Quote:
Overall, for anyone who has a problem like this (XI or XIV), just clearing out your cookies and browser cache should resolve the issue. Most cookies expire (on average) between 15-30 days of visiting a site or searching for something that would prompt to show you the ad on a search engine.
: groan :
Let me try and clear some of this up for ppl..
Web tracking techniques and thus targeted advertising are much more sophisticated than just having a stored cookie. So in most cases clearing them will do virtually nothing to remove your online ad profile.
Any site that has a Facebook badge or like button on them (so basically every site now days) links your personal Facebook page to any other ad tracking methods on that site. For example you clear you cookies out, then log into Facebook then you visit The WSJ.com site.. Facebook and WSJ now know who you are, and what story your reading online.. even though you deleted your cookies.. and not only them also any other 3rd party service that WSJ.com uses, such as Google via doubleclick (as google own them).
It's not just Facebook either.. any Google service such as Gmail or YouTube, and Twitter all do the same thing. If it's free and on the web YOU are the product being sold to advertisers.
If your interested how this works check out Collusion from Mozilla.
http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/collusion/
Cookies are not the only way this is done, there are also Flash based profiles, so if you allow flash, any advertiser can track you via your flash objects (called LSO tracking).
Ad's are targeted by interests so an interest in FFXIV by searching FFXIV on Google or visiting sites related to FFXIV such as FFXIVPro will generate a targeted profile. When marketing a product such as FFXIV Gil, the person buying the ad can target it to those individuals who have an interest in FFXIV.
In other words
you don't have to visit a gil buying site to get gil buying ad's. All you have to do is meet the targeting profile that the advertiser selected to show the ad to.. such as people interested in Video Games in general, FFXI or FFXIV depending on how targeted they wanted to make it.