. I just google searched an entirely different YA novel, published in 2020 on a competely different topic, and guess what came up in the recommended titles? Yep, the 1991 book. Of the several dozens of thousands of YA books published between 1991 and 2022, how did it pick that one? How does the creepy Google algorithm do it?

It's listening to you via the sea serpents in the pipes.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets wasn't fiction. It was an exposé.

(in all honesty I have no idea how it does it but it is a bit of a weird coincidence some of the things it comes up with)

I went for a long walk alone recently and was thinking about the first business I worked for 10+ years ago. Got home, opened instagram and saw an ad for them. So creepy

A combination of confirmation bias on your part (we all have that), not locking down your devices enough, and using Google to search for things in the first place.

Dh was looking at a power washer and then had an advert come up from our water supplier, advising we are still in a drought area!

How do confirmation bias and not locking down my account lead Google to a physical book in my kid's bedroom? I don't believe it's coincidence that of all the tens of thousands of books out there it chose this one at random.

I think in this instance it's just coincidence. It's

Like when you are learning to drive and suddenly start noticing loads of other learner drivers on the road or you get pregnant and start seeing liads of other pregnant people. They were always there, they just mean something to you now so you notice them. Same with this book, google might have been recommending it to you for years but now you notice it because your son is reading it.

If google was as smart as people think it would know when I'd bought something and stop advertising it to me.

I got an advert for something I was thinking about the other day. Really weird.

I made the mistake of talking about something in particular with a visitor while my phone was on the table. Now inundated with relevant ads. It is a topic I have never talked about before...

Coincidence is a strange thing.
Happens when you least expect it.

I stopped using google, I use ecosia instead. They plant trees for every so many searches! And they don't track you/listen in to you either.

Are you reading out loud or discussing the book?

Do you have alexa or Facebook on your phone?

it’s Alexa, Google home or your phone (fb or instagram, metà owned apps) listening to you.

Never said the name of the book out loud, don't have an Alexa. Otherwise I'd just presume it was listening to me. I'm not a woo person at all but I'm not buying coincidence - of all the books out there, it happens to land on one that is thirty years old? Nope.

What’s your theory @AuxArmesCitoyens ?