Comments on: Clueless Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert can't get how Gmail ads work through his thick, thick skull

By: vance odonnell

vance odonnell — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 08:25:00 +0000

and this dumb fool will get votes and maybe even stay in Congress and continue his brain cramp

By: teapot

teapot — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 03:13:00 +0000

I don’t notice them either, until I’m using someone else’s computer and I’m reminded how unsightly the internet is before cleaning it up with ABP.

Your view:
http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/9854/screenshot20130325at201.png

My view:
http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/3781/screenshot20130325at202.png

Your view:
http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/4633/screenshot20130325at203.png

My View:
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/3253/screenshot20130325at204.png

Nuff said?

By: npostino

npostino — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 01:50:00 +0000

I may be missing something here, but it seems to me he understands perfectly damn well. He’s just a bit of a smartass. Mind you, the lawyer is as well. The lawyer constantly uses vague wording to avoid answering the questions directly. Everything else aside, Gohmert has a pretty good grasp on things in this case from the looks of it.

By: mrcead

mrcead — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 22:34:00 +0000

The really, really, REALLY sad part about this is that he actually beat out someone else for his job.

By: Pjay (Patti) Pender

Pjay (Patti) Pender — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 22:45:00 +0000

Do you know how hard that is to do?

By: Pjay (Patti) Pender

Pjay (Patti) Pender — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 22:43:00 +0000

I think the congressman was being fundamentally evil. I think he wanted to make the (false) point that Google is selling your email address to people who are interested in advertising to people who include certain words in their emails, and it was important for him not to let Google make it clear that that is not how adwords works. That Google inserts ads in emails based on keywords scanned and what it sells isn’t the email addys that use the adword in question but the promise to insert the ad in those emails.

By: Pjay (Patti) Pender

Pjay (Patti) Pender — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 22:37:00 +0000

I just don’t find them intrusive. I don’t even notice them; even the animated gifs.

By: Pjay (Patti) Pender

Pjay (Patti) Pender — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 22:30:00 +0000

“Who are the fools here ?”

Well, Gohmert gets my vote. You get my vote.

You can’t be serious. BoingBoing puts Google on a pedestal? I don’t think we read the same BoingBoing.

By: Pjay (Patti) Pender

Pjay (Patti) Pender — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 22:19:00 +0000

Doesn’t matter. In Texas, and many places, gerrymandering has made formerly Democratic areas Republican, and almost never in the opposite direction.

By: Pjay (Patti) Pender

Pjay (Patti) Pender — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 22:05:00 +0000

You do and it was. I too wanted to jump in and clarify for the Google guy. But I think Gohmert was being a little deliberately obtuse too.

By: Pjay (Patti) Pender

Pjay (Patti) Pender — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 22:01:00 +0000

But the question is predicated on the idea that Google is already doing that for advertisers, and the correct answer to that is “Google doesn’t do that.” They would not be discriminating against the government by refusing to do it for them. They don’t do it for ANYBODY, and every email provider and ISP in the world has the capability, not just Google. And he Is asking how adsense works, in the sense that he thinks he already knows and is wrong about it, and is therefor asking a question that doesn’t make sense, so the Google guy is trying (and doing a bad job of it) to tell him that he’s got it wrong how adsense works.

By: Pjay (Patti) Pender

Pjay (Patti) Pender — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 21:53:00 +0000

Gohmert isn’t seeming to understand that Google doesn’t give the addresses to the people who advertise on Google any more than TV stations tell advertisers what addresses are watching a given show. They agree to show the ad to those people whose emails contain the applicable keywords just like TV stations agree to show the ads to people watching the applicable shows. It’s just like selling advertising on TV or radio, and just as impersonal.

By: Dustin Johnson

Dustin Johnson — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 02:55:00 +0000

>Google rep very patiently, and repeatedly tries to explain this to Gohmert

And doing a pretty shit job of it. It’s obvious the Google rep doesn’t deal with many non-tech people. You need someone that knows how to explain computers to my grandparents.

By: James Agenbroad

James Agenbroad — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 22:34:00 +0000

“The land of chocolate…..”http://www.hulu.com/watch/33844

By: oasisob1

oasisob1 — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 20:25:00 +0000

No one? I’ve clicked on at least three. When will they start putting giant QR codes on billboards for the texting and driving public to scan? Do I need to run off and patent the idea?

By: oasisob1

oasisob1 — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 20:19:00 +0000

I believe that in some parts of America the meanings are reversed.

By: oasisob1

oasisob1 — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 20:18:00 +0000

I’m gonna catch that guy on film someday.

By: oasisob1

oasisob1 — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 20:17:00 +0000

I think dumbness increases with the number of chickens.

By: oasisob1

oasisob1 — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 20:15:00 +0000

The clicker fell on great-grandfather’s head twice last year? Someone should tape it down someplace safe.

By: oasisob1

oasisob1 — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 20:13:00 +0000

Somewhere there’s a Dilbert cartoon that speaks of installing an interface between engineers and customers/users.

By: oasisob1

oasisob1 — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 20:11:00 +0000

They’re both good at fixing problems around the house, but with elephants you only ever have to fix the problem once.

By: oasisob1

oasisob1 — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 20:10:00 +0000

I nominate “What a grandstanding dumbass.” as the new Christian-sensibility safe (er, sensibility-safe) “Christ, what an asshole”.

By: Petzl

Petzl — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 18:54:00 +0000

As does every single email provider or ISP. I’d be much more scared of the minor players where admin practices are less systematic, than my pal Google.

And, by the way, the goverment can potentially read all your emails anyway. Especially if you or the person you are mailing to are out of the country.

It’s a little odd Gohmert should be so concerned about our privacy when he is first in line to take them away via the Patriot Act, FISA courts, et al.

By: Petzl

Petzl — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 18:53:00 +0000

Look, Gohmert wants to be Senator. There are 32 representatives just in Texas. He has to distinguish himself somehow. The distinction he’s gunning for is Most Ignorant. He’s set a high bar, too: how’s he ever going to overtake Ted Cruz?

By: Petzl

Petzl — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 18:45:00 +0000

It’s like in reality shows, where someone is acting out to get more guaranteed airtime on the edited, broadcast version of the show.

By: Petzl

Petzl — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 18:42:00 +0000

Because religion or “values” trumps competence or intelligence, among the American electorate.

By: Carl Johnson

Carl Johnson — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 11:14:00 +0000

Agreed. While everyone stomps on the Congressman with glee, I think they’re missing the point. Perhaps Google doesn’t provide your info directly to advertisers (or governments), but they’re completely capable of it. That doesn’t concern anyone?

By: dacian

dacian — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 09:27:00 +0000

Seems to me that the Google guy is avoiding the question with technical explanations. When in fact the question is “Can Google provide governments with information on what specific people are writing in their emails?” Google answers “Google doesn’t do that” but what’s to say they won’t do it someday?
The congressman isn’t asking how adsense works, he’s just pointing out the kind of information Google has access to and how that makes him nervous.

By: cepson

cepson — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 05:25:00 +0000

Texas was jealous of Michelle Bachmann, so we got our own. But this is Texas, where everything is bigger, so we turned the stupid up to 11 and got us a Louie Gohmert.

By: teapot

teapot — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 04:08:00 +0000

I’m not sure that Google adsense does anything that sending targeted URLs via other advertisers that use keywords (most of them) cannot. It stands to reason that if companies buy adspace for certain keywords, then use a unique click-thru URL for each keyword then of course the page you end up visiting could keep a record of the fact that you, IP xx.xx.xx.xx, received an email that contains the word “marijuana”. This, by itself, is not terribly incriminating information, considering both proponents for and enemies of marijuana lagalisation would presumably have the word feature frequently in their inboxes.

I agree it could be used to create a digital portrait of you.. I just dont think that digital portrait is very valuable, outside of its use to categorise you for marketing purposes. The other thing is this: Do you like the sound of the things being advertised to you? Then type the ad’s information into google yourself and don’t click the adsense links. That way you see the thing, teh googs doesnt get click-thru $ and the advertiser has no knowledge of you outside standard web tracking info (geo/system/referral info).

The key lesson for everyone is to be educated and change the way you do things if you don’t agree with the status quo (which, for the record, I dont). Don’t get mad… get even (by making their data on you worthless).