Fooling the adverts

[2muchplastic]

Ok, so you can tell I'm bored....Sitting here in a hotel room in Suzhou, China browsing the site - as you do - and noticing that the "Google Ads" are all in chinese (I presume that the ad server uses some type of IP location based system), which is not that useful to me as I can only say that my Mandarin vocabulary contains 20 words if I can include "niehaw" 15 times!

So, open up the corporate VPN software, connect to head office in Paris and wow! the adverts are now all in French. Disconnect from Paris, connect to home server in Oz, and woohoo! All the adverts are .com.au!

That's it, I've travelled 16000 miles in 2 and a half minutes as far as the adverts are concerned! (If only I could earn points on that).

Oh, how the hours fly by.......

 

[BlueAU]

Haha! You might have to keep that VPN open while you're in China, otherwise some sites will be blocked! Last time I was in SH, some sites were blocked so had to VPN and term serve to view em, like cnn or other news sites.

Yes the ads are derived from IP geography!

 

[samh004]

I've never had anything blocked for me in China. Even such things as Tianamen Square or Tibet. I always figured it depends what hotel you book into.
Posted via Mobile Device

 

[2muchplastic]

It's my eighth trip to China in the last couple of years, hence the complete lack of excitement, and it was only on my first trip that I noticed any blocked sites. The BBC news website was most notable of those unable to be viewed.

And it has all been Western brand hotels - Accor, *Wood and Intercontinental.