• On GameFAQs: The top 10 forgotten RPGs
July 29, 2008 4:44 PM PDT

Browser history analyzer guesses your gender

by Josh Lowensohn
  • Font size
  • Print
  • Post a comment

YouTube nets a perfect 1:1 gender ratio of users, however your browser history might be another story.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Mike Nolet of blog Mike on Ads has put together a fun little diversion that gives your browser history a quick once over and cross-references it with sites on the Quancast top 1000. Using the gender ratio on each site (according to Quancast) it will cobble together an overall percentage of what gender it thinks you are based on those results.

Not surprisingly most of us in the office, including my colleague Erica Ogg, have come up as male, with many tech sites having higher ratios of male users. The tool will give you a complete rundown of all the sites that popped up, along with their respective ratios. It's pretty fun to go through them and see the estimated makeup of each place--you might be surprised.

In case you're worried about your browsing history being used for evil, Nolet insists he's not doing anything with the data. Many users have left their true genders and the tool's guess in the comments below Nolet's post. The general consensus is that if you visit many popular tech sites you'll be pinned under the male persuasion. Visiting some sites with higher female-to-male ratios like TMZ and Livejournal will swing your overall percentage the other direction.

Note: The tool runs a little slow in Internet Explorer, so if you're having problems switch over to Firefox or Opera.

Josh Lowensohn writes for Webware.com, CNET's blog about Web applications and services. E-mail Josh, or follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/Josh.
advertisement
Click Here

About Webware

Say No to boxed software! The future of applications is online delivery and access. Software is passé. Webware is the new way to get things done.

Add this feed to your online news reader

Webware topics

Firefox hopes to one-up IE with fast graphics

Windows 7 features called Direct2D and DirectWrite will speed up Internet Explorer 9 performance. But Firefox hopes it might retool for the same benefit first.

E-tailers linked to 'scam' blame customers

Priceline, Classmates.com, and Orbitz say customers should read the fine print before complaining about being charged to join loyalty programs they didn't want.

Inside CNET News

Scroll Left Scroll Right