Tell me more ×
Web Applications Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for power users of web applications. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 7 down vote favorite

I was just browsing at some products on Amazon, without being logged in to Amazon, and then I noticed at the bottom the 'Recent Searches' box - which showed searches I had made from Google and had never clicked through to Amazon for.

Can someone explain this to me? Why is Amazon tracking my searches like this?

share|improve this question

4 Answers

up vote 0 down vote

Amazon does often have an advert bar at the bottom of some of it's pages, including the front page (not sure if it matters if you're a logged in user or not, but I don't always see the advert).

It could just be a Google ad in a standard ad bar at the bottom of the page, and nothing to do with Amazon at all.

share|improve this answer
Thanks for the suggestion, but it wasn't an ad. It redirects to a 'view and manage your history' page. – tobeannounced Jul 20 '10 at 22:34
up vote 5 down vote

Do you any extensions (FasterFox for example) or plugins installed that could be pre-fetching the links on the google search page, this would cause what you're observing as the browser (along with your amazon cookies) would still be hitting those pages.

share|improve this answer
1  
Interesting idea - not that I know of, but I just did a quick try without any extensions enabled and the history didn't seem to come up, so I think you are onto something. One of my extensions must be leaking my searches. – tobeannounced Jul 20 '10 at 22:33
up vote 0 down vote

This is a lot less complex then you are thinking.

Whenever you click a link in your browser, the new web page is sent the URL (e.g. http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=http+refarer) of the page you clicked the link on.

Amazon is just making use of this and has been programmed to understand Google URLs as so many people come to Amazon from a Google search.

(Most browsers will let you turn this off, but that is a question to ask on SuperUser)

share|improve this answer
Sorry, but it is not this - I mentioned in my question: 'which showed searches I had made from Google and had never clicked through to Amazon for.' So there were queries shown that I had made on Google and Amazon never even appeared in the search results for that were shown on Amazon to me. – tobeannounced Jul 21 '10 at 9:48
up vote 4 down vote

If you have the Invisible Hand extension installed, this information can be leaked. See http://www.cnet.com/8301-31361_1-20004265-254.html

share|improve this answer

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.