Friday, July 27, 2018

WARNING: Click the AMZN Link In Yesterday's "Peak Hipster: Nordic miniature shaving axe" At Your Own Risk

All I wanted to do was check the link for:
shaving axe 

I came to mock hipsters, not to praise them.
So this morning when I went to Amazon to grab the earnings release for the post immediately below, "Every major Wall Street analyst on the internet giant's earnings report (AMZN)"
I was greeted with:

Inspired by your browsing history

Cold Steel (CS90WVBA-BRK) Viking Hand Axe 90WVBA, Polished




Cold Steel (CS90WVBA-BRK) Viking Hand Axe 90WVBA, Polished

And: 

Viking Wooden Beard Comb Odin Pocket Comb FREE SHIPPING Celtic Nordic Gift for Him

Viking Wooden Beard Comb Odin Pocket Comb FREE SHIPPING Celtic Nordic Gift for Him

And:

Red Deer Ragnar Lodbrok Viking Bearded Carbon Brown Oak Steel Axe w/ Drop point edge wood handle
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/513mj8lId4L._AC_UL160_SR160,160_.jpg
And: 

Bushcraft hammer Quality blacksmith Viking Nordic hammer tool Carpentry woodwork building Thor hammer Father brother husband gift

Bushcraft hammer Quality blacksmith Viking Nordic hammer tool Carpentry woodwork building Thor hammer Father brother husband gift

Who the hell does Amazon think I am?
Thor's hammer? Ragnar's axe? Odin's Celtic/Nordic fusion beard comb?
And they're now showing up on every site I visit. Yikes.

My favorite tech guy, Siva a streetwise Hindu boy (CalTech post-doc), says there are two ways to deal with this:

1) clear the browser cache so Amazon doesn't recognize me as some sort of hirsute Viking wannabe.
2) override the AMZN cookies with cookies from another site whose ads you don't mind. Bingo, Sotheby's. Ooh, Irish art, September 11th.