Pop-up Ads, Spyware, Comparison Shopping Toolbars

Description: A review of Gator's annoying pop-up application, and two tools I use: Alexa's toolbar and Google's toolbar.

Categories: Web Site Help: Support Topics
This Post has been viewed 6164 times.
Submitted by: Nannette | View Member Profile | View Other Posts
Created: 11/17/2002

As you're surfing the web, you may be getting pop-up ads very frequently. If the URL of the pop-up is from http://xmlsearch.gator.com, then you have either knowingly or unknowingly had Gator installed on your PC. Gator will install their application on your PC when installing other applications or visiting other sites that have banners. I've seen them attempt to sneak it on my PC, but my Norton firewall stops and asks my permission first. I say "No."

I've checked on the web, and it isn't as simple as going to Start Menu/Settings/Control Panel/Add/Remove Programs. No, indeed. You have to download a third party free-ware tool to get rid of it. Gator doesn't even allow you a way to uninstall it.

As of the time of this article, here's how to remove gator and other spyware: Go to http://www.lavasoftusa.com/ and go to the DOWNLOAD link on the left and select the freeware link. Their site says Ad-Aware Personal edition is free for non-commercial use. Their Personal edition page says: "Ad-Aware is designed to provide advanced protection from known Data-mining, aggressive advertising, Parasites, Scumware, selected traditional Trojans, Dialers, Malware, Browser hijackers, and tracking components."

The annoying thing about Gator popups is that you likely didn't request them and don't want them. Gator is considered spyware in that it collects data about where a user visits, etc. There are other applications that you can explicitly choose to install, which help you with comparison shopping.

Comparison Shopping Toolbars I Use

I personally use the Google.com and Alexa.com toolbars and appreciate the services they provide me. They do NOT display popup ads, but instead install a row of tools in your Internet Explorer toolbar.

With Google's tools, I can type in my search queries directly and it will open up search results immediately, without me having to go to a search website first. It also has a Category tool that allows me to see other related sites in the same category and see how the site I'm visiting ranks in that category.

Similarly, the Alexa toolbar also has a Search box, and shows related sites right in the toolbar. It also ranks the site you are on so that you can see if this is a newbie website, or wannbe web site by the rankings. The scoring is like golf, the lower the better. So when I'm visiting a website to see about purchasing a product or service, I can see by their ranking whether other people frequent the site or not, and I can see their competitor's so that I can cross-shop and make my best purchasing decisions. (If you're like me and comparison shop in the brick and mortar world, you'll appreciate these features.)

As I said, neither of these toolbars display unwanted popups. Some people have them lumped in the same category with "spyware." But I think that is too extreme. First, both have a privacy policy that tells you what they collect. They don't collect personal info such as email addresses, and they don't ever track what you're doing on secure pages. The Alexa toolbar even indicates that it is turned off. In fact, with Alexa, you can easily turn it off when using your browser, and then turn it back on when you want to do your comparison shopping. Alexa tracks what sites you are on, and what pages you visit, so they can rank the site you are on based on the number of page views, and the number of unique visitors.

Alexa has been criticized because it shares the data it gathers with their affiliate site, Amazon.com. Evidentally, they track the sites you like to visit, then if you visit Amazon.com, it pulls up your data and says, "Hmmm... they like visiting Christian Singles web sites, so I'll make their visit better by displaying products pertaining to Christians and/or Singles." At least that is my understanding of how it works.

I personally, take no offense in the way Alexa's toolbar is used, and find the tool's usefulness to far outweigh any privacy issues, which I don't personally perceive as privacy issues. And I don't have a problem with helping to give Christian web sites a better ranking by using the tool. I'd like to see more Christian websites at the top of the internet's ranking lists, instead of porn sites, for a change.