There is a
danger that your website(s) will be used to drive visitors to other
sites. Software has been developed that scans webpages and documents
for key text anywhere on the Internet, specific words or phrases
that can be used as launching points for advertisements. This software
then highlights the words, converting them into links that carry
your website visitor elsewhere. It's a lucrative way that unscrupulous
businesses are starting to use to make money from advertisers. It's
called "smart tags".
It's also
called "theftware" and "scumware".
To prevent
it, use this meta tag at the top of each webpage:
<META NAME="MSSmartTagsPreventParsing"
content="TRUE">
Scumware usually
gets installed on unsuspecting users' computers as an add-on piece
of software that piggy-backs secretly on other downloads. One
of the programs that distributes scumware is named KaZaA, a NAPSTER-style
file-sharing program. A few others are:
eZula http://www.eZula.com
Gator http://www.gator.com
Surf+ http://www.filemix.net
(This one claims to have turned off the scumware component.)
The software helps people fill out forms (e.g. Gator) and stop
pop up ads (Surf+). But it comes with a program called TopText
(or HOTtext or DesktopDollars, to name two others). When the software
is installed, TopText delivers ads using the text on any website.
Advertisers
buy words. When a webpage loads, TopText looks for words that
have been purchased words and overlays a link to the advertiser's
site on that text.
The potential
certainly exists that your visitors will be sent to porn sites!
But any theft of visitors through scumware is vandalism of your
sites, copyright infringement, and fraud.
Interested
in seeing what it looks like? Here's a screen shot that someone
else has posted from getting hit by TopText on their site:
freegraphics.com/zz-scumware/screenshots-fg.html
Educating your website's visitors about which downloads are carrying
the scumware is currently the only way to combat this. When people
get fed up with all those links springing up during their web
surfing, they will delete the software from their computers. Once
this advertising tactic is no longer enticing because the price
of buying words is too high and ineffective, scumware distributors
will give up and seek other sources of revenue. The decision that
Surf+ has already made to stop distributing TopText is proof of
that.
If you want
to post warnings about this on your site(s) and tell people not
to download software from the above-mentioned sites, you may copy
some or all of the information here without further permission,
but please give credit to the GWNDA with a link to our home page
(gnwda.org). You might also want to link to this public page that
explains how to delete the SmartTag software: gnwda.org/removesmarttags.htm
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EXTRA TIPS
Below
are links to other articles about this topic. If
you have more information on this, please notify GNWDA
admin.
•
Real Life Internet Evil: Microsoft's Smart Tags
(scroll
down the page to this title to read the article)
• New Web advertising tool gets results, draws criticism
• Yellow Link Virus
• Don't Eat the Yellow Links
• SCUMBAGS HIJACK YOUR WEB SITES
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