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What age and sex does Google think you are? (google.com)
18 points by BadCookie on Jan 27, 2012 | hide | past | favorite | 31 comments


    Google: Male, 18-24
    Real life: Female, 29
. . . but I find that oddly validating.

Edit: And I'm thinking the ads will probably stay more relevant if I don't fix that.


"You've opted out, but you can opt in at any time." I am really surprised that the majority of readers of HN have not opted out from being tracked.


It just tells me that I've opted out of whatever this is.


Google doesn't care what your age and sex really are. They're just dividing people into demographics for advertising purposes. So if you are likely to click on similar ads as other people they've put into the same bucket, they're happy.


It has no idea what my age or gender are. Which amuses me to no end, because I specified gender on my profile, and don't keep my age secret either :)

Or maybe it thinks "Female, 42" is unflattering and so it stays silent. An ad network with manners!


How do all of you 60+ folk manage it? It has my age off by 20 years---got the sex right but not even close on the age. Wonder if there is a button I can push to as Kirk would say 'Make is so'?


Picard said that. Not Kirk, old man :)


Google had what I was a few years ago, but they've not updated my age range.

My Tivo unit used to record a lot of the Logo network shows for me, and I could never figure out why, or get it to stop.


Me: 20, male. Google Infers: 65+, male.

not sure how to take that...


Purchasing too much viagra!


Not as extreme as your, but it also has me 65+, when in fact I'm 51.


Firefox (Aurora) and I get this:

  Your browser's cookies seem to be disabled. Ads Preferences will not work until you enable cookies in your browser. How do I enable cookies?
No, cookies are not disabled. I am even logged in on the Google website.

Maybe because I don't live in the US?


Google thinks I'm male (probably gleaned that juicy tidbit from my profile). No word yet on my age.


I do not understand why this is even a thing to discuss.

An algorithm may or may not have got something correct.

An algorithm that works out advertising. If it gets it wrong we won't click through, if it does we might but probably won't as we're all geeks that ignore ads anyway.

FUD.


   Google: 25-34, Male
   Actual: 28, Male
Would be kind of disappointing if they didn't know, given that they have more of my personal information on their servers than I have on my own computer.


It thinks I'm a 65+-year-old male into extreme sports and uh... anatomy?


I opted out on my main browser. On a browser I don't use so much and don't have tracking disabled: male and 65+. More than half that and not male. I guess I should shop for more pink stuff?


Funny, they think I'm 65+, just like the television seems too...

(One of the reasons I quit watching TV is it seems like all the ads are for people whose main asset is medicare benefits)


"Ads on the web You've opted out, but you can opt in at any time."

Well yeah.

Its actually funny. I have DNT enabled. If I click opt in, it refresh and doesn't opt in. Doesn't say why :-)


Excellent: "You currently do not have an ‘id’ cookie."


Male, 25-34. I am actually male and 31.


Male, 25-34. I turn 25 in 2 months and am male. Heh not bad.


Male, 65+ Actually male and 30


Almost the same here, except for late 20s. Very weird.


Male, 35-44

I'm actually male and 38. Not bad.


Somehow, it doesn't know.




Male, 35-44

Actually male and 29.


That's exactly my result as well!

Should we be friends maybe? :)


Same here, but i'm a bit younger at 26. Obviously mature for my age.




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