First off a quick hey to everybody I have been gone for a while. I have noticed a curious phenomenom happening when I perform a search particularly for video files and I wondered if anyone else has noticed or experienced it. In keeping with the rules of the forum I will not mention specific names but just insert a title. Actually the older or more obscure title the better. Here is what happens:

1) I select VIDEO as the search parameter.
2) I enter a string with a wildcard (or without) such as:

*favorite*show*

3) Inevitably and with more frequency I will get a hit with the exact same string, case, misspelling, and the file size that will be returned is 106.7 kb and turns out to be an ad for a supposedly free personal music player.

4) On the surface it is an annoyance and I don't even bother with it. In the beginning I thought some clever person that wanted to advertise was just punching in popular titles as the names of the ads. But I find it sinister that now they come up with the variable string and spelling that I put in. I put a string in for a video that I highly doubted would get a hit because it is an obscure file and I tried it with and without a wildcard and changed some of the spelling a little.

5) I got two hits back including the misspellings. I find that kind of interesting.

Any ideas? It seems somehow somebody is able to monitor searches and return a hit to you using your string. For the record I am no conspiracy theorist and as Lord Of The Rings will tell you I regularly poke fun at these folks. I just wondered if anyone else has noticed this.

Thanks