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like it or not
Stealth software nestles in PCs, popping up ads
By Marty Beard
You may never have heard of WhenU.com but you and thousands of other consumers may well have unwittingly helped it become a top online property and advertising domain.
When consumers download the popular music-swapping software BearShare, they are also downloading SaveNow, which comes bundled with it, whether they realize it or not.
SaveNow is either a comparison-shopping service or a form of spyware, depending on who's describing it.
It resides on consumers’ hard drives and pops up advertisements and coupons, unsolicited. The ads are served from the WhenU.com site.
For the week ending Dec. 9, WhenU.com was the No. 25 online property, according to Nielsen//NetRatings, attracting some 2.7 million unique visitors. The site was also the No. 22 domain overall.
As of early fall more than three million people were using SaveNow, and that number has grown since then.
WhenU’s web site provides the following examples of how SaveNow behaves in action.
"If you went to a search engine and typed in ‘long distance,’ you might get an offer for SmartPrice--a site that we found to be the best for comparing long distance plans.
"If you go to a travel site--we might show you how to save 40 percent on travel at Hotwire. If you go to a retail site, you might see an offer for a $20-off coupon at Overstock.com."
WhenU’s software has irritated web site publishers and online advertisers alike because what it does can be interpreted as poaching ad dollars.
Furthermore, SaveNow communicates with WhenU to automatically upgrade itself, in addition to retrieving ads targeted to the user. SaveNow targets its ads to consumers by monitoring where consumers are surfing, according to the site.
There are other services like WhenU, such as eZula, which piggybacks on music-trading software KaZaA.
There’s also the much-maligned shopping companion Gator.com. Gator.com, however, bowed to pressure from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and agreed to stop selling the type of ads it specialized in, which covered up web sites’ existing ads.
But they haven’t gone entirely straight, according to some experts.
"They’ve just gone back to spying on people and popping up windows," says Jim Wilson, webmaster of a network of sites called JimWorld, about Gator.com.
"They’re still spying like crazy. Everything you do is logged on their servers, even when your browser’s not running."
Other groups are fighting the services as well.
Wilson heads one of these groups, which has dubbed such software "scumware." The community of webmasters gathers at Scumware.com to trade solutions about combating these WhenU-type services.
The group confronts the services, in addition to offering alternatives such as Roboform, a comparison-shopping service that helps consumers automatically fill out forms on web sites.
Roboform, Wilson says, doesn’t pop up rival banners or track users’ activities. Consumers can click on a link on the Roboform web site to convert their Gator software into the less-invasive Roboform.
|
Top 25 Properties |
|||
| Property |
Unique |
Reach % |
Time Spent |
| 1. AOL Time Warner |
39,122 |
51.3 |
0:16:14 |
| 2. Yahoo |
32,178 |
42.2 |
0:32:01 |
| 3. MSN |
28,757 |
37.7 |
0:27:49 |
| 4. Microsoft |
11,706 |
15.4 |
0:05:11 |
| 5. Amazon |
8,899 |
11.7 |
0:10:53 |
| 6. eBay |
8,789 |
11.5 |
0:43:09 |
| 7. About-Primedia |
7,887 |
10.4 |
0:08:27 |
| 8. Lycos Network |
7,887 |
10.4 |
0:08:33 |
| 9. Google |
7,513 |
9.9 |
0:10:46 |
| 10. Walt Disney Internet Group |
6,588 |
8.7 |
0:17:21 |
| 11. Excite@Home |
5,815 |
7.6 |
0:12:49 |
| 12. eUniverse Network |
5,001 |
6.6 |
0:07:54 |
| 13. CNET Networks |
4,490 |
5.9 |
0:07:33 |
| 14. American Greetings |
4,192 |
5.5 |
0:07:20 |
| 15. InfoSpace |
3,960 |
5.2 |
0:05:50 |
| 16. Ask Jeeves |
3,902 |
5.1 |
0:05:25 |
| 17. AT&T |
3,833 |
5.0 |
0:12:09 |
| 18. Gator.com |
3,757 |
4.9 |
0:09:41 |
| 19. Classmates |
3,548 |
4.7 |
0:05:14 |
| 20. EarthLink |
3,083 |
4.1 |
0:08:41 |
| 21. Symantec |
2,836 |
3.7 |
0:05:54 |
| 22. EA Online |
2,820 |
3.7 |
0:59:07 |
| 23. United Online |
2,797 |
3.7 |
0:08:58 |
| 24. Vivendi Universal |
2,770 |
3.6 |
0:15:00 |
| 25. WhenU.com |
2,698 |
3.5 |
0:02:07 |
|
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings |
|||
|
Top 10 Advertisers |
|||
| Advertiser |
Banner and |
Unique |
Reach % |
| 1. AOL Time Warner |
850,884 |
31,504 |
41.34 |
| 2. Microsoft Corp. |
663,712 |
24,168 |
31.71 |
| 3. Yahoo |
331,132 |
20,822 |
27.32 |
| 4. eBay |
154,262 |
15,045 |
19.74 |
| 5. Cassava Enterprises |
139,509 |
16,702 |
21.92 |
| 6. National Geographic Society |
135,594 |
11,465 |
15.05 |
| 7. Barnes & Noble |
131,278 |
17,378 |
22.8 |
| 8. Classmates Online |
115,546 |
17,145 |
22.5 |
| 9. Amazon.com |
93,525 |
17,634 |
23.14 |
| 10. Sony Corp. |
90,966 |
15,939 |
20.92 |
|
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings |
|||
|
Top 25 Domains |
|||
| Domain |
Unique |
Reach % |
Time Spent |
| 1. yahoo.com |
30,690 |
40.3 |
0:32:25 |
| 2. aol.com |
28,591 |
37.5 |
0:13:32 |
| 3. msn.com |
25,592 |
33.6 |
0:24:07 |
| 4. passport.com |
13,462 |
17.7 |
0:03:13 |
| 5. microsoft.com |
10,652 |
14.0 |
0:05:01 |
| 6. amazon.com |
8,565 |
11.2 |
0:10:33 |
| 7. ebay.com |
8,293 |
10.9 |
0:43:38 |
| 8. google.com |
7,513 |
9.9 |
0:10:45 |
| 9. go.com |
6,344 |
8.3 |
0:17:46 |
| 10. netscape.com |
6,333 |
8.3 |
0:09:39 |
| 11. geocities.com |
6,276 |
8.2 |
0:04:57 |
| 12. excite.com |
4,573 |
6.0 |
0:13:49 |
| 13. gator.com |
3,729 |
4.9 |
0:09:39 |
| 14. classmates.com |
3,548 |
4.7 |
0:05:14 |
| 15. lycos.com |
3,410 |
4.5 |
0:10:50 |
| 16. cnn.com |
3,199 |
4.2 |
0:09:47 |
| 17. tripod.com |
3,086 |
4.1 |
0:03:42 |
| 18. about.com |
3,055 |
4.0 |
0:04:37 |
| 19. compuserve.com |
2,967 |
3.9 |
0:17:06 |
| 20. msnbc.com |
2,843 |
3.7 |
0:08:32 |
| 21. earthlink.net |
2,754 |
3.6 |
0:08:55 |
| 22. whenu.com |
2,698 |
3.5 |
0:02:07 |
| 23. hotmail.com |
2,520 |
3.3 |
0:25:46 |
| 24. iwon.com |
2,457 |
3.2 |
0:38:27 |
| 25. pogo.com |
2,296 |
3.0 |
1:09:11 |
|
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings |
|||
|
Top 25 Advertising Domains |
||
| Domain |
Banner |
Reach % |
| 1. msn.com |
949,205 |
29.9 |
| 2. yahoo.com |
946,035 |
32.87 |
| 3. aol.com |
235,477 |
24.33 |
| 4. ebay.com |
193,727 |
6.98 |
| 5. pogo.com |
165,769 |
2.74 |
| 6. lycos.com |
124,280 |
3.39 |
| 7. musiccity.com |
113,917 |
2.44 |
| 8. go.com |
106,274 |
6.24 |
| 9. netscape.com |
106,154 |
6.42 |
| 10. monster.com |
64,785 |
1.71 |
| 11. att.net |
61,935 |
2.54 |
| 12. classmates.com |
37,544 |
2.85 |
| 13. compuserve.com |
36,919 |
3.28 |
| 14. excite.com |
34,562 |
2.98 |
| 15. fastclick.net |
30,328 |
6.78 |
| 16. cnn.com |
30,192 |
3.29 |
| 17. attbi.com |
28,171 |
0.95 |
| 18. blackplanet.com |
26,406 |
0.53 |
| 19. delphiforums.com |
25,508 |
0.16 |
| 20. cartoonnetwork.com |
23,871 |
1.25 |
| 21. looksmart.com |
23,290 |
1.92 |
| 22. msnbc.com |
22,309 |
3.49 |
| 23. audiogalaxy.com |
21,510 |
0.84 |
| 24. gamefaqs.com |
21,089 |
0.43 |
| 25. netzero.net |
20,834 |
0.99 |
|
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings |
||
|
Top Ten Banners |
|||
| Advertiser |
Unique |
Active |
Banner |
| 1. Bonzi.com Software |
8,478 |
11.13 |
48,403 |
| 2. Sharebuilder Securities Corp. |
7,365 |
9.66 |
24,941 |
| 3. National Geographic Society |
7,300 |
9.58 |
98,276 |
| 4. Expedia Inc. |
6,500 |
8.53 |
28,149 |
| 5. Gap Stores |
5,407 |
7.1 |
16,132 |
| 6. Classmates Online |
5,296 |
6.95 |
11,159 |
| 7. Classmates Online |
5,104 |
6.7 |
37,026 |
| 8. CITIBANK NA |
4,551 |
5.97 |
8,937 |
| 9. Orbitz |
4,436 |
5.82 |
29,206 |
| 10. Sharebuilder Securities Corp. |
4,383 |
5.75 |
8,282 |
|
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings |
|||
|
Average Usage |
|||
| Values |
Current Week |
Last Week |
% Chg |
| Number of Sessions per Week |
6 |
6 |
0.00 |
| Page Views per Week |
228 |
227 |
0.44 |
| Page Views per Surfing Session |
36 |
37 |
-2.70 |
| Time Spent per Week |
3:22:58 |
3:27:39 |
-2.25 |
| Time Spent during Surfing Session |
0:32:29 |
0:33:20 |
-2.55 |
| Duration a Page Viewed |
0:00:54 |
0:00:54 |
0.17 |
| Active Internet Universe |
76,205,687 |
78,040,479 |
-2.35 |
| Current Internet Universe Estimate |
175,119,620 |
174,877,881 |
0.14 |
|
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings |
|||
December 19, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
-Marty Beard is a staff writer for Media Life.
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