spyware or not ?

I am a newbie here and basically to computing in general. I had a question about spyware. When I conduct a search with a search engine like google or yahoo, I notice that sometimes there will be ads for like example " Get an online degree from such and such a university in such and such a city and state and it will be the town I live in or a town near the one I live in; or " Meet local singles in your area '' , and then it will have either the town I live in or a town near me. Is this spyware ? How does it know the city and state I live just by me conducting a search ? Lastly, do you think it could have insidiously obtained some of my personal information or I am just being paranoid ? (lol) I scanned my system with three different spyware engines, but none of them find anything. Thanks in advance for your time and assistance.

 

It could be some adware infection due to the pop-ups. If you would like to confirm your clean just follow ALL the steps in this Sticky thread READ ME FIRST BEFORE ASKING FOR SUPPORT: Basic Spyware, Trojan And Virus Removal

If you already have any of the programs linked in the tutorial please double check your version to make sure you have the latest one and that you have any/all updates for the programs.

If your still experiencing problems after you have completed all steps listed above. Please let one of us know and we will be glad to assist you. As far as someone stealing confidential information, I wouldnt really worry about that yet because it doesnt seem to a trojan or spyware. Adware will deliever the popups most of the time. Just follow the above steps and let us know what you come up with.

Thanks Bj