Google and "search scout" by Gator

is this little parasite annoying anyone?

[HackingLawyer]

Search engines get 'Gatored'

"By Stefanie Olsen
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
January 14, 2003, 11:54 AM PT

The Gator online advertising network is testing a new paid search product that lets rivals poach on each other's territory in one of the Net's hottest new marketing venues.
Search Scout, launched in December, triggers a pop-under window when Gator members search on a site such as Google and Yahoo. The window lists search results tied to keywords purchased through competing search services"
news.com.com/2100-1023-980572.html

This little predator pops under Google search results. In my opinion it is an unwelcome parasite on Google and other search engine?

Is there anything being done by Google to block this little bloodsucker?

[edited by: heini at 6:42 am (utc) on May 7, 2003]
[edit reason] delinked [/edit]

[Krapulator]

I would image the pop-under is triggered from the client machine, thus technically speaking theres not much they can do about it.

Gator have been pushing dodgy marketing techniques like this for ages.

[SEO practioner]

gator... :-(

[Powdork]

As an alumnus at the University of Florida these people are really starting to piss me off. If you have these pop ups it means that at some point you clicked yes to one of their downloads. It may also come bundled with other software as well.

[HackingLawyer]

U.F. Alum here to - this adds insult to injury!

[RawAlex]

Gator lives on the edge of "full disclosure", tricking people with things like "worldwide time" and other innocent sounding offers to get people to download and install their product. Once on your system, they do all sorts of tricks (and add new ones all the time) that include overlaying banner ads on sites with banners of their own, and now the "search help" type matching keywords.

They have been in court numerous times. I have read the disclosure before download, and it is honestly not full and complete. However, it would appear to be the responsibility of the individual surfer and not the site owners to take gator on, as it is installed one at a time WITH PERMISSION of the end user.

Site owners may have some comeback on grounds of copyright, as replacement or modification of the original document to add or modify advertising might be considered use of copyrighted material without permission. Again, who do you go after, the guys who wrote the software, or the end user who agreed to install it?

No matter what, Gator sucks. I hope someone gives them a legal wedgie one of these days.

Alex

[Powdork]

Hacking Lawyer,
It would seem the ball is in your court. And don't forget trademark infringement too. Maybe UF could become a client.

[vdlddd8379]

Overture results are now syndicated to Gator. If you use Overture you are now an unwitting Gator participant. I tried writing to Overture about it and, unfortunately, you are not given an option of opting out of Gator syndication.

[RawAlex]

No, but you always have the option of stopping using Overture.

Alex

[Munster]

Since reading this message 'date manager' has appeared on my computer and popunders are appearing whilst in Google even though I have uninstalled the date manager. How can I stop this. The galss in the office window here is pretty thick, and I think it will be tested by a PC travelling at high speed towards it very soon if I cant get rid of these popunders!

[Krapulator]

Try Adaware Munster - its pretty good at search and destroy for this kind of thing

[Munster]

Cheers Krapulator! which part of Aus are you sitting in? must be warmer than here!

[Krapulator]

Sunny Sydney Dude! Its a lovely day here today.

[Munster]

Melbourne here, Sunny clear blue skies, but a chilly 22 Deg, brrrr!

[mat_bastian]

The problem as I see it is one of Internet Explorer trading convenience for security. As far as I know, gator creates an ActiveX control. This attempts to automatically install without many users knowledge due to IE's default security setting being set to not prompt for active X control installation. Gator takes the knowledge of this default setting and bets on you not being the wiser. It covertly infiltrates while putting the ownes on you claiming you agreed to let it in. In reality, more often than not, you just didn't realize your default security setting was too low so you really never had a chance to disagree.

[edited by: heini at 8:41 am (utc) on May 7, 2003]
[edit reason] edited on Mat's request [/edit]