Good guesses in the comments so far: VIN number partial matches and targeted search. Anyone going to test what's correct?
Ideas:
1. Vin numbers are 17 characters and don't contain I, O or Q, to prevent confusion with other letters. If you throw in lots of these always spaced by less than 17 characters, do you get fewer hits?
2. Does a VPN and/or private browsing affect the results?
A third possibility is that Google has cheaper ad category for search queries that they can't categorize. This doesn't explain the diversity of dealerships though.
Mercedes uses 18-digit vins, tho I believe it’s the same format and checksum algorithm for the first 17 digits so it’s really more “17 + 1 digits”. Still drives validators nuts tho.
Comments
Good guesses in the comments so far: VIN number partial matches and targeted search. Anyone going to test what's correct?
Ideas: 1. Vin numbers are 17 characters and don't contain I, O or Q, to prevent confusion with other letters. If you throw in lots of these always spaced by less than 17 characters, do you get fewer hits?
2. Does a VPN and/or private browsing affect the results?
A third possibility is that Google has cheaper ad category for search queries that they can't categorize. This doesn't explain the diversity of dealerships though.
Sure, it's matching VINs. But in the vast expanse of the net, surely there are many strings of random hex out there. Why this source of random digits.
Probably the most authoritive sites with weird strings
"most authoritive", for financially preferred values of authority.
Mercedes uses 18-digit vins, tho I believe it’s the same format and checksum algorithm for the first 17 digits so it’s really more “17 + 1 digits”. Still drives validators nuts tho.