What's the deal with all those Free Smiley ads?

[jsinger]

I gather you get some junk-ware along with the smilies, but I can't find anything on the web about that.

Some pretty reputable sites now display smiley banners.

[jsinger]

"ALL OF OUR APPLICATIONS COME WITH THE MY WAY SPEEDBAR™ OR MY WEB SEARCH™ BROWSER PLUGIN -- EACH OF WHICH IS A CUSTOMIZABLE BROWSER TOOLBAR WHICH PROVIDES END USERS WITH EASY ACCESS TO SEARCH RESULTS FROM THE BEST SEARCH ENGINES ON THE INTERNET IN JUST ONE CLICK AND ENHANCES YOUR BROWSER EXPERIENCE BY PROVIDING RELEVANT LINKS AND RESULTS IN RESPONSE TO MISSPELLED OR INCORRECTLY FORMATTED BROWSER ADDRESS REQUESTS."

The above is an example of a typical "Free Emoticon site" disclaimer. These sites and banners are everywhere. Sure makes you wonder about the intelligence of the average web user!