Pesky Pop-Up Ads Go Mainstream, As 'Adware' Gains Acceptance
It's the new spam: software that sits on your computer and makes ads pop up as you browse the Web. Known as spyware or adware, it's reviled by consumers and under fire from crusading lawmakers, who say it is annoying, deceptive and a threat to privacy.
It's the kind of advertising only a fringe business -- a pornography or gambling site, or an online prescription-drug service -- would use, right?
Wrong. Telecommunications giant Verizon Communications Inc. has been using adware for nearly two years to draw prospective customers to its high-speed Internet business. Claria Corp., the leading adware provider, names Sprint Corp., Motorola Inc. and online travel company Orbitz Inc. among its clients in a recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Claria's chief rival, WhenU Co., says British Airways PLC and Bank of America Corp. are among the big-name companies that have used its service.
Advertisers like adware because they believe it works, delivering more customers at a lower cost than many other forms of online advertising. "We find that it's much more efficient than other means of direct advertising," says John Bonomo, a Verizon spokesman.
But Mayra Harley, who runs a small online-marketing company in Tampa, Fla., isn't a fan of the messages that clutter up her computer screen every time she does an Internet search. "To me, it's very disheartening to see companies using" adware, she says. "We consumers have to worry about cleaning up their mess." Some adware can be easily removed from a hard drive, but in many cases it requires special spyware-removal software, such as Ad-aware or PestPatrol.
Other critics rank adware right next to other online pests such as viruses and spam. Although many advertisers that rely on adware say they take steps to avoid alienating customers, it's a line critics say is impossible to walk.
"Generally speaking, [adware] tends to undermine consumer trust," says Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a Washington, D.C., advocacy group. "There really is the risk of a consumer backlash where people say this is no longer acceptable."
Adware is typically downloaded -- often without the Web user's knowledge -- along with music-sharing programs, such as Kazaa, or with free screen-savers, toolbars or desktop weather services. Once on a computer's hard drive, the software serves up ads when the user searches a topic related to the advertiser's products or visits related Web sites. Someone looking for information about mortgages from Wells Fargo, for instance, might see pop-up ads for rival loan services. The more reputable adware companies tell consumers what the programs do and ask for permission to download to their PC -- but usually the notice is buried deep in fine print.
Privacy advocates criticize adware for tracking users' surfing habits without their knowledge, while online publishers and retailers object to the appearance of competitors' ads on their pages. Utah recently banned the use of all spyware, including adware, and Congress is considering similar legislation. A group of newspaper publishers, including Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal and The Online Journal, in 2002 sued Claria (then known as Gator) over the practice; the parties settled the case last year.
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Adware isn't just a fly-by-night advertising tactic anymore. Some of the companies that adware provider Claria says have used its services:
? eHarmony.com
? Motorola
? Orbitz
? Priceline.com
? Shopping.com
? Sprint
? Verizon
Source: Claria Corp. SEC filings
Many advertisers won't talk about their use of adware. A spokesman at Sprint confirms that the phone company uses Claria but wouldn't discuss the topic any further. Bank of America says it once used adware but doesn't anymore. A spokesman says Motorola has used Claria in the past but doesn't do so currently, declining to elaborate. Orbitz declined to talk about its marketing.
Those willing to discuss adware say it is too valuable to ignore, despite opposition. Verizon has used Claria and WhenU since late 2002 for many of its products and services. "It's as much a means of reaching our customers as traditional forms of advertising," Mr. Bonomo says.
Verizon takes precautions to avoid a backlash, he says: The company refuses to let its ads pop up while a user is viewing a competitor's site and it doesn't collect information on the consumers who see the ads. So far, he says, Verizon hasn't received any customer complaints.
Mr. Bonomo declines to detail how effective adware has been in attracting customers. Alan Schanzer, managing director of an online media-services company called Digital Edge/Mediaedge:cia, says adware can be more than twice as effective as other forms of online advertising.
Yet the ads won't work if they annoy consumers or run afoul of competitors, Mr. Schanzer says. To minimize complaints, Digital Edge controls where its clients' ads appear: A hotel ad might appear on a Yahoo travel page, but not over a Hilton Hotels Web site.
Digital Edge stopped using adware for its clients during earlier legal challenges but recently returned to the medium. "The challenge is that it's very effective," Mr. Schanzer says. "The problem is that we're not 100% comfortable with the approach."
British Airways earlier this year used Claria and WhenU to promote travel between the U.S. and London as part of a spring-ticket sale. The ads would appear when travelers searched for British tourism information. (It isn't currently running any adware campaigns.) The company won't discuss exactly how effective the ads were but a representative of its ad-buying agency says the adware component "was typically among the most successful."
Amy O'Kane, director of marketing services for British Airways North America, says the success of the effort is a sign that consumers didn't object. If they had a problem, she says, "we would know it immediately because no one would be clicking on those ads."
British Airways tries to minimize potential customer annoyance. Its ad buyer, itraffic, a division of Omnicom Group's Agency.com unit, says it uses only a handful of adware companies that make the software easy to remove, and it avoids "drive-by downloads," which deliver the software without consumers' consent. Itraffic also limits how often its client's ads will appear, so a consumer won't see the same ad more than two or three times in the campaign.
Still, advertisers can do only so much to overcome what some see as the technique's deep-seated problems. Even the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the online-advertising industry's standards group, is uncomfortable with the system.
"Marketers always tell me the same thing: It's effective," says Greg Stuart, president and chief executive of the New York group. "I say the same thing: 'Yeah, and Tony Soprano's management techniques are effective, but we don't accept them in a civilized society.'"
广告软件争取生存空间
新的垃圾信息来了：这是一种植入你电脑中的软件，它在你浏览网页时不时弹出广告。这种所谓的间谍软件或广告软件被消费者所诅咒，并受到立法者的炮轰，他们称它让人恼火、具有欺骗性，而且是对隐私的威胁。
这种广告只有那些边缘公司如色情或赌博网站，或网上处方药服务等才使用的手段，对吗？
错。电信巨头公司Verizon Communications Inc.使用广告软件来吸引高速互联网业务的潜在用户已将近两年。主要的广告软件供应商Claria Corp.在其最近提交给美国证券交易(Securities and Exchange Commission)的文件中列出了如下客户名单：斯普林特(Sprint Corp.)、摩托罗拉公司(Motorola Inc.)、和网上旅行公司Orbitz Inc.。Claria的主要竞争对手WhenU Co.称，英国航空(British Airways PLC)、美国银行(Bank of America Corp.)也在其服务客户之列。
广告商喜欢广告软件，因为他们认为它有效，以较其他很多形式的网络广告更低的成本向更多客户传递了广告信息。“我们发现它比其他直接的广告更加有效，”Verizon的发言人John Bonomo说。
但Mayra Harley并不喜欢这些在她上网搜索时把她的电脑屏幕搞得乱七八糟的广告信息。她在佛罗里达的坦帕经营著一家网络营销公司。“对我而言，看到这些公司使用广告软件是非常叫人沮丧的，”她说，“我们消费者不得不担心要清理这些乱七八糟的东西。”一些广告软件能轻易地从硬盘上删除，但在很多情况下，需要动用间谍软件的清除软件，如Ad-aware或PestPatrol。
另外一些批评人士将广告软件斥之为仅次于病毒和垃圾邮件等网络害虫的东西。虽然很多倚赖广告软件的广告商称他们采取了措施避免疏离客户，但批评人士称这是条不可能逾越的界线。
“一般而言，（广告软件）会有损消费的信任，”哥伦比亚特区的游说组织Electronic Privacy Information Center的执行董事Marc Rotenberg说。“的确存在引起消费者反弹的危险，人们可能会说这是不可接受的。”
广告软件是下载来的－－往往是在网络用户不知情的情况下－－一般是和音乐共享程序如Kazaa或免费的屏幕保护程序或桌面天气预报服务一道下载的。一旦下载到一台电脑的硬盘上，该软件就会在用户搜索一个与广告的产品有关的主题时或访问相关网站时弹出广告。比如，某人在搜寻有关富国银行(Wells Fargo)抵押贷款时，该银行竞争对手的贷款服务的广告就会弹将出来。名声好点的广告软件公司会告诉客户这个程序如何运行并在下载前寻求用户的许可－－但这样的告示往往以微小的字体显示，令人难以察觉。
隐私维护团体批评广告软件在用户不知情的情况下跟踪用户的网络浏览习惯，而网络出版商和零售商反对在他们的网页上出现竞争对手的广告。犹他州最近宣布禁止使用所有的间谍软件，包括广告软件，美国国会正在考虑类似的立法。包括《华尔街日报》(The Wall Street Journal)的出版商道琼斯公司(Dow Jones & Co.)在内的报纸出版行业团体曾于2002年就这一问题起诉Claria（当时它名为Gator）；双方在去年就此达成了和解。
很多广告商不愿意谈及他们对广告软件的使用。斯普林特的发言人称，他们使用的是Claria的软件，但拒绝就此做进一步阐述。美国银行称，它过去使用过广告软件，但现在不再使用了。摩托罗拉的发言人称，过去使用过Claria，但目前没有用了，公司也拒绝详细说明。Orbitz拒绝谈论它的营销。
而那些愿意谈论广告软件的人却说它太有价值了，尽管有人反对，但也不能忽视它。Verizon在2002年年底曾使用Claria和WhenU为很多它的产品和服务做广告。“它和传统形式的广告一样将我们的广告信息传递个我们的客户，”Bonomo说。
Verizon很谨慎地避免引起消费者的反弹，他说：公司不让它的广告在用户浏览竞争对手的网站时弹出，而且公司也不收集看到这些广告的客户的信息。他说，到现在为止，Verizon还没有收到过任何客户的投诉。
Bonomo不愿具体说明广告软件在吸引客户时有多有效。Alan Schanzer是一家名为Digital Edge/Mediaedge:cia的网络媒体服务公司的董事总经理，他说广告软件比其他形式的网络广告有效两倍。
但如果广告让消费者感到恼火或与竞争对手的广告相撞车，广告将达不到效果，Schanzer说。为了将投诉降低到最低，Digital Edge控制其客户广告出现的地方：一个酒店广告可能会出现在雅虎的旅游网页上，但它不会出现在希尔顿酒店(Hilton Hotels)的网页上。
Digital Edge在早前的法律诉讼时期停止使用广告软件为客户提供服务，但最近又开始使用这一媒介。“挑战在于它非常有效，”Schanzer说，“问题是我们对这一方法不是100%的放心。”
英国航空(British Airways)今年早些时候使用了Claria和WhenU为美国到伦敦的航线进行春季促销。旅游者在搜索有关英国旅游信息时将有它的广告弹出。（它目前没有采用任何广告软件。）公司不愿讨论这些广告如何有效，但其广告购买代理商的代表称，广告软件“往往是最有效的。”
英国航空北美营销总监Amy O'Kane说，这一广告的成功显示消费者并不反对它。如果它们有问题，她说，“我们会立即知道的，因为那样的话没有人会点击那些广告。”
英国航空尽量将潜在的客户不满控制在最低水平。它的广告购买商、Omnicom Group旗下Agency.com的子公司称，它只用了软件易被删除的几家广告软件公司的服务，而且它没有“强迫性下载”，也就是未在客户知晓的情况下下载。Itraffic还限制客户广告弹出的频率，因此一个客户不会看到同一广告超过两次或三次。
不过，要克服一些人认为的技术上的深层问题，广告商所能做的也就是这些了。即便是网络广告行业标准团体互动广告局(Interactive Advertising Bureau)对这一系统也有所不安。
“市场销售人员总是告诉我同一件事：这东西有效，”该组织的总裁兼首席执行长Greg Stuart说。“我的回应也都是：'是啊，Tony Soprano的管理方式很有效，但在一个文明社会中，我们不能接受它们。'”
