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Distastful Advertising Continues: "Gatoring"

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the do-i-taste-arsenic-in-the-water dept.

iforgotmyfirstlogon sent us a link to an article on CNet about Gatoring, a fabulous new advertising technique where advertising buy key words and pop up windows over competitors. The kicker is that this is a byproduct of a commonly installed activex plugin. And its only gonna get worse.

5 of 332 comments (clear)

  1. Circular references? by Rick+the+Red · · Score: 5, Interesting
    What if going to the GM web page triggered one plug-in to open a window looking at the Ford web page, which triggered another plug-in to open a window looking at the Toyota web page, which triggered yet another plug-in to open a window looking at the GM web page, until all your RAM is consumed by dozens of self-opening web pages?

    I figure it's a matter of when, not if.

    --
    If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
  2. Re:They just don't get it. by Tackhead · · Score: 5, Interesting
    > Some friends and I were just talking about this last night - when was the last time that you used RealPlayer?

    A while ago. But the only reason was because I did some testing and discovered that you can make the ancient RealPlayer 5.0 (that didn't have a lot of spam included in its user interface) work just fine with RealPlayer G2 and RealPlayer 8 streams, by simply fux0ring around with the DLLs in C:\Windoze\Program Files\Common or somewhere like that.

    Basically, you take a RP5 install, do a recursive DIR or ls over the filesystem.

    Then (on an expendable system, naturally, that you've replicated from your production box), you install the upgrades required to play files encoded with the newer RealMedia codecs, and do another DIR or ls.

    Then you diff the results and copy any new or modified DLLs onto your production system. Presto! RealPlayer 5 with "up-to-date" codecs.

    Of course, that doesn't prevent Real from including spyware/phone-home in the DLLs, nor does it prevent RealPlayer 5 from auto-nagging you every few months to upgrade.

    But it's a workable solution for all those old South Park episodes I acquired in 228K .RM files (a mixture of RealPlayer 5, G2, and RealPlayer 8 codecs) format before DiVX appeared.

    Which, come to think of it, is about the only use I have for RealPlayer, since I don't have cable.

  3. Again, the youthful naivete' of the internet.. by Scot+Seese · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ..rears it's ugly head. To think that an avertiser can get away with these tactics is rediculous.

    In traditional media outlets, particularly newspaper and radio, companies can specifically request or be GUARANTEED that advertisements for competing products or services will NOT appear within x-many column inches of newspaper or x-minutes of radio play.

    If I were advertising my theoretical car dealership, what is the effectiveness of that ad if a SECOND companies' commercial runs right behind mine? What if they KNEW they could get that slot and intentionally undercut all my sale prices in THEIR ad? I'd cancel my ad run and refuse payment to the station, among other things.

    This situation actually happened when I was working at a Northeast-Ohio computer company, when a popular area FM radio station ran OUR ad with a COMPETITOR'S ad right behind it! We actually called the competitor, said "do you know they are doing this?" upon which BOTH of us called the station manager threatening to cancel BOTH ad runs unless they were scheduled at least 3 minutes apart, per their agreement.

    This has to be one of the better, shining examples of the "wild west" cowboy cavalier attitude so predominant on the internet running smack into the brick wall of common sense.

    Hey, perhaps Microsoft should approach Andover, offer them four times their standard banner rates and plaster WindowsXP ads all over Slashdot.

    --
    THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK.
  4. Just Say No by Autonomous+Crowhard · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I have never experienced these problems. Why? I just say no.

    I just say no to:

    1. JavaScript
    2. Java
    3. Shockwave
    4. Flash
    5. ActiveX
    6. The Cutting Edge
    7. Planned Obsolesence

    I you didn't buy into all this crap that you don't need then people will not be able to take advantage of your machine.

    If enough people say no, then the web pages have to cater to the masses if they want the eyeballs.

  5. Is OSDN guilty too? by bgarcia · · Score: 5, Interesting
    When I loaded slashdot, there was a banner add at the top asking me to fill out a survey and be entered for a chance to win $1000.

    So what the heck, I click on it. They're trying to gather some information to help with their advertising. No problem, that's what these surveys are usually for. I'm merrily filling out the survey, and everything's fine, until I hit this question:

    13. Which of the following actions have you taken as a result of visiting an OSDN site? (CHECK ALL THAT APPLY)
    • Clicked on an ad and visited an advertiser's Web site
    • Clicked on a link to a vendor site from an article
    • E-mailed for more information through the advertiser's e-mail address
    • Recommended OSDN network to a friend, relative, or business associate
    • Purchased a product or service reviewed by OSDN network
    • Purchased a product or service advertised on OSDN network
    • Other (please specify)
    Did you notice that second item?

    Now I'll be wondering if the articles themselves have been bought by advertisers...

    --
    I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar.