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Appropriateness Fail

I just submitted the image at the right (click for a bigger version) to the always-entertaining FailBlog. The image, however, isn’t as much funny as it is uncomfortable.

You see, many web sites are supported by advertising. In most cases, advertisements are either applied without regard to the content itself (e.g., randomly) or ads are selected based on what an ad software product thinks fits the content of the page (with correct, incorrect, or often-bizarre results).

I’m not sure which method was responsible for what I captured on my RSS feed reader last week. The story, from TVNewser’s feed, was one of the earliest reports I caught about the untimely death of Mr. Tim Russert. The ad text displayed inline immediately following the story reads as follows:

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Scott Bradford has been putting his opinions on his website since 1995—before most people knew what a website was. He has been a professional web developer in the public- and private-sector for over twenty years. He is an independent constitutional conservative who believes in human rights and limited government, and a Catholic Christian whose beliefs are summarized in the Nicene Creed. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from George Mason University. He loves Pink Floyd and can play the bass guitar . . . sort-of. He’s a husband, pet lover, amateur radio operator, and classic AMC/Jeep enthusiast.