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Gator Will Replace Ads On Sites
Bill Dimm writes "This CNet article says that a new version of Gator, a browser plug-in for managing passwords that also can display pop-up ads for competing products when you visit web sites, is being developed that will launch its own ads over top of the banner ads on the sites you visit. The software achieves wide distribution by bundling (much like TopText) with file-sharing utilities, with over 18 million installations of the current version claimed on their web site."
As long as the user knows what he's installing on his system, there's nothing illegal about it. If I downloaded a program that disabled banner adds when I visited a web site, would that be illegal?
As long a the user knows what's happening when he's intalling the software, the competitors have nothing to say.
Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought.
Being a linux user, you don't have to vew ads NOW. There are a myriad ways, from junkbusters to /etc/hosts manipulation to block ads in Linux. I don't use any of them, since I don't find banner ads that intrusive, but I may have to if everyone starts following the lead of Cnet with those huge, distractive ads in the middle of the story. But for now, I only disable Javascript popups, which annoy the hell out of me.
Gator? Heh. In this respect, you do have a valid point. If all the advertisers decide Unix users are too few to be worth the effort, and start designing ad technologies that only work in Windows/MacOS, maybe we will get ad-free web surfing by default. I already get it to some extent, i.e. I don't see Flash ads since I haven't bothered to install the plugin. Now if only some advertiser organization would do us a favor and declare Flash the standard for web ads...
Web sited that make their money through banner advertising have got to be unhappy about this development. Which leads me to wonder: what are they going to do to ensure to their customers (read: advertisers) that their banner ads will not be gator-substituted?
Blocking web browsers that are Gator-enabled? Probably not the best idea, but if enough important sites band together, this could put Gator out of business.
Lawsuits against Gator? This might not be a bad idea, although I have no idea how it would go through.
Hacking Gator to get around banner-ad substitution?
Offering text-and-hyperlink-only ads, Google style?
What I'm really hoping to see is Gator offer a "subscription service" to web sites..."pay up or we'll substitute your ads." That would lead to a most interesting fight indeed. And to a lot of lawyers making a lot of money.
Finding God in a Dog
Also, with IE and Mozilla/Netscape now offering password management, is Gator relevant anymore?
15 million uninstalled it twice, the other 3 million just reformated.
Ads that catch our attention, even if through somewhat annoying means, are one thing.
But everyday another marketing gimmick pops into creation that pushes the line a bit far, going from mearly attention-getting, and into outright annoying and alienating potential customers.
What's it going to take until these marketing people get the fact that annoying customers is not the way to make a successful company? Will it be the first marketeer killed by a slightly unhinged web surfer who gets pushed too far by these constant advertising attacks on our lives?
*sigh*
We all hate ads, but remember, the ads you see help pay for the pages you see.
Gator, on the other hand is a complete and total leach. They are selling advertising on other peoples content without compensation.
In my opinion, Gator is a virus. It is attached to the software installations for other products, and it usually installs itself on user's systems without their permission. When you try to remove it, it creates a copy of itself so it is not deleted.
It also interferes with the running of your computer. When I go to a website, I want to see that website, and view the ads that paid for that website. Gator changes that, and thus in effect is altering content without my permission. It uses up my computer's cycles and bandwidth to alter the contents of my computer's memory.
So is Gator only legal because it is a company, and has corporates paying them? Gator does appear to be a protection racket as well - pay us money, or we will take away your business (by showing competitor's ads on your page).
Christ, someone set the FBI onto this company. IMHO, of course.
With Mozilla nearing 1.0 and Konqueror looking more awesome by the second, everyone should expect this type of 'ad warfare' to come to Linux/UNIX soon.
The truth is that I am *amazed* it has taken this long to happen. About 2.5 years ago I was working for a company that implemented this. It would have been a great ad revenue stream. Unfortunately the company was fucked and nothing ever happened.
The only way for companies to combat this is to deploy an 'electronic warfare' counter-attack against gator.
The sites would deploy a plugin which would detect gator modifications an remove them.
Of course this means that gator would detect it's detectors and remove them too.
The result would be an 'ad cold war' which would only leave users as victims.
This is similar to the toner wars from Diamond Age. If you don't abide by the rules expect to get into a fight...
Kevin
I'll be going off on a tangent here, but it's relavent in regards to advertising in general. Here's what I want to see as a consumer and I think the increased benefits for both the consumer and advertiser make it worth the while.
I'd like a way to fill out a universal advertisement interest topic list. It would consist of thing such as the following:
Ok, so that's my list . I'm sure we all would have our own, and they'd change from time to time. In addition to this sort of thing, I wouldn't mind having the sites I visit / shows I watch known. Of course, you'd better have a clue as to what that means. I may visit a site and see it's crap and close it, and if anything, that should count as a *negative* viewing, not a "hit". Same with TV. I'd love it if real 99% accurate ratings were known.
My point with this isn't that I want ads. However, at this point, they appear to be a necessary evil for both TV and websites. If I have to see them, I'd prefer seeing things that interest me. I wouldn't even mind having my interest/info shared with my mailing address (although, without my name), as that costs the advertiser money and I usually sort through it on my way driving so it's lost time anyway.
Firstly, I use Mozilla on both OSes. I configure it to ask permission before loading images, and remember the choice. This quickly populates the database of junk image sites. Same is done with cookies, of course. Animated GIFs are set to never loop.
Secondly, I use Squid + Junkbuster chain on another computer. It acts as a caching/filtering proxy to block ads and cookies that slipped through Mozilla.
Thirdly, the firewall is configured to direct all traffic to/from known Evil Sites (tm) to where it belongs. Input packets are denied, outgoing are rejected. Doubleclick and friends are all there, as well as some "legitimate" Web sites that have questionable privacy policies (like Real). This blocks a spyware traffic from apps like RealPlayer - which require 15 minutes to properly set up, otherwise they send everything they can to an unknown 3rd party.
Fourthly, though I haven't done that yet, you can disable outgoing traffic through your firewall, except the proxy server. This makes the whole Web accessible only through your proxy.
If you want to "sponsor" some Web site and give it an ad image request without actually seeing the ad, you can use Mozilla's CSS hacks. Then the image will be downloaded but not displayed. This is also necessary in SSL mode because the proxy becomes transparent and can't block images for you; then only Mozilla itself can help.
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Go for it in small claims court. They'll have to send somebody, and just hearing them explain it to the judge would be worth it.
I formulate my opinions without any outside influence, while I am enjoying a cool, refreshing Coca-Cola.
It's the pause that refreshes!