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Here's how well Google's search engine knows you

Google guessed our gender, age, interests... with varying results.

"I think someone sent me a link to a Japanese disco song a while back?"A couple years ago, news of Google's ad settings — the page that reveals your advertisement profile — exploded onto the internet. People were both horrified and amazed that the company was capable of assigning ages, genders, and interests based on simple search histories. Now, just two years later, that news doesn't seem so crazy. Information about who you are has become common currency on the web, and it's used regularly to target us with ads. Still, that shouldn't stop us from questioning the origin of the targeted ads that we see when we're casually browsing — especially when they seem a little off.

So, with this in mind, we decided to go back to the mysterious Google Ads settings page to see just how much Google had figured out about each of us over the course of our plugged-in lives.

But before we get into that, here's how you can do this at home:

1. Sign into your personal Google account. A "work" Google account is fine too, but depending on what your job is like, your results may be a little off.

2. Visit the Google ads settings page.

3. Bask in the glory of your results!*

*But first, make sure you check their source. That's listed right below each section's results. Some people have provided Google with information about their gender and age through their Google+ accounts, so results aren't based on web searches. Interests, however, are all about what you look for when you're browsing.

Our results

Adi Roberston, Reporter

Google Gender: Male

Google Age: 25-34

Sample of Google interests:

Computer & Video Games, Calculators & Reference Tools, Politics

Reaction:

I like being able to pass online — I don't actively hide my gender, but I tend to let strangers assume I'm male because my name is ambiguous and I work in tech / games. It's part not wanting people to mess with me, part residual internalized misogyny, and part knowing that if I turn out to have "feminine" interests, people are going to respect me and the things I do less.

Adrianne Jeffries, Reporter

Google Gender: Female*

Google Age: 25-34*

Sample of Google interests:

Beauty & Fitness, Latin American Music, Winter Sports

Reaction:

It was reassuring to me that the interests are way off. I hate winter as well as sports. I don't buy beauty products. I tried really hard and I can't remember a time I visited a website about Latin American music, let alone enough websites about Latin American Music to make it one of my 14 interests identified by Google.

*Based on Google Profile

Carl Franzen, News Editor

Google Gender: Male

Google Age: 25-43

Sample of Google interests:

Law & Government, Intelligence and Counterterrorism, Rock Music

Reaction:

There’s a certain sense of resignation to it all. Not in a particularly sad way or anything, just a recognition of the inevitability that everything we do online or with a digital device is being tracked somehow by someone or something. Part of me is actually glad that Google got so much right about what I like, if it results in ads that are better suited to me. That said, I also took the liberty of "opting out" of interest-based ads on Google and across the web using Google’s own tool on the bottom of the ad settings page. Why? I saw some particularly offensive or embarrassing ad and just wanted to get rid of it for good.

Russell Brandom, Reporter

Google Gender: Male*

Google Age: 65+*

Sample of Google interests:

East Asian Music, Classic Vehicles, Makeup & Cosmetics

Reaction:

I keep trying to think of specific things that might have led to each of the interests. I think someone sent me a link to a Japanese disco song a while back? Also, I keep seeing ads for this one bus to the Rejkavik airport, which I bought a ticket for when I was on vacation a few weeks ago and will never need again. Not sure if Google is to blame for that, but man it is weird.

*Based on Google Profile

Sean O’Kane, Reviews Intern /Photographer

Google Gender: Male

Google Age: 24-34

Sample of Google interests:

Action & Adventure Films, Horses, Toyota

Reaction:

For the most part, Google got me right, and maybe it even knows more about me than I do at this point... *furiously searches for horseback riding lessons*

Dieter Bohn, Executive Editor

Google Gender: Male

Google Age: 35-44

Sample of Google interests:

American Football, Games, Computer Components

Reaction:

Google has me nailed. :|

Michael Shane, Director of Operations

Google Gender: Male

Google Age: 25-34

Sample of Google interests:

Diving and Underwater Activities, Martial arts, Arts and Entertainment

Reaction:

My results are decent. I am in fact male, and I will be 30 next month. Both lists of interests include some accurate, meaningful hits, but the "Ads on Google" list includes a lot of extra random stuff, like "skin and nail care." And interestingly, neither list of interests includes photography, which is a pretty glaring omission.

Josh Lowensohn, Senior Reporter

Google Gender: Male

Google Age: 25-34

Sample of Google interests:

Pets & Animals, Reggaeton, Body Art

Reaction:

Reggaeton was my favorite guess at what my interests were. Nailed it.

Elizabeth Lopatto, Science Editor

Google Gender: Female*

Google Age: 25-34*

Sample of Google interests:

Astronomy, Cats, TV Sci Fi and Fantasy Shows, Space Technology

Reaction:

This is funny; when the targeting first launched a few years ago it thought I was male and over 65 because I was writing about — and thus searching for — prostate cancer so frequently. I’m a little disappointed it’s figured out my gender and age! I notice a lot of the diseases I search for (and write about), like Alzheimer’s, aren’t listed as interests. Does Google think I am just a hypochondriac? Astronomy and space technology made my interest list, along with psychology, but not medicine, materials science or just science, more generally.

That "cats" interest is 100 percent accurate though.

*Based on Google Profile

Josh Dzieza, Reports Editor

Google Gender: Male

Google Age: 35-44

Sample of Google interests:

Bicycles and Accessories, Books and Literature, and Surfing

Reaction:

I’m 28, but otherwise it’s much more accurate than the last time I checked this, which was when I was reading a lot about cruise ship disasters and Google thought I was a 65-year-old man interested in Caribbean vacations.

Arielle Duhaime-Ross, Science Reporter

Google Gender: Male

Google Age: 25-34

Sample of Google interests:

TV Sci-Fi and Fantasy Shows, Gangs & Organized Crime, Paleontology

Reaction:

I love being a dude online, mostly because I'm convinced that it significantly reduces my chances of seeing an ad about dieting, makeup, or spanx. As for the "Organized Crime" thing... I honestly have no idea how Google came up with that.

Ellis Hamburger, Reporter

Google Gender: Male

Google Age: 25-34

Sample of Google interests:

Air Travel, College Sports, Mac OS

Reaction:

Google is like a psychic. Predict a broad range of things, then take credit when you’re right. Google says I’m interested in a whole lot of things, which is true, but I can’t think of any categories of things in life that aren’t on this list.

Molly Osberg, Copy Editor

Google Gender: Female*

Google Age: 25-34*

Sample of Google interests:

BOTH "Rap & Hip Hop" AND "Urban & Hip Hop," Winter Sports (nope, no, never), Shooter Games (not really), Finance

Reaction:

So my Google profile is right about my age and gender, but wildly wrong about my interests. I suspect that’s because I spend so much time doing research and checking other people’s stories. Sorry, Google.

Based on Google profile

Colin Lecher, News Editor

Google Gender: Male*

Google Age: 25-34

Sample of Google interests:

Hygiene & Toiletries (????), Technology

Reaction:

This is perversely eye-opening. The thing is, most of these interests are so accurate, the incorrect ones almost seem correct. Do I enjoy Reggaeton? Didn't think so, but maybe.

*Based on Google Profile

Chris Welch, News Writer

Google Gender: Male

Google Age: 25-34 (actual age: 30)

Sample of Google interests:

Wrestling, Phone Service Providers, Cycling

Reaction:

Happy that Google recognizes my lifelong affinity for professional wrestling. But cycling? I don't even know how to ride a bike.

Chris Ziegler, Deputy Editor

Google Gender: Male*

Google Age: 25-34*

Sample of Google interests:

Apartments & Residential Rentals, Cameras, Seattle-Tacoma

Reaction:

Google's list of 42 interests that it has on file for me is hit-or-miss. Apartments, I get: I moved this year, and I did a *lot* of high-stress apartment hunting (as one does when one moves to New York City). Cameras makes sense because I write about technology. Where it starts to fall apart is Seattle-Tacoma — no clue what Google is thinking here. I mean, there's Microsoft, T-Mobile, and Amazon, which I research and write about from time to time... but beyond that, I don't have any connection to the Pacific Northwest.

*Based on Google Profile

Ross Miller, Senior Editor

Google Gender: Male

Google Age: 25-34

Sample of Google interests:

Action & Adventure Films, Boats & Watercraft (huh?), Australia (HUH?)

Reaction:

Most of the about 30 interests Google listed made sense — TV Comedies, Games, Technology News, Action & Adventure Films, etc. But then there was Australia, Boats & Watercraft, and Vehicle Shopping. I think Google is subversively trying to convince me to take a spiritual journey Down Under.

Michael Zelenko, Features Editor

Google Gender: Male

Google Age: 25-34 (accurate!)

Sample of Google interests:

Mazda (?), Dictionaries & Encyclopedias, Urban & Hip-hop

Reaction:

It's largely pretty spot on, with a couple of weird misses. I have absolutely no idea why it lists Mazda. My parents did own a couple Mazdas when I was growing up, but I'd hardly call that an interest.

Nathan Ingraham, News Editor

Google Gender: Male*

Google Age: 25-34*

Sample of Google interests:

Action and Adventure Films, Horses, "Offbeat." Two of those are accurate.

Reaction:

Generally the interests aren't too far off, though it seems to be very generous as to how it categorizes things as interests. I'm sure I've searched for things relating to some of these interests once or twice, but it feels like a big stretch on Google's part to put them alongside many other things here that I'm legitimately interested in.

*Based on Google profile

Casey Newton, Senior Reporter

Google Gender: Male*

Google Age: 25-34*

Sample of Google interests:

Air Travel, and 25 more

Reaction:

This is more or less what I assumed Google knows about me. Actually I assume they know more.

Chris Plante, Senior Editor

Google Gender: Male

Google Age: 25-34 (I'm 28)

Sample of Google interests:

Search Engine Optimization and Marketing, Home & Garden, Gangs and Organized Crime

Reaction:

I think Google has mistaken me for a millennial Tony Soprano. Between my work and home life, it's a miracle I find any time for my two hobbies: embezzlement and throwing bodies in the Hudson River.