Claria on WPW

[Glenn Albert Bradley]

Claria formerly Gator, has been a predatory advertiser stealing away affiliate commissions as well as preying on ebay, yahoo and other stores stealing sales. Why is this forum here if you are going to have Claria as an advertiser!

[thiefware]

Anyone who's serious about affiliate marketing knows that thiefware is their enemy. Why is WebProWorld.com showing Gator/Claria ads??? Dang, WPW should know better than that. I'm shocked to see such a webmaster board display ads of the enemy of web site owners and affiliate marketers.

Thiefware puts up ads over sites that didn't give their permission to do so and Thiefware takes away affiliate commissions by diversion tactics in connection with cookie swapping and taking credit for sales they didn't earn.

Certainly a huge black mark on WebProWorld today :(

[Linda Buquet]

Glenn,

I have not seen Claria ads until now. I sent an email to the forum administrators about it though. My primary contact is off for jury duty and I'm not sure who's in charge of advertising but sent an email to someone at the top.

[Linda Buquet]

Like many people, I am banner ad blind and did not ever even see the ad, so don't know when it started, maybe just today? I just sent an email to the administrators about this.

[thiefware]

I'm sure there are many webmasters that would be offended by the ads. It's sure offensive to me. It baffles me that a webmaster forum would throw something like this in our face after the tens of thousands of threads denouncing their practice. Gator/Claria are thieves in many people's eyes and a scourge of the net.

It's like WebProWorld is advertising for Spammer businesses, same kind of insult.

[Brittany]

Hello everyone,

Thank you for your concern. The Claria advertisements have been removed from WebProWorld as their campaign has ended. If Claria decide to run a campaign again in the future, we will look into this situation further when determining whether to run the ads on WebProWorld.

Please understand that the advertisements on WebProWorld are not chosen by the WebProWorld site administrators but by higher level iEntry network management. The ads do not reflect the personal beliefs of Garrett French, myself, or the rest of the WebProWorld Team.

Feel free to share any comments or suggestions you may have. If you have any other questions or concerns regarding WebProWorld I am happy to help.

Brittany
Forum Host

[thiefware]

What web properties make up iEntry web conglomerates. Does iEntry not know what Gator/Claria has done to the thousands of affiliates?

Gator (aka Claria) are one of the most despised companies on the net and with good reason. Consider this article published back in May 2003 by the LED Digest--just one example of their unethical treatment of people in general:


Date: Thu, 8 May 2003 21:59:00 -0800
Subject: LED Digest 1576: Gator Stealing Affiliate Sales?

==================================================
The LED Digest
Moderated Discussion List
"Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997"
==================================================
List Moderator: Published by:
Adam AudetteLED Digest
adam[at]led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com
.................................................
May 8, 2003 Issue #1576
.................................................


.....IN THIS DIGEST.....

(irrelevant parts omitted)


===== CONTINUING =================================

From: Robert McRackan
Subject: Overture Gator

> I have used Gator to keep and maintain my passwords and
> to assist in filling in online forms since the company began
> several years ago. The system is reliable and provides a
> valuable asset.
- Stephen Schneider, LED 1574

If there is any way that I could be more shocked at Mr. Schneider's pro-Gator letter, I'm not sure how!

Not only have I never seen or heard about a single positive comment of Gator and the GAIN network (prior to his letter), but I can also personally attest to the damage it does to PCs and the damage it does to business.

My last job was as the Affiliate Account Administrator at a dot-com with an in-house affiliate program of over 40,000 people. (The company still has a lawsuit pending with GAIN so I'll not say their name.)

Within a week of Gator / GAIN signing up, their profits skyrocketed and the profits of all other affiliates plummeted by a comparable amount. When 4 out of our top 5 affiliates noticed the sharp and sudden decline in their profits, I asked our IT team to look into it.

After much frustration, our IT team discovered that computers with Gator software installed on them were replacing any tracking referral IDs with the one they signed up with. Basically, my site "abc.com" has an affiliate program, the progress of which is tracked with affiliate ID numbers so that they work even if cookies are disabled.

A surfer visits an affiliate of ours: "site.com" with referral ID 123. Gator has ID 987. When the surfer (with Gator installed on their computer) clicks on an affiliate link on site.com to abc.com?ID=123, Gator replaces the ID number and the visitor goes to abc.com?ID=987.

This means that even though our affiliates were responsible for bringing us new clients, they earned nothing and Gator earned their commissions. Gator claimed this was simply a tracking feature of a plug in they installed.

With the consent of my manager and VP, I froze their account due to suspicious behavior. Justice served? Not really. Before I left the company almost a year ago, they still had not decided a fair way to compensate those cheated by Gator.

Anyone who is having problems with this viral program and cannot remove it from their computer is encouraged to use Ad-Aware by Lavasoft. They have a free version that I love and die by which can be found here: http://www.webattack.com/get/adaware.shtml

Robert McRackan, Senior Technical Engineer
www.keywordranking.com

Hopefully iEntry will reconsider their position on that issue and join the rest of us to remove this injustice from the web. The fewer people they can reach, the better it will be for the rest of us that want to conduct business more ethically.

And that's not to mention the mass of users whom they have infected with Gator/Offer Companion in the drive-by downloads that sneak onto people's computers and the virtually hidden installs that happen onto unbeknownst freeware installers. And it's hard to remove without the aid of thiefware removal tools once a person realizes Gator has been installed.

Gator says they let people know about the installs, but not before it's already installed (or at least that was a very common tactic in the past, EULA's don't count as a viable way of disclosing the install).

[Linda Buquet]

Thank you Brittany!

[thiefware]

Thanks Brittany for the positive move that is starting to happen. Hopefully the momentum carried out will make this a permanent ban for Claria.

[Glenn Albert Bradley]

I really think everyone here deserves a pat on the back. Claris/Gator/GAIN whichever alias they choose to call themselves these days, is still a viable threat to affiliates and small business owners. The mass amount of data they compiled through years of exploitation of the networks they partnered with equates to corporate espionage in my book. The use of that data to then steal the commissions from affiliates and merchants beautifies Enron for Sainthood. Thier blantant violation of civil rights of parents by targeting those underaged with slick screensavers, music, games and other promotionals has invited other businesses who support Claris to toss thier business ethics out the window.

[redcircle]

I can't believe it. What do I see on WPW? An ad for the granddaddy of spyware. Wait, Claria is adware, don't want to piss them off. How can WPW stoop that low?

[Brittany]

redcircle,

Claria is an advertiser with iEntry and does not reflect the personal views of WebProWorld, its staff or its moderators. Furthermore, the site administrators have no control over what ads appear on this site. Sorry, wish we did.

I've merged your post with the already-existing Claria thread. Your views are shared by several members but if you strongly object to having Claria help pay the bills, I suggest you take it up with iEntry.

Thanks!

Brittany

[redcircle]

that's what I figured but I just wanted to vent :)

[canistotasoftware]

Hello everyone,

Thank you for your concern. The Claria advertisements have been removed from WebProWorld as their campaign has ended. If Claria decide to run a campaign again in the future, we will look into this situation further when determining whether to run the ads on WebProWorld.


Brittany
Forum Host

Not quite ended Brittany, still showing as of today.

[zeedav]

I have come to find out that that Overture has a partnership with Claria using the Claria/Gator GSearchScout search engine. I have contacted Overture and they see nothing wrong with this relationship. From what I understand about this company I am disappointed that Overture would stoop this low.

Gary

[qball0213]

Really like the nice big claria ads on this site, no reason to hang around here I guess.

[Linda Buquet]

Hi qball,

Really glad you made it over here and I'd still like to welcome you.

I merged your post in with the other Claria posts. This has been an ongoing bone of contention. At one point we got them to stop advertising Claria but now the ads are back.

You know how anti-parasite I am, but I can't control what the parent company does or who they advertise with. All I can do is keep trying to help the honest affiliates that want to make money in ethical ways.

[qball0213]

Just got the email, which I had thought I had unsubscribed from, with a nice big claria ad in it. It's amazing that a place for affiliates and webmasters is running ads for gator. Unsubscribed again.

[Glenn Albert Bradley]

Along with Overture, Claria is back as the header of this forum. Is affiliate marketing so over-bloated with affiliates that merchants, and now forums have decided to cut the middle man out? ie affiliates. I just dont get it.

[Linda Buquet]

Hey Glenn,

Have not seen you for ages.

I'm sorry but I have no say about who iEntry advertises with. This has come up before to no avail. Even though I am very uncomfortable with the ads I sometimes see, I will still work here as a volunteer to try to help affiliates.

[mike]

First I've heard of this being an issue really. I'll fix it.

[Linda Buquet]

Previous admins weren't able to so I didn't think anyone could. Thank so much Mike. We appreciate you!!!

[Glenn Albert Bradley]

Also thanks to the admins for "fixing" the issue. I really bring this up as to keep the new affiliates aware of the predator that is out there. "Behavioral" marketing as they call it now has been gleaned from teenagers, affiliates and affiliate programs. Gain/Gator/Clara or whomever they wish to call themselves these days is really reaking havoc on the web consumer by trashing their computers, stealing sales from webmasters who worked hard on their web sites. On the other hand, if it pays the rent, whom am I to tell you who should advertise on your site (WPW). Just a few thoughts, here, not trying to incite a riot or anything. I did extensive research, and unfortunately it all went the way of a now defunct forum.