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Small-Scale Question Sunday for November 24, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Were you searching from a clean browser over a VPN? If not, it's likely that your hit was due to Google Personalized Search. Where a site you have visited in the past that contains a rare keyword is much more likely to be promoted to the top of the results it returns. I'm not sure it's confirmed, but it's possible they use browser fingerprinting for "personalization" as well now. So even on a fresh IP with no cookies, their browsing history linker is able to determine the "user" to personalize for.