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A totally plausible explanation for this (as plausible as any Amazon Echo passive speech recognition ad targeting theory) is that she's been seeing these ads fo

A totally plausible explanation for this (as plausible as any Amazon Echo passive speech recognition ad targeting theory) is that she's been seeing these ads for weeks, but they were completely irrelevant and her mind filtered them out until she happened to have house hunting / martial arts movies on her mind after these events.

eloff 9y ago
This seems to be the most plausible, if least satisfying explanation.
goshx 9y ago
Nice try Mark. Jokes aside, these issues are happening way too often for it to just be a coincidence. I've seen multiple friends and strangers, as well as myself, reporting that they were talking about something and then an ad shows up about that. EDIT: typo
- cdelsolar 9y ago
  Nice try? Read this first: https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Frequency_illusion https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Frequency_illusion
  - goshx 9y ago
    No. You read this first: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joke
    - salvar 9y ago
      So what you wrote after "Jokes aside," was also a joke?
- kazinator 9y ago
  This is a well-known psychological phenomenon, not a joke or coincidence.
  - goshx 9y ago
    I understand that. I just don't think it applies to this case. It happened to me and close friends, that's why I am skeptical. It is very easy to have opinions and explanations on something you didn't experience yourself.
    - cdelsolar 9y ago
      This phenomenon happens to me and close friends too.
giarc 9y ago
I think you may be right. Many of these stories talk about users mentioning they would like X product. Then they are surprised when they get an ad for that product. They forget A. all the other times they talked about products and never saw an ad and B. all the other ads they saw without ever mentioning the product.
gooseus 9y ago
I agree this is a very probable cause, but since a lot of people seem to be reporting this affect I wonder if it can be quantified... are there any tools that can do ad-tracker-tracking to collect information on the ads you're being shown over time and categorize them in order to show that you really are getting more ads of a particular type after a particular action is taken (which isn't obviously trackable)?
djb_hackernews 9y ago
This has a name! Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon.

eloff 9y ago

This seems to be the most plausible, if least satisfying explanation.

goshx 9y ago

Nice try Mark. Jokes aside, these issues are happening way too often for it to just be a coincidence. I've seen multiple friends and strangers, as well as myself, reporting that they were talking about something and then an ad shows up about that. EDIT: typo

cdelsolar 9y ago
Nice try? Read this first: https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Frequency_illusion https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Frequency_illusion
- goshx 9y ago
  No. You read this first: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joke
  - salvar 9y ago
    So what you wrote after "Jokes aside," was also a joke?
kazinator 9y ago
This is a well-known psychological phenomenon, not a joke or coincidence.
- goshx 9y ago
  I understand that. I just don't think it applies to this case. It happened to me and close friends, that's why I am skeptical. It is very easy to have opinions and explanations on something you didn't experience yourself.
  - cdelsolar 9y ago
    This phenomenon happens to me and close friends too.

giarc 9y ago

I think you may be right. Many of these stories talk about users mentioning they would like X product. Then they are surprised when they get an ad for that product. They forget A. all the other times they talked about products and never saw an ad and B. all the other ads they saw without ever mentioning the product.

gooseus 9y ago

I agree this is a very probable cause, but since a lot of people seem to be reporting this affect I wonder if it can be quantified... are there any tools that can do ad-tracker-tracking to collect information on the ads you're being shown over time and categorize them in order to show that you really are getting more ads of a particular type after a particular action is taken (which isn't obviously trackable)?

djb_hackernews 9y ago

This has a name! Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon.