Resistance is futile!

There are some settings you can change in your browser, and delete your cookies.

It's not just gardening or Wayside - I see this all the time. I hate shopping (at the mall) and so I do a lot of online browsing and I often see sidebars with ads from the places I've been, showing, if not exactly what I was looking at, at least the same items - shoes, rugs, towels, whatever.

Purple, can you be more specific? I'm not very computer savvy, so I'd love to know what settings I can change to avoid this. It *is* kind of creepy...

Dee

Yes, what browser are you using? Internet Explorer? Firefox? If it's one of those, I'll take a look at the settings for you.

Darn, it's neither of those browsers. I think I'm the last person on earth to do so, but I use AOL as my browser. It's so much visually cleaner and easier to use, IMO, but unfortunately it does sometimes have issues with non-compatibility. For certain things I have to use IE, although I've been meaining to install Firefox on my computer. I just don't need to use it enough to remember to install it till I need it, lol, at which point I don't want to bother and just open IE (which I really do detest!)

So, am I out of luck re the ad thing? Or do you know what to do for AOL?

Thanks!
Dee

Jebfarm, this is a common form of advertising that is practiced by many online retailers. I wouldn't fault Wayside Gardens for this. This is just the standard way of doing things these days.

This is not due to your browser but something called "cookies" which records your online activity. You can set your computer so that it erases your cookies, but when you do that, it also erases things you want it to remember, such as frequently visited websites, passwords you want kept, etc.

There are ways to individualize your browser so that only certain cookies are erased/stored. Google the name of your browsers plus the phrase "delete cookies" and you'll find websites that guide you through this process.

In addition to deleting the cookies, there should be privacy and security settings to prevent the acceptance of 3rd party cookies. You can set it to clear your browsing history whenever you close the browser. You may also have the ability to block particular sites. Disabling javascript is a good security measure but can prevent some things from working correctly.

I'm not sure about other browsers but in Firefox you can go to the preferences and check the box where it say's
"Tell websites I do not want to be tracked". See link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Don't Track Me!

Google Chrome and Firefox have a plugin called "AdBlock" which is very useful. I had visited some charity sites, so small disfigured children visited me on nearly every site asking for money! It was terrible!

Adblock is wonderful, I was getting so tired of the ads. Down loaded Adblock and have been quite happy with the program.

This happens to me all the time.... when I clicked on something interesting to see more or when I visited a site to order something. I don't think there's much we can do about these annoyances. Once you figure out one avoidance technique, advertisers come at you from another direction.

I don't want to fiddle around with the settings, so the way I "defeat" this advertising technique is by just ignoring all the sidebar ads. Eventually they disappear. Others replace them.... and I ignore those, too.

Molie

This post was edited by mjc_molie on Sat, Mar 8, 14 at 17:21

Another thing you can do is to use a search engine that doesn't track you like Google does. Duckduckgo.com works well, does no tracking. (disclaimer: I don't work there, have no connection to anyone there, etc.)

or you can fool google: after your mundane search is complete search for smth out-of-this world pretty but in the realm of fantasy. and let them bombard you then.

Pretty smart, petrushka!!! Like, u mean I can have ads for private jets and tropical beaches, oh and maybe a winter ski lodge instead of mattresses (my latest tracked search)....lol ??? Gonna hafta try that!!
bonnie

I use Firefox with Flashblock, Adblock plus, and recently added BetterPrivacy. It gets rid of something called LSOs (local shared objects) or "flash cookies", which are a deeper more persistent cookie. And when I exit the browser, everything gets wiped out.

Not sure how well this really works, but at least I'm not making it easy for anyone to mine my data.

I use Ad Block on my Mac and see relatively few ads.

Here is a link that might be useful: AdBlock

In your settings you can choose private browsing and also state to not be tracked. I use a Mac but I assume PCs have similar options. You can refuse cookies too, though most sites will not work without sending cookies. I also have my browser set to wipe its history after each session. Too many choices of things to set up.

Is there a "do not track" option for Internet Explorer like I see above for Firefox? I'd rather not delete my browsing history after each time, becasue it does save me time usually.