TubeNet

How are the ads populated? Based on my location digging through my search history in the background? Getting some interesting ads I wouldn't normally expect

Most of the ads are external from the site. So TubeNet isn't so much as digging through your search history as it is choosing to embed Google Adsense in exchange for money. The TubeNet sponsor ads are local, but everything else comes from embedding ad networks.

Google Adsense is Google so it knows your search history from using google. It knows your email if you use gmail. It knows where you've driven if you use Google Maps. It knows your browser history if you use Chrome. And it knows this about all the folks who look at TubeNet as well. There is a reason why Google provides all these free services, and it isn't out of the goodness of their heart. Your observation here isn't TubeNet so much as it is the ad companies doing everything they possibly can to know things about you and this community, and using that to target ads that will be more effective to you and others here.

If you click on the little corner of the ad, you can request that AdSense (google's ad tracking service) stop using information theyve collected to show you ads. You should also consider disabling third-party cookies in your browser so that you aren't tracked across multiple pages. And of course there's always adblock services like AdGuard