I trained my Instagram algorithm to serve me ads for unique gift ideas &mdash; here are the 17 most interesting ones

As you may know from that one time you Googled something random and then suddenly started seeing it everywhere on Instagram, the app's algorithm is very good at feeding you content based on what you interact with online.

Given that my job is to write about products, and that I've been editing a lot of gift guides from the BI Reviews team lately, my algorithm started to feed me a lot of giftable product advertisements. So I ran an experiment: I clicked on every one I got over the course of a few days, and I compiled a list of the most interesting ones.

There were a few from brands I'd heard of before (including ones we've coincidentally written about here), a few that seemed like scams, and even some that had appeared on "Shark Tank." Below, you'll find the coolest ones I discovered, many of which are available on Amazon with fast shipping.

A solar-powered smart bird feeder

The Birdbuddy Pro smart bird feeder, which is blue and filled with birdseed, with a little roof and a digital camera that captures video of birds as they land on the feeder

Shop the Birdbuddy Pro on Chewy for $199

The Birdbuddy Pro is a solar-powered smart bird feeder that captures high-quality photos and videos of birds that land on it. The corresponding app also helps you identify the type of bird you're looking at, and even notifies you when you have a visitor. It's our top pick in our guide to the best smart bird feeders and comes highly recommended after several months of testing.

A wooden jigsaw puzzle that you color in yourself

A wooden jigsaw puzzle of cartoon cats being colored in by a hand with a marker

Shop wooden Quordle puzzles from Quordle for $30

Available in a variety of animal themes, these wooden jigsaw puzzles make a fun and quirky gift option for the crafty person in your life. You can purchase the puzzle with or without a set of felt-tip markers for coloring.

A challenging balance board for adults and kids

A wooden Gibbon slack/balance board which looks kind of like a skateboard without wheels, where the edges are more turned upwards and have a rubber-band-like slack line attached to them

Shop Gibbon boards on Amazon for $199

These slack boards are designed to test your balance, and can be used by adults and kids alike. Whether you're seriously focused on fitness or just playing around with your family in the living room, Gibbon boards are a fun and interactive gift idea. You can choose from multiple designs on the board, and some come with two slack bands for a lesser degree of difficulty.

A set of conversation cards to help you go deeper with the people you love

The Tales family card game in a yellow box which contains cards with prompts for sharing stories, on a white background

Get Tales on Amazon for $39

Tales conversation cards are designed to help you learn more about your loved ones by asking thought-provoking questions about their lives and memories. It's available in several editions for friends, family, couples, kids, teens, and beyond. We could see this being a really meaningful way to enrich family time during the holidays, or a fun ritual to bring to the dinner table each night.

An LED drawing pad that's fun for kids and adults alike

The Cosmody LED light drawing board that shows a clear plastic board with the words "merry christmas" drawn on them in neon light and a girl smiling to the side of the board

Get the Cosmody for $60 on Amazon

This LED pad includes a set of special markers and tracing paper, so you can create fun designs from pre-made templates or just freehand your own signs or drawings. It's a relatively mess-free activity for kids, but a lot of people also seem to use these as alternatives to neon signs by writing messages, displaying menus for parties, and more.

A popular DIY craft kit for making clay pottery, candles, and art at home

A collection of hand-sculpted vases and candle-holders painted in different oranges, blues, and greens

See all of Sculpd's pottery, candle, and craft kits, from $65

Sculpd offers craft kits of all kinds, for people of all ages. You can choose from pottery-making kits that include sculptable clay and paint, or candle-making kits that include all the wax, vessel, and wick supplies you need, or even wall art and paint-by-numbers options. Many of the kits are designed for two or more people, making it a wonderful way to foster connection and offer a shared experience.

A microscope for kids that lets them explore their surroundings in a new way

A kids' handheld microscope in blue, showing the zoomed image on a laptop screen, and the accessories it comes with

Get the Odatay handheld microscope on Amazon for $36

If you're looking for a gift for a curious kid, this is it. These portable microscopes allow them to look at extremely magnified images of everyday objects, so they can see what the fibers on their shirts look like, or the crystal structure of your kitchen's granite countertop, or the tiniest veins in a leaf. They can even capture images and save them to a computer, and the kit comes with a few pre-made slides to show them various plant, insect, food, and animal cells.

For transparency, the advertisement I got was for a different brand, but I accidentally swiped away before I could click the link. So, I went hunting for a highly rated version on Amazon that looked exactly the same.

The Boxbollen boxing reflex game for kids and adults

The Boxbollen boxing game showing a strap that goes around your head attached to a ball on a string. A man is wearing it and showing how you punch the ball, alongside a phone showing an app that keeps your stats from the game.

Get the Boxbollen on Amazon for $30

The Instagram ad I got for Boxbollen featured a video of Brooke Shields laughing and playing around with her family as she practiced punching a red ball attached to her headband by a stretchy string. The stats for her punch streak were displayed on a TV in the background, so I fully thought this was just a fun, fitness-y game for the family. But it's actually a boxing reflex and hand-eye coordination trainer that people have just discovered is really fun to play with!

A digital family calendar to keep everyone's schedules, chores, and to-do lists in one place

The Skylight Calendar, a digital calendar tablet for the family, pictured with a mom and a child playing with the touchscreen

Shop the Skylight Calendar on Amazon for $320

The Skylight Calendar has been circulating on social media a lot lately. People love that it offers a convenient way for families to coordinate their schedules, chores, and more — and it's easy for kids to use as well. There are multiple dynamic calendar views, allowing you to view everyone's schedule for the day, week, or entire month at a glance.

A heated, weighted neck wrap for ultimate relaxation

A man looking pensively away from the camera with a grey Bearaby weighted neck wrap draped around his neck. The wrap has channels that feature weighted beads to distribute them evenly, and can be warmed up for muscle relief.

Shop the Bearaby Calmer heated neck wrap for $76

Bearaby makes the top overall pick from our guide to the best weighted blankets we've tested. I had never seen its neck wrap before, so the ad immediately caught my attention. The wrap is weighted for ultimate relaxation, just like its blankets, and it can be warmed in the microwave or even chilled in the freezer to help soothe sore muscles or manage headaches.

A colorful cube that brings some whimsy to a coffee table or desk

A CMY Cube, which stands for cyan, magenta, and yellow. It's a see-through acrylic cube that has colorful films on each side, which, when looked at from different angles, produce several additional colors to look at.

Get the CMY cube from Amazon for $30

These CMY cubes (which stands for cyan, magenta, and yellow) are a super fun way to explore color theory and mixing, as various angles allow you to see the effects of different color combinations. It's a fun, interactive object for your desk or coffee table (but be careful of gifting it to anyone with small children as it has very sharp corners).

A miniature watercolor painting kit that fits in their pocket

The Tobios mini watercolor set on a beige background, showing the items that come in the set, including watercolor paints, a mini drawing pad, and a palette.

Get the Tobios' watercolor set on Amazon for $33 (may arrive after Christmas)

This pocket-sized palette can hold eight paint colors, and the brush handle gets filled with water to create a portable artist's kit. They can bring it to the park or on vacation to paint little moments of beauty, or even on an airplane for something to do during a long flight.

A mini handheld vacuum that gets into every nook and cranny of your car

An image of a very small grey handheld vacuum with various attachments like a brush head and pointed head for small crevices, on a white background

Get the Hoto vacuum on Amazon for $63

This gift is for the person in your life who's obsessed with cleaning. The ad video I saw for this was maybe one of the most satisfying visuals of a car being cleaned that I've ever watched (and I love watching cleaning videos). This handheld vacuum features multiple attachments for deep cleaning, as well as a compressed air blower for cleaning items like keyboards and other tricky or tight spaces.

A pair of reusable earplugs for concert-goers or fitness class enthusiasts

Gold Loop ear plugs attached to some soft and translucent silicone covers for the inner-ear

Shop Loop earplugs on Amazon for $28

My partner gave me a pair of Loop earplugs as a stocking stuffer years ago because I found the volume in our SoulCycle class to be so overwhelming. These earplugs made the music sound so much clearer and kept the volume more manageable. They're also great for loud events like concerts, or even for wearing at the office when you need to drown out noise but don't want to put on headphones. They come in a variety of colors and metal finishes.

A 'Shark Tank' toy that blends science with fun

An image of a boy with long hair holding the ZipString, which is a small handheld device that spins a circle of string so quickly that it defies gravity and floats

Shop the ZipString on Amazon for $25 (arrives after Christmas)

It's hard to capture how cool the ZipString is in just a picture. This little device spins a piece of string so fast that it resists the force of gravity, and it holds in midair whatever shape you create. The founders received an investment on "Shark Tank" a few years ago because everyone was so impressed by how fun it was to play with.

See more "Shark Tank" gift ideas from our team.

An electric engraving pen that can be used on glass, wood, and more

A Resparked custom engraver, a pen that can engrave surfaces like wood or glass. Shown here engraving a wooden tray that says "Made with love"

Shop the Resparked engraving pen on Amazon for $53 (arrives after Christmas)

It never occurred to me that we could just … engrave things ourselves. This electric engraving pen allows anyone to write or carve designs into hard materials like wood, metal, glass, or ceramics. They could use it to write a message or a date onto a wine bottle to give as a gift, to create arts and crafts, or to add designs or labels onto thermoses and water bottles. The options are endless — but make sure you trust the person you're giving it to, lest you come home with engravings all over your furniture.

A DIY loom for patching up clothing or adding fun designs

A small metal loom meant for sewing patches onto clothing, pictured with a woven patch partially created on a pair of jeans

Get the KnitPatch on Amazon for $20 (arrives after Christmas)

For the sustainable-minded person who refuses to throw away that sweater they've been wearing for 10 years, a mini loom will help them patch things up and add some personality to their clothes. You can choose from a variety of sizes for patching up small or large holes.

The post I trained my Instagram algorithm to serve me ads for unique gift ideas — here are the 17 most interesting ones appeared first on Business Insider

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I trained my Instagram algorithm to serve me ads for unique gift ideas — here are the 17 most interesting ones