^probably because others had the same thought process as you and looked him up, too.
@rebeccar - we can assume it was not the current episode you were watching?
But, even so, if you were watching a rerun that was currently airing, that would also explain what happened. If, on the other hand, you randomly decided to watch an episode you’d recorded yourself, months prior, that would be another story altogether. Unless you’d been prompted to watch it by a recent news story or other event (such as a cast member’s appearance on a talk show, for example) - which might well have prompted quite a few other people to watch the same episode (and do the same Google search).
It is clear that everything you type and every email you send is being monitored and very quickly resulting in targeted advertising (or legit or fraud but targeted). Very scary stuff.
I firmly believe the mic on your phone is picking up voice for marketing purposes. I don’t think it’s a Big Brother thing necessarily - just highly targeted marketing.
It has happened to me more than once and I started reading about it in some of the techie blogs.
Don’t like it at all.
@doschicos @dodgersmom Nope, it wasn’t airing on TV, I was watching it on Netflix through my roommate’s Playstation. The Netflix was in her name too, not connected to my email/google account.
The scariest of all:
Using this stuff for marketing is bad enough but what will it take to jump from marketing to darker stuff? Hate to be extreme or pessimistic but, golly, the technology is so straight out of a dystopian novel, hard to not make that mental leap. In fact, I’ve been staying off my computer a lot more lately (nice to put my hands in good soil instead of a keyboard, actually) and now I’m glad I never got a smartphone or Facebook account. I’m sure the days are numbered, though, where it will even be possible to live without those (or whatever will replace them.)
Oh, recently read also that it’s a good idea to cover your camera lens on computer or phone with tape whenever not using them, as hackers could take photos of you through them. Who knew? Maybe it’s common knowledge now…I’m usually way behind the trends.
my techie son has had me doing that for years and people have laughed about it. 
Oh well.
@SouthFloridaMom9, I guess he would know, then…must not be just paranoia. ( I think I’d better have a talk with my daughter… Hope I don’t get the “Oh, mom” eyeroll!)
After 35 years in the industry, I just retired from the largest cloud storage and data mining enabler company. I will tell you that you should never enable your mic or laptop/tablet camera (disable it or put tape over it). The companies absolutely ARE listening through every medium you use. But that horse has long left the barn. If you use FaceBook, LinkedIn, etc. you are public property.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jun/22/mark-zuckerberg-tape-webcam-microphone-facebook
It’s not just the hackers who know how to take control of these devices.
lol, ChoatieMom, I’m sure many horses have left the barn without my noticing…I’m really quite an antique in many ways, and the more I learn, the more I want to burrow in a cave, I’m afraid!
The link says it’s traffic via your IP address.
But yes, there was an issue with Google library sw, something or other, that could expose you in other ways, incl the camera. No idea if fixed, but the article was a few years old.
Ad block. Ad block is your friend 
Honestly, I have no idea if ads are ever specifically tailored to anything I’m doing because I’ve had them blocked for years.
And it is every parents dream to send the kid to an Ivy League school and go on to a job in Google or Facebook …
I block ads too but that doesn’t affect ads that show up in a “feed”, like on fb, twitter, instagram, etc. There’s a program you can use to clean up fb, but it doesn’t work with the app and I can’t find anything to clean up the others. I would pay for ad-free access to things - many people would! But since I can’t, I just rarely use those apps because I find it distasteful.
For now, I see CC with no ads at all, phew! If CC starts putting ads in the feed of comments they can kiss me goodbye.
Blocking ads presumably means you don’t see ads but can one conclude that the marketers don’t know what you like or don’t like? Or do they still know, only that you have blocked ads from showing up and are therefore under the illusion of privacy?
We could do a test run to see how these ads affect each one of us. Everyone search for the same three or four obscure and bizarre items and report back what happened.
Interesting questions. I know that sites can tell if you’re running adblocker because some of them ask you to turn it off. Other ones don’t let you in unless you turn it off.
Ad blockers do only that. They are for your convenience but do not affect what goes on behind the curtain. They are simply a one-way screen.
Personally, I really just don’t care if companies have access to my activity. It just doesn’t bug me.
I don’t see the ads, so it doesn’t really affect my life.
Yes, I forgot about the feeds. I get baby ads all the time in my newsfeed. They’re barking up the wrong tree.