The strangest "related" product recommendation I've had...

[Angilion]

I bought some headphones today (OcUK doesn't sell the ones I wanted) and happened to notice an entry near the top of the related products recommendation list. Dog calming pills. It was strange enough to attract my attention and give me a bit of a laugh. Dog calming pills aren't what comes to my mind as something that pairs well with headphones. Not even if I had a dog.

 

[Angilion]

Did the headphone product description include "noise cancelling"?

Ah, maybe that was the connection. I don't know if the description on the shop page did include those words because I didn't read it. I'd already looked into the headphones, so on the shop page I just checked that it was the right model and resistance. They don't have active noise cancellation but they are closed and fully enclose the ear so there's some degree of passive noise blocking and the description might well have made some mention of it.

 

[Angilion]

I've had some really odd related product suggestions - this gets into kind of strange territory as it seems somehow Amazon/Google are using household results in the mix which skews results - i.e. if someone in my household was browsing lawnmowers I will start to see gardening items appearing in my suggestions and/or ads.

The worrying bit is when it starts suggesting weird clothing or sex toys...

Then you know what they're buying you for Christmas! I hope you enjoy your zebra sex mask

They do use household results. Since they routinely track people's locations, they know when orders on different accounts have been placed from the same location and/or have been delivered to the same non-business address. They'll also have access to other sets of data showing relationships between people. Acquiring and integrating data on people is a big part of business nowadays.