Comments on: Why Google Thinks You Are (a) Male and (b) Old

By: Daniel

Daniel — Wed, 09 May 2012 09:32:52 +0000

I’m 42 this month, but was in the 25-34 y/o demographic. Young people been jackin’ my swag, yo.

By: Jeanean Jean

Jeanean Jean — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:45:41 +0000

I’m listed as an 18-24 year old male. I am a nearly sixty year old female.
Hmm. Guess I’m watching too much Youtube…

By: Kathy Orlinsky

Kathy Orlinsky — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 19:02:25 +0000

It had me as male. I get the feeling that if you mostly look at science and skeptical sites, as I do, and not so much cooking and make-up, Google assumes you must be a man. In fact, from scanning these comments, it seems that more women get labeled male than women by a large margin. Google, get your act together!

By: Magoonski

Magoonski — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:16:41 +0000

Mine says nothing because I disabled it and have all of my cookies, etc. deleted when turning off my browser.
It would be my guess that they would probably peg me as older, etc. because I do read lots (and I mean LOTS) of science focused blogs in my free time. Though to be honest I wouldn’t mind the ads for men considering how lame birth control and tampon ads are (not to mention those yogurt ads, why do they only target women?).

By: Karolien

Karolien — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:18:14 +0000

I think Google’s assumptions are rather sexist. In education, medical area’s and law the majority is female; yet Google assumes male domination if the site hasn’t anything to do with fashion, plastic surgery, motherhood etc. Please step into the 21st century and recognize women are humans with lots of interests. To Anne: just read a study that implies gut feelings and prejudice are the most powerful factors in making up minds. Facts didn’t change that. For instance: people had factual test questions about evolution right. They knew the facts, but their gut feelings and prejudice had them convinced evolution was wrong.

By: Anne

Anne — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:55:54 +0000

Google’s data has assumed I’m a male between 25-34 – wrong sex and a decade younger than my actual age. A good thing might come out of Google’s data gathering. What if the world stopped assuming that women’s interests were limited to fashion, beauty, dieting, parenting, cooking and cleaning? We’ve known for a long time that these notions were outdated yet still persistent. Maybe Google’s data can be a catalyst for changing these damaging assumptions. Facts have the power to change minds.

By: Miss Cellania

Miss Cellania — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:11:14 +0000

I am 54 and female, and share a computer with three teenage girls. Google assumes I am male, 25-34. That’s some bad assuming. Maybe all those statistics we see about internet usage are all based on assumptions, and just plain wrong.

By: Lexi Revellian

Lexi Revellian — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:17:59 +0000

They’ve got me wrong, wrong, wrong. And, mwahahahahaha, I’m not going to put them right.

*soothing voice* Yes, Google, of course I’m a 65+ male and interested in rock music and video games. How clever you are…

By: Cath the Canberra Cook

Cath the Canberra Cook — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 04:44:35 +0000

I checked several browsers. In my main home browser I have adblock, noscript and requestpolicy and I keep them fairly locked down. I’m pleased to see it works and they have no info on me. Since I gmail from there, that’ s good, they are telling the truth.

At work I’m a 10-year younger male (wrong), presumably from the work-related statistics, coding and my “take a break browsing” science and atheist sites.
At home with the other browser, which is limited to facebook and related links out, I’m a 20-year younger female – presumably from all the recipe and feminist sites.

By: D Braithwaite

D Braithwaite — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:45:24 +0000

Google has no god damn clue who I am. Cookies disabled, Firefox + Adblock. I never see any ads (not even text ads), I’ve never clicked on any ads, and Google is unable to place a cookie on my laptop or iPad (iPads don’t even support cookies) in order to track my web habits. My ad preferences are blank – “no information” it says. Suck on that, Google.