ok, this is probably just a coincidence, but creepy nonetheless. I was talking on MSN to someone about ecommerce, web related issues...and then in gmail at the top I get an ad for a web company that does ecommerce websites. I dont have any recent emails in my inbox or outbox that contains any such keywords recently. I was just now browsing some websites for clothes...and I get a gmail ad for apparel...this seems to be happening all the time and its creepy...either google is inside my computer or they are doing a heck of a job at targeting their ads.
With everything going on these days, I wouldn't just right it off as coincidence that quickly without some further research.
Google is tracing every single person in this world who is using any service by google. There is a chance that they are using behavioral targeting techniques. Remember that Your every single activity on internet is recorded by Google and If you have downloaded Google Offline applications like Picassa than your offline activities are too not hidden by google. you can read more about behavioral targeting at my blog. I m not giving the link here cause may be its against the TOS. But you can go to my blog(in my signature) and search behavioral.