Introducing Google My Ad Center
Well, Bless Their Little Pea-Picking
Hearts.
With Machine Intelligence, benevolent or
otherwise, the Machine chooses for the Human based on whatever criteria
the Machine deems relevant to the Human's experience. With Human
Intelligence, Humans decide what is best for themselves. Google —
Bless Its Heart — has automated the process that allows for Users'
personal decisions over
what ads that Users see when surfing with Google Chrome.
Welcome to Google My Ads. Google My Ads offers a very simple set of controls to allow Users to select, at a fairly granular level, the content and themes of the ads that bombard Users' senses when trying to be productive on the web.
The selections offered by My Ads are based upon what Google already knows about any one User's browsing history. Whether or not that might be a NSFW project, I suppose will vary from user to user.
Google describes My Ad Center thusly:
My Ad Center gives you greater control of the ads you see on Google services, like Search, YouTube, and Discover, by giving you options for customizing ads and managing your privacy settings – either directly from ads you see or in the My Ad Center itself.
So to use My Ad Center a User must be logged into a Google Account Like GMail.
The URL of the Google My Ads site is: https://myadcenter.google.com.
There are three menu items on the left when you first arrive at Google My Ad Center.
From the My Ads Page, users can turn on the feature that allows the personal selection of ad content and themes. Simply toggle on the switch.
The real power of Google My Ads comes from the second item on the menu that allows Users to Customize the ads that they are shown.
Three criteria can be chosen from which to Customize ads. Ads can be filtered through Ad Topics; or Ad Brands; or, what maybe that NSFW thing, ads that are "Sensitive."
Click the minus sign "-" to see Fewer Ads on That Topic.
Click the plus sign "+" to see More Ads on That Topic.
Click the minus sign "-" to see Fewer Ads on That Brand.
Click the plus sign "+" to see More Ads on That Brand.
The Blue Dot Means That Ads for That Brand are Turned off.
Move the Slider to the Right to Allow Ads on That Topic.
Move the Slider to the Left to Restrict Ads on That Topic.
The Privacy Menu Allows a User Allow or Restrict Ads Based on
What
Google Knows Generally About a User.
Click the Category On or Off.
It is too soon to tell if my personal ad stream will reflect the filtering applied here. Moreover, I use Ad Blocker Plus to block most web ads. Some ads must be allowed on many sites, though. So we will see.
Anything to make the World Wide Web less nauseating.
Sign, sign
Everywhere a sign
Blockin' out the scenery
Breakin' my mind
Do this, don't do that
Can't you read the sign?
— Signs, Les
Emmerson, Composer, Five Man Electrical Band
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Gerald Reiff