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A New Low for Web Advertisers: Pop-Up Downloads

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the measuring-new-lows-jinxes-us-all dept.

rizzmanix writes: "I thougt it was strange that I had been getting a lot of pop-up download prompts for the Gator software as I browsed around the web in the recent days. Why were all these sites requiring this Gator thing I wondered? Well I wonder no more... as apparently advertisers hit a new low by running 'pop-up downloads' instead of pop-up ads. Sneaky, underhanded, nasty and vile."

12 of 641 comments (clear)

  1. a followup link by argStyopa · · Score: 5, Informative

    www.scumware.com

    --
    -Styopa
  2. why mozilla rules here by cetan · · Score: 5, Informative

    Since 0.9.4, mozilla users have had the ability to block onload and unload pop-ups/unders. I've had zero problems with this. It doesn't block pop-ups you request, just the ones you don't.

    I've not seen a popup in months and months. It's fantastic.

    --
    In Soviet Russia...michael would be rotting in Siberia!
    1. Re:why mozilla rules here by bconway · · Score: 5, Informative

      Preferences -> Advanced -> Scripts and Windows. I uncheck all except the last 3.

      --
      Interested in open source engine management for your Subaru?
    2. Re:why mozilla rules here by Fweeky · · Score: 4, Informative

      > What's the current status with mozilla? Is it as usable as Netscape 4.x (I hate 6.x)?

      It's been more usable than 4.x for months. Recent releases are very stable. Startup time is about on par with Opera here (~3s when cached, next to ~2s for Opera).

      4.x lacks usable CSS (and this is very important for modern sites.. the only reason most sites still work is because most sites still use techniques from 1995; I don't), and has laughable table layout code (it was made with basic HTML-for-tabular-data in mind, not triple nested layout tables); these alone make it pretty much useless to me.

      If I didn't use Opera, I'd probably use Mozilla; at least I can trust it to Do The Right Thing (usually) when I'm developing sites; then I can go add my IE5/6/NS workarounds afterwards.

      > Does it do any nasty or weird stuff on some sites?

      IE6 does nasty and weird stuff on W3.org/Style (fixed positioning isn't supported, but it still processes the position: fixed; directive, meaning you can't do "position: absolute;position: fixed;" like you're supposed to. Argh.).

      IE5 does nasty and weird stuff on every site that uses the CSS box model; it gets the sizes wrong on all boxes, meaning you need to exploit parser bugs to provide IE5 with tweaked sizes for it to work properly (and then provide Opera 5, which suffers the same parser bug, with real values).

      NS4 does nasty and weird stuff when you specify an element should float: anywhere; it makes it completely unusable to use CSS layouts on it without spending months debugging an absolutely positioned workaround-nightmare.

      Not seen Mozilla (or Opera) do anything this broken :)

  3. thiefware.com on Gator Auto-install/ActiveX by Seth+Finkelstein · · Score: 4, Informative
    Take a look at this report about Gator at http://www.thiefware.com/info/data.gator.shtml
    People are still complaining that Gator is getting installed on their computers with little advanced warning and in many instances, people do not know that Gator is being installed until the next time they turn on their computer. The user should always have the option to click on a download link but instead Gator partner sites use the automatic ActiveX download/installation program.

    Sig: What Happened To The Censorware Project (censorware.org)

  4. Mozilla by macdaddy · · Score: 4, Informative

    To go along with the Opera folks out there, I've got to chime in and say I absolutely love being able to filter unsolicited popups. God I love that feature. It makes browsing pron sites soo much better. Also disable the window resizing shit. No longer will popup bastards resize a window beyond your screensize!

  5. Re:Wow, this is lame by Violet+Null · · Score: 5, Informative

    I've never, ever seen a webbrowser that automatically installs stuff.

    IE will happily install stuff without prompting if that's the way the security is set up; eg, if you set the "Internet Zone" (or whatever) to "Low" security, it will automatically download any signed ActiveX control.

  6. Re:Question about Gator specifically by romkey · · Score: 4, Informative

    I started using Gator because Ebates suggested it... I like Ebates a lot and they were suggesting (not even pushing) Gator because of its form-management and password remembering functions, which weren't commonly available in browsers at that point. At that time, Gator was more of a helpful tool than a malignant advertising injector.

    As Gator has evolved it's become more and more malicious; popping up ads when I'm browsing is the most annoying, but also it's started placing its own ads over banner ads on web pages - that doesn't annoy me any more than the banner ads would but I think it's a pretty evil practice and I don't want to support it.

    The only reason I've kept using Gator is that I have a large investment in terms of the passwords I have stored in it, but there are other, better ways to take care of that problem. At this point I run Gator with it completely blocked by firewall software, so it can't update itself and it can't download ads or offers. If you delete everything in C:\PROGRAM FILES\COMMON FILES\GMT\BANNERS you'll get rid of the ads it's already downloaded.

  7. Re:Popup warning dialog by shyster · · Score: 5, Informative
    Why can I ONLY see a checkbox for "Always trust downloads from this company" and NOT "Always MISTRUST downloads from this company" on the install dialog on IE?

    Add them to the Restricted Sites zone. That will (by default) keep them from running any code, including signed and unsigned ActiveX, and even cookies.

  8. Just saw this yesterday on Dad's puter by Jburkholder · · Score: 4, Informative

    My dad called to ask if I could come over and 'fix' his computer. I'm always willing to come down and see dad and untangle whatever mess exists on his PC.

    His dial-up connection was slow, he said. Indeed, every site I visited in his favorites was really slow and now wonder... everysite seemed to launch a couple of pop-unders that were consuming bandwidth downloading ads.

    "Yeah, I've been getting that ever since I installed 'gator'"

    "gator is something I got from yahoo that helps me fill in forms or something"

    That rat-bastard gator had put hooks everywere, was a real pain to uninstall ("please stop the gator program before proceeding" - except to the ordinary user the concept of stopping a taskbar icon isn't very obvious).

    The uninstaller launched a browser and loaded a page telling you why you shouldn't uninstall. Geez, go away already!

    Yeah, my dad is pretty clueless - I reminded him not to download and install stuff unless he is pretty clear on what he is getting.

    This software seems to exploit that cluelessness, posing as some innocuous, helpful utility when it's real purpose is far more invasive and it is relatively complicated to get rid of.

  9. Re:Question about Gator specifically by poulbailey · · Score: 5, Informative
    The only reason I've kept using Gator is that I have a large investment in terms of the passwords

    Grab RoboForm instead. It's freeware and it doesn't have any ads nor does it contain spyware. It'll even let you import all your Gator passwords. There's absolutely no reason to keep using Gator.

  10. A Wonderful Tool for Spyware by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Not too sure if this has been said yet, but this is an amazing tool that will clean all the spyware from your system. You will be amazed at how much you have on there. It is called AdAware and can be downloaded free from the link below.

    http://www.lavasoftusa.com