Competitors' popups on our site! Any suggestions?

[Meg]

Occasionally we get complaints that competitors' popups appear when people are browsing our site. Is there anything we can do to stop the popups?

TIA!

Meg

[redcircle]

Your customers probably have software like gator running on their computer. This is a problem on your customers computer not your site. So really there is nothing you can do. You could let people know that the popup ads are not yours and suggest they download spybot to remove the spyware on their computer.

[Meg]

Originally Posted by redcircle

You could let people know that the popup ads are not yours and suggest they download spybot to remove the spyware on their computer.

Good ideas! We're going to use a brief message on a key page and then give members info about removing spyware in our FAQs.

Thanks!

Meg

[simonm]

Meg, You didn't give a URL for the site in question.

If its not spyware, I'm sure we can soon get to the bottom of where the pop-ups are coming from.

[Meg]

Thanks for the offer! Spyware does make sense given that it is only a problem for a few. Here's the address: www.lendinguniverse.com. On this site I handle customer support and can take no credit for the design. I do offer suggestions on functionality but the site is so successful that improvements are not the current focus. Servicing our expanding public is taking all of our effort. Maybe someday...

TIA!

Meg

[DrTandem1]

Sorry for the delayed reply on this, but I'm using Thanksgiving to catch up on the e-mail I have set aside and this was a topic in one of the newsletters (11/13).

I had a client call asking why I had put a link to a truck parts site on their site. I assured them that I had not. I then went to the client's site and saw nothing. I remembered reading about some software Microsoft had, I think it was called Smart Tags or something like that. Anyway, it is software that is installed on YOUR browser that looks for keywords of the software's client on the website you are viewing. It then turns those keywords into a link to the other client's site.

I believe Microsoft never went ahead or stopped their version of this, but the Genie was already out of the bottle. My client's trouble was another version, but I instructed them how to remove it.

Gator is another such animal. It will actually cover up banner ads with its own banner ads of its clients. I first used Gator as an easy way to fill out forms much the way the Google Toolbar can. Gator quickly turned into a monster. My son had it installed on his computer without his knowledge. He probably clicked on some pop-up and it was installed. His caused all sorts of problems with the XP OS. I had a devil of a time removing it. It was almost like a virus. As I deleted one part it replicated itself. I think I ended up renaming the folder where it resided and then deleting it.

It was such a bad experience, I only recently installed the Google Toolbar. So, far, no complaints, although it too is a form of spyware.

[Narasinha]

Originally Posted by DrTandem1

I had a client call asking why I had put a link to a truck parts site on their site. I assured them that I had not. I then went to the client's site and saw nothing. I remembered reading about some software Microsoft had, I think it was called Smart Tags or something like that. Anyway, it is software that is installed on YOUR browser that looks for keywords of the software's client on the website you are viewing. It then turns those keywords into a link to the other client's site.

This reminds me of several small problems with some sites years ago. It was very difficult to explain to the clients that the problem was not with their web site, but with their specific computer. They never looked at the site except from the PC on their desk. They had no idea that it could look or operate differently elsewhere. This is never easy, particularly with clients who are not technically savvy.