Friday, April 04, 2008

Google scares me

I have never used Google Reader to read linguistics blogs. Mostly what I read are pseudonymous semi-personal academic blogs, with a mixture of blogs by people in other occupations that interest me (mainly the medical profession), and a few mommy blogs, because they remind me of why I don't really want children any time soon, kthx.

I do sometimes browse linguist blogs, but not through a feed reader; I have them bookmarked.

So how come Google Reader decided to add The Linguist List (the major professional website for linguists) to my "recommended feeds"?

And how come, five minutes after I joined Ravelry, Google Reader started displaying Ravelry feeds in the recommended list?

Google, you frighten me. Stop being so creepy.

8 Comments:

post-doc said...

Google knows all. It's probably best if you don't question Google.

Ianqui said...

I'm guessing it's reading your email, which is tied to your Google Reader account. Do you receive linguistics related mail at a gmail account?

Lucy said...

Maybe it's been stalking you. It doesn't appear to know that I'm on ravelry (what's your id? I have no friends...)

The History Enthusiast said...

I hate Google at the moment. I put my CV online for like two seconds before I decided that was a bad idea, and even after it's been taken down it is still appearing in the search results if you search for my real name.

You can't actually open the file, but the Google result includes the first few words of the CV, which happen to be my address and home phone number. I submitted a request for them to remove the page, but they (the evil Google people) replied that the listing will disappear only when their robots crawl over to my site. I have no idea what that means, but I wish they would hurry up and get over here!

StyleyGeek said...

Ianqui - that would explain the Ravelry recommendation, but not the Linguist List. I have a separate email account that "real mail" (ie. non blog-related) goes to, and I don't think Google could connect that to my Google Reader identity.

Lucy, I'm styleygeek on Ravelry too. I looked for you, but your name wasn't any of the ones I guessed :(

Badaunt said...

Bloglines once recommended my own blog to me. That was just creepy.

Queen of West Procrastination said...

I'm getting a little freaked out by the ads that Facebook puts up for me. Ever since I went to Vancouver to help my friend have a baby, and spent a week posting baby pictures for family, all of my Facebook ads are for belly creams from Vancouver (this is the main ad I get, all the time), or for mom-and-tots groups in Vancouver, mom-and-baby yoga, strollers... Absolutely every ad now assumes I'm a mother in Vancouver.

WhatLadder said...

We're in ur ravelry, stalking ur knittings.