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Using Browser History to Estimate Gender

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Using Browser History to Estimate Gender

Postby Zancarius » Sat Aug 16, 2008 12:24 pm

http://www.mikeonads.com/2008/07/13/usi ... te-gender/

It's rather interesting. You have to enable JavaScript. It's not a security breach; although, I think it's surprising that JavaScript is able to iterate through a list of sites and tell what ones you've visited by checking the CSS colors... isn't that a frightening thought?

My results were of unquestionable certainty!

Likelihood of you being FEMALE is 0%
Likelihood of you being MALE is 100%

Site Male-Female Ratio
google.com 0.98
myspace.com 0.74
youtube.com 1
microsoft.com 1.08
amazon.com 0.9
walmart.com 0.77
download.com 1.27
digg.com 1.56
sing365.com 0.89
staples.com 0.98
newegg.com 2.23
filefront.com 1.63
sun.com 1.04
nintendo.com 0.9
petsmart.com 0.59
intel.com 1.78
wowwiki.com 1.38
actiontrip.com 1.2
icq.com 0.8
mozilla.org 1.33
worldofwarcraft.com 1.08
drsfostersmith.com 0.54
divx.com 1.99
creative.com 1.53
slashdot.org 1.74
thottbot.com 1.35
joystiq.com 1.44
blizzard.com 1.25
nmsu.edu 0.94
recaptcha.net 1.15
oreilly.com 1.67
curse.com 1.99
stickam.com 1.15
w3schools.com 1.27


I think the reason for this is due in no small part that geekier sites tend to be more likely to have male visitors. I guess the fact that I visit Slashdot regularly might be a pretty strong implication... (Newegg is also HIGHLY male, which I found interesting...)

Now, I do think that sometimes the implications of inspecting history isn't entirely the best method of determining the gender of a visitor (it's a good start, though). Especially since I only visited ICQ to check their support page for a friend (I don't use ICQ). Same thing for a few other sites--I wound up there simply from clicking links.
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Postby Tarlas » Sat Aug 16, 2008 2:27 pm

cool, even though I JUST cleared the history on this mac... no reason *cough* ... gonna have to try on the other comp. =P
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Postby Haiku » Sat Aug 16, 2008 2:34 pm

Likelihood of you being FEMALE is 14%
Likelihood of you being MALE is 86%


Site Male-Female Ratio
google.com
myspace.com
youtube.com
facebook.com
photobucket.com
hotmail.com
newegg.com
filefront.com
watch-movies.net
wowhead.com
worldofwarcraft.com
fileplanet.com
utorrent.com
famousfootwear.com
steampowered.com


Meh. Mostly it's the shoes, and I went to the store they just didn't have shit in my size so I had to order it online :<
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Postby Zancarius » Sat Aug 16, 2008 2:44 pm

Another thing that's interesting is how worldofwarcraft.com estimates a very slightly higher male-to-female ratio... Odd.
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Postby Tirian » Sat Aug 16, 2008 3:38 pm

Cough

Likelihood of you being FEMALE is 90%
Likelihood of you being MALE is 10%


Site Male-Female Ratio
google.com 0.98
wikipedia.org 1.08
amazon.com 0.9
facebook.com 0.83
cnn.com 1.35
imdb.com 1.06
att.com 0.83
nytimes.com 1.13
bestbuy.com 1.11
usps.com 0.9
verizonwireless.com 0.77
comcast.com 0.82
verizon.com 0.83
t-mobile.com 0.79
barnesandnoble.com 0.68
blockbuster.com 0.83
ikea.com 0.67
earthlink.net 0.89
rent.com 0.6
usps.gov 0.92
qwest.com 0.85
bbb.org 0.74
apartmentratings.com 0.75
scifi.com 1.04
rollingstone.com 1.08
comcastoffers.com 1.13
time.gov 2.08
colorado.edu 1.04


I think this is mostly due to all the apartment/utilities works I've been doing the last few days. I'll try to read more slashdot and download more porn.

Oh, one interesting note: I read a lot of Russian websites, and none of them came up here. I'm guessing he doesn't have data for them so they don't get picked up in the search.
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Postby Zancarius » Sat Aug 16, 2008 3:40 pm

Just wipe the history and try again after a few weeks of "standard" browsing.

I'm sure the estimate changes over time. That's the biggest down-side. But, it is kind of funny.

Edit: I should reiterate the fact that this estimation is sorely biased toward geek-attracting sites. If you don't visit at least one or two, it will almost invariably include some estimation of "femaleness" even if you're male. I wonder how the female geeks would feel about this?
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