I've been using Gmail for a while now and consider myself a fan. At first I was little perturbed about it scanning the text of the emails so it could select the most relevant adverts, but then I got used to it. Sometimes it has even been useful: inquiries to friends about travel to some place or another have often turned up more helpful suggestions in the ad column than in their replies.
But there is another, more confusing, side: the entirely random ads. At the beginning of the year a friend visiting from Australia sent a quick note with the day and time she would be arriving – Gmail pitched in with links to "disturbing ghost footage" and Ripley's Believe It Or Not. A colleague who sometimes freelances here today asked for the editorial assistant's email address to check which dates he would be in – Gmail replied with ads for fan sites for Xena Warrior Princess.
In neither case did the text turn up the same results when put through Google. Gmail claims it uses "contextual advertising technology" to serve the ads. If anyone can explain why it turns up such strange results or if, as I suspect, it has a sense of humour, I would be interested to hear. Any dirt on the freelancer's secret Xena collection would also be welcome.
