Targeting

Now you would think that Google, the king of non-incentive ads, would be a master of targeting the ads they show in their Gmail application.  This however is so not true.

The last couple of days I have been trying to freecycle a large amount of canned food. One of the ads shown to me by Gmail (in the column to the right of my emails) was for donating to an Ohio food bank.  I live in Oregon; the only similarity between OHIO and OREGON is that the names both start with O.

The targeting was simply to the food category, not the geographical location.

What I find totally ridiculous is that there are Oregon ads showing in that column--Duck Up Productions in Portland, Oregon just to name one.

When I didn't get a job at Ruff Wear (located here in Bend, Oregon), for 6 hours or more ads for Ruff Wear were just about the only ads shown to me by Gmail (talk about adding insult to injury!)

What happened to the geographical targeting for the food? Did Gmail get hungry and eat any ads for Oregon food banks?