I must admit to taking singular pleasure in trying to confound Google. In actuality, it may be the other way around.

Out of curiosity, I looked up when Google was launched. Encyclopedia Britannica reminded me that the “American search engine company, founded in 1998 by Sergey Brin and Larry Page” is used by more than 70% of online users doing searches, and it goes on to claim that this places Google “at the heart of most Internet users’ experience.”

Hmmm…. I’m not sure it’s the heart they’re going for when those search-related products pop up as ads in my sidebar and end up choking my mailbox.

I do worry about the fact that, in my role as a content creator for a TV station as well as a website, I do a lot of research.

Last night, for example, I pondered to my husband, “I wonder if Google thinks me a right-wing radical when I search on the term Nazi?”

“I really don’t think you have to worry about that. Most ultra-right wing radicals aren’t searching on terms that would define them,” he assured me.

Good point.

One thing that concerns me – and my husband considered my suspicions as conspiracy theory until last night – is how cell phones allow “the god of ad delivery” to listen in on conversations and serve up correlating ads.

If they’re not listening in, how do you account for a conversation with a co-worker about Warby Parker glasses only to return to your desk to have the company’s ads populating your sidebar? Or that you  counter your doctor’s insistence on you getting a colonscopy with an inquiry about Cologuard, only to have that little gem of an ad appear as soon as you fire up your computer?

But now, I’ve even got my husband convinced it’s not just conspiracy theory.

We were eating pizza last night when he suddenly yelped.

“What’s the matter?” I asked.

“A piece of my back tooth just broke off and I swallowed it. Dang it! Now I’ll have to get a root canal and crown. Gees, if too much of it’s gone, I might even need a dental implant!”

Within less than one minute, an ad for dental implants popped up in the middle of the article he was reading on his computer.

You know…just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to target you.