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Posted on: August 3, 2008 9:59 AM, by "GrrlScientist"
Okay, here's something totally weird: I ran across a site that analyzes your browser history and uses a mathematical algorithm to identify your gender. According to this algorithm, I am male;
Likelihood of you being FEMALE is 6%
Likelihood of you being MALE is 94%
Hrm. Do you suppose this is the reason my email boxes are all jammed with ads to increase my penis size? How about you? Does your browser history predict that you are male or female?
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Comments
I have a 37% likelihood of being female, apparently. This is my breakdown:
Site Male-Female Ratio
youtube.com 1
imageshack.us 0.87
guardian.co.uk 1.33
jstor.org 0.9
telegraph.co.uk 1.5
acer.com 1.04
nature.com 1.04
wikiquote.org 1.02
cambridge.org 1
sciencemag.org 1.04
scienceblogs.com 1.41
clinicaltrials.gov 0.67
I've no idea I was at the Torygraph recently - it's not a site I frequent very often.
Posted by: Bob O'H | August 3, 2008 10:30 AM
Likelihood of you being FEMALE is 42%
Likelihood of you being MALE is 58%
Site Male-Female Ratio
google.com
0.98
usbank.com
0.85
sciencedaily.com
0.96
hhs.gov
0.67
icanhascheezburger.com
1.04
stltoday.com
1.08
scienceblogs.com
1.41
physorg.com
1.6
Posted by: afarensis | August 3, 2008 12:01 PM
Likelihood of you being FEMALE is 60%
Likelihood of you being MALE is 40%
Site Male-Female Ratio
google.com
0.98
yahoo.com
0.9
youtube.com
1
wikipedia.org
1.08
startribune.com
1.13
dexknows.com
0.79
dexonline.com
0.77
Posted by: Mike Haubrich, FCD | August 3, 2008 2:24 PM
I have a 67% likelihood of being female, having recently visited the female-dominated Myspace, Livejournal, Facebook, Current.com and Southwest Airlines.
I can kind of get why social networking sites have more female than male visitors, but it seems odd that the male-female ratio for southwest.com is 0.77.
Posted by: Peggy | August 3, 2008 2:55 PM
It guessed my gender correctly, which didn't really surprise me, as I spend a lot of time at knitting/crocheting websites (although none of them turned up on my "list"). I've fooled other gender-guessing internet thingies before, but apparently my browsing habits are girly. :D
On the whole, though, I find myself deeply unimpressed with this system, since the websites that turned up on my list are not at all representative of where I spend my time:
Likelihood of you being FEMALE is 78%
Likelihood of you being MALE is 22%
Site Male-Female Ratio
yahoo.com
0.9
mapquest.com
0.83
amazon.com
0.9
craigslist.org
1.13
webkinz.com
0.85
ebaumsworld.com
1
michaels.com
0.47
netzero.net
0.89
I've been to netzero and ebaumsworld exactly ONE time each, and none of the other sites are ones I visit regularly, except Amazon. Well, and Webkinz, because my son goes there a lot. But none of the sites where I spend most of my time turned up here.
I will also say that I'm laughing about Mapquest being considered a girly website (unless I'm misreading the ratio thingy) . . . is it really true that men still won't ask for directions, even from the internet? ;)
Posted by: Wendy | August 3, 2008 3:49 PM
I have 73% chance of being male which a 71 year old retired lady is kind of uplifting.
Posted by: Sonia Brock | August 3, 2008 4:25 PM
GS - Why on Earth did you subject yourself to this in the first place?!! I flat refuse to encourage dumb (and in this case sexist) surveys as a matter of principle.
Bob OH - "it's not a site I frequent very often"
Do you want to rephrase that? It's too early in the morning for my mind to be played with so cruelly!
Posted by: Ian | August 4, 2008 7:21 AM