We operate in a Google world. When the lawyers on Boston Legal want to research something they say, ‘let’s Google it.’ I wrote a post on Googling my name to search my family tree. This online magazine is closely associated with Google. We allow Google to generate advertising based on our content. The results are sometimes quite ironic.

This process is actually very sophisticated. Sophistication made possible by the increasing power of technology. Things happen so fast that our world can quickly spin out of control. The stock traders have had to program loss limits into their systems to prevent market meltdowns. Back in the 1950’s you could hear people say, “This car won’t go over 50 miles per hour because it has a govnor.’ The ‘govnor’ was a gas regulator to prevent high speed travel.

I just wrote and posted an essay on payday loan scams. I am opposed to payday loans and I made a strong case in that regard. I posted the article and went to the magazine site for a final edit; a final walk through to check spelling and typos. The Google machine had already massaged the data and generated the corresponding advertising. I was dismayed.

The Google machine had searched the content of the article and posted on our sidebar a number of advertisements. All of them were from the payday loan industry – all of them encouraging quick and easy cash. Whooee. Tony Soprano would say, “What are you gonna do?”

The quick mechanisms of technology do not understand or recognize irony. It will be interesting to see what this essay digs up in the world of advertising.