"They have Verizon in Britain?"
August 31, 2007 4:03 PM   Subscribe

Why do I see ads for U.S. companies on British sites (like guardian.co.uk)?
posted by wfc123 to Computers & Internet (11 answers total)
 
Are you surfing from the US? Advertisers use IP geolocation to show you the relevant adverts.
posted by randomstriker at 4:06 PM on August 31, 2007


I see Norwegian ads on US sites. They figure out where you're from through your ip.
posted by cheerleaders_to_your_funeral at 4:11 PM on August 31, 2007


I see East of England regional ads on U.S. sites, so the advertisers are pretty specific these days.
posted by grouse at 5:40 PM on August 31, 2007


I'm no coder guy, but someone pointed out to me that even MeFi has something similar. For example, a post about geology might have ads for a jewelry store specializing in diamonds.

I could be wrong, but the idea of a script that matches ads to interests and locations etc, sounds about right to me.
posted by snsranch at 5:58 PM on August 31, 2007


This geolocation stuff can be off by thousands of miles too. Surfing from my home I've been from Florida, NYC, Montana, and Texas.

And at work I'm always from Ohio, since that's where the corporate office is.
posted by aerotive at 7:01 PM on August 31, 2007


They know where you are!!!111
posted by blacklite at 11:10 PM on August 31, 2007


I can't speak for anywhere else, but the Guardian has a dedicated America site that you only see if you're surfing in from the US.
posted by randomination at 12:29 AM on September 1, 2007


Same here. I'm in Germany and I get ads from german companies when I go to the Guardian site.
posted by The Toad at 3:56 AM on September 1, 2007


>the Guardian has a dedicated America site that you only see if you're surfing in from the US

Got a cite for that? It sounds unlikely, and I've never heard that anywhere before. The BBC certainly has a different "World" website which you see if you're not in the UK, but not the Graun, as far as I know.
posted by AmbroseChapel at 7:50 PM on September 1, 2007


Ambrose - I work for the Guardian.
posted by randomination at 2:26 AM on September 2, 2007


randomination: I would be curious to know what sorts of differences to expect. I just tested http://www.guardian.co.uk/ locally and through a U.S. proxy after deleting my cookies. I couldn't see any differences other than the ads.
posted by grouse at 2:43 AM on September 2, 2007


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