chengrob Posted April 3, 2003 Share Posted April 3, 2003 Check out this Forbes article. This is a real wake up call for me. It is estimated that Gator made last year $100M. The enemy is much larger and more formidable than we thought! We have to double up our efforts or they will start growing even more. I am total shock that they are claiming that only 16% of their users are unaware that their software has been installed. This is all legal shenanigans. How in the world could they figure that out through legitimate market research? Their info must be bogus and they are using it for propaganda. Volt, Googlemeister extrordinaire, can we make a list of the companies that advertise with Gator? We'll call it our boycott list. Both Dave and I are going to write some more articles about this problem, and then we can start contacting some of our friends in the press. We have to fight fire with fire. The reality is that Gator is currently THRIVING. I want to fight the beast. Link to post Share on other sites
jack7058 Posted April 3, 2003 Share Posted April 3, 2003 The gator company site . http://www.gator.com/ this is there advertising info . http://www.gatorcorporation.com/advertise/ Link to post Share on other sites
HammerSlammer Posted April 3, 2003 Share Posted April 3, 2003 Here are some of thier advertisers, I don't know how up to date it is: http://www.thiefware.com/thief.ads/ Link to post Share on other sites
ThUnDeR Posted April 4, 2003 Share Posted April 4, 2003 whats wrong with Gator? They do something bad or evil? ( i see about how you guys talk about killin this Gator site, i havent heard of it, been to the site but didnt touch anything) Anyone care to inform me for my own personal knowledge( and my computer's safety as well i assume) Link to post Share on other sites
volt Posted April 4, 2003 Share Posted April 4, 2003 Its poorly written piece of crap that will wreck a windows machine in no time at all. They lie,,they cheat and they suck!! read up on it some,,or just let it take over your machine and before long you will get the idea!! Link to post Share on other sites
Ax Slinger Posted April 4, 2003 Share Posted April 4, 2003 We have to fight fire with fire. The reality is that Gator is currently THRIVING. I want to fight the beast. Go Rob!! BANG!! Dead Gator!! Link to post Share on other sites
HammerSlammer Posted April 4, 2003 Share Posted April 4, 2003 Seems like the easiest way to find out would be to have someone install gator, go on a surfing spree,and see which ads pop up. Followed by a complete reformat of course Link to post Share on other sites
chengrob Posted April 4, 2003 Author Share Posted April 4, 2003 GreenBayPacker's Fan, I think there are four issues that irk me and I believe that will ultimately be found to be illegal. 1. They state that 16% of users have mistakenly downloaded this software. I believe this is crap. Their entire business model is predicated into tricking people to download their software. I honestly believe that this information has been manipulated and the true number is much higher. Even if it is 16%, if there is 35M people that have their software, that means they have duped over 5M people. I believe that is too much. 2. Do you honestly believe that 84% of Gator users want MORE pop ads? If close to 30M people want more ads, and let's assume that there is some percent that don't want more or less, then there are only a small chunk that want less ads. If that is the case, why is their market for pop up blockers? It seems that there are a LOT of people that don't want more pop up ads. If so, do you really believe that people want more ads that spy on you at the same time. Go to their site and see what they promise their advertisers. 3. I believe it is illegal. Disney, Time Warner, NY Times, etc are suing Gator. I believe they should and will win. I believe that Gator is making money at their expense. Although Gator has a lot of money, so do these companies, and they are also protecting our civil rights at the same time. 4. The last point is the most important. Gator is not well written software. They don't care about your PC and its performance. Just whether the popups are appearing not whether it runs well with their software. This is a MEDIA company not a software company. Go to their web site. Is there any place to report bugs? We know for a fact that their software promotes system instability. So in this one way alone, it violates what we are all about at Pitstop. Sorry PackersFan, that an innocent question gets such a long response but the Forbes article put me over the edge. PS I like the Packers too. Link to post Share on other sites
Jander Posted April 4, 2003 Share Posted April 4, 2003 I think this is a wake up call for the entire ASB. Would there be a way that we could get all the AS programs and information on disk? Everyone I know has dial-up and can't spend an hour getting ad aware avg and whatever else. I think it would also be good if we could have a free stnading web page telling about the ASB and how to battle spyware. If we have something like this, I'll put it in my e-mail sig so it can reach a whole lot of people. I hate spyware even more after coming here and learning about it. I know more people need to know. *Runs down street waving arms wildly* Kill the gator while you still can! Bonzai Buddy isn't your buddy! Kill the gator... Link to post Share on other sites
volt Posted April 4, 2003 Share Posted April 4, 2003 Seems like the easiest way to find out would be to have someone install gator, go on a surfing spree,and see which ads pop up. Followed by a complete reformat of course Thats what I'm doing right now Hammer,,putting the full install on a spare hardrive and going surfin. Link to post Share on other sites
HammerSlammer Posted April 4, 2003 Share Posted April 4, 2003 Whew thank God. I didn't want to have to volunteer Let me know if you need any help with anything that doesn't involve installing Gator Link to post Share on other sites
Ax Slinger Posted April 4, 2003 Share Posted April 4, 2003 That's our man, Volt! He jumps right in the Gator pond to help the masses! Me hat's off to you, Sir! Link to post Share on other sites
chengrob Posted April 4, 2003 Author Share Posted April 4, 2003 Wow Volt. That's what I call taking one for the team. I am extremely curious about whether Gator has some popads for Pitstop. There is another set of companies that are unwitting participants, that allow Gator to put their ads on their sites. This includes Yahoo. It just shows how little even Yahoo the #1 internet company is to the dangers of Gator. Link to post Share on other sites
volt Posted April 4, 2003 Share Posted April 4, 2003 Well I have no virus scan and I have no firewall!! But I got me a Gator by the tail!!! I am going to put some virus protection and a firewall on that drive before I go snoopin around tho!! v Link to post Share on other sites
chengrob Posted April 4, 2003 Author Share Posted April 4, 2003 HAHAHA! Go get um, grubby! Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted April 4, 2003 Share Posted April 4, 2003 Scumville.net? That's for sure! lmao Link to post Share on other sites
volt Posted April 4, 2003 Share Posted April 4, 2003 I'll be seeing whats up in the next few days Rob,,I hate that company with a passion you would not believe!! Link to post Share on other sites
volt Posted April 4, 2003 Share Posted April 4, 2003 Scumville.net? That's for sure! lmao Didn't know if ya could see that or not!!! v Link to post Share on other sites
chengrob Posted April 4, 2003 Author Share Posted April 4, 2003 Volt, I share your passion. The article has them bragging about having 500 customers. If we can find a 100, that's a good start. The article also mentions Microsoft, and I am guessing that is MS Expedia. One of the big offenders is Orbitz. So I am officially boycotting Orbitz. Let's make a big list and publicize it. Link to post Share on other sites
dave Posted April 4, 2003 Share Posted April 4, 2003 If you want to see a bit of an indication of how spyware degrades the quality of your PC, take a look at these stats from BugToaster that provide an idea of how frequently some apps crash: http://www.bugtoaster.com/dw15/Reports/top...pSignatures.asp In this list you may recognize the spyware pgmonitr.exe, dw.exe, dap.exe, and realplay.exe. When you realize that some of these programs are on maybe 10% of the systems out there, then spyware error rates are even worse than they would first appear! Here's another one, the top 200 crashing apps: http://www.bugtoaster.com/dw15/Reports/All...0&ShowApps=TRUE See some familiar names? SaveNow, GetRight, RealJukeBox, DownloadWare, Aureate/Radiate, Wnad, Delfin, CommonSearch, eDonkey, Gator/GMT, odigo, WebHancer/proxy.exe, GoZilla, perhaps? And remember, these are just the outright crashes, the ones that can be caught and logged by BugToaster. There are probably even more instances of erratic behavior or slow performance. Link to post Share on other sites
volt Posted April 4, 2003 Share Posted April 4, 2003 Here is about 45 minutes worth of surfing all the urls below were served to me from gator. This ad is brought to you by software from the GAIN Network. It is not brought to you or sponsored by the Web site(s) you are viewing. http://www.hotwire.com/index.jsp?sid=S10&bid=B26852 http://multimedia.verizon.com/promo/jandsl...dex.asp?Page=41 http://www.orbitz.com/App/Landing?siteID=2...ntID=4&pageID=1 http://www.travelocity.com/ http://edit.travel.yahoo.com/config/ytrave...ightsR&.intl=us http://www.householdloan.com/dl/lndl_sweepstakes.jsp http://www.travelinterface.com/?src=overture/ http://www.homestore.com/HomeFinance/Defau...tgage&x=12&y=10 http://www.ubid.com/cat/get_cat_page.asp?C...ID=2&s=uwb90300 http://www.officemax.com/max/solutions/pro...oduct/promo.jsp? http://www.1800inkjets.com/index.asp?cat=93201 http://www1.iwon.com/user_registration/fol...0,4656,,00.html http://www.allcheapfares.com/ http://www.tirerack.com/tires/index.jsp http://buyingadvice.com/search/oo/suvs/new.htm http://www.paymentshopper.com/index.cfm?&src=3333 http://www.carbuyingtips.com/ http://shop.avon.com/avonshop/ http://www.justtires.com/ http://www.michelinman.com/promo/2003springpromo.html Link to post Share on other sites
radio Posted April 4, 2003 Share Posted April 4, 2003 here's an interesting link to check out Volt, http://www.feedbackresearch.com/panelist/index.html Gator provides targeted promotions and advertisements for over 450 companies (including over 80 Fortune 1000 companies and 80 advertising agencies), driving amazing ROI. Gator campaigns often reach double-digit click through and conversion rates - up to 20 to 40 times higher than traditional banner ads. http://www.gatorcorporation.com/advertise/ only 430 more to find Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted April 4, 2003 Share Posted April 4, 2003 Dang!, I see a couple of my favorite places to shop in that list of URL's. Oh well if they're hooked up with Gator they're out the door in my book! Link to post Share on other sites
radio Posted April 4, 2003 Share Posted April 4, 2003 found a few more companies... As for their clients, Gator's and Dash's customers tend to be industry-category rivals, all of whom try to tempt customers away from the other. Clients of Gator versus Dash, respectively, include Best Buy ( (BBY), ) and 800.com; Sears (S) and JCPenney; Foot Locker and TheSportsAuthority.com; and OmniSky and Expedia. KBkids.com and OurHouse, though, have signed with both companies. http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/0,16...|2,00.html Link to post Share on other sites
No Mercy...DTA Posted April 4, 2003 Share Posted April 4, 2003 I haven't read everything here, Pushed reply when I saw greenbaypackersfan2003 post.......... greenbaypackersfan2003, Whats wrong with GATOR? I don't know much about it to be honest.... I do know though that............ Sometimes for no reason pages WON'T load on my computer. EVERYTIME this happens, I run my spybot, and sure enough I have GATOR. I get rid of GATOR and bingo........my pages load. Thats whats wrong with gator. As soon as my computer starts acting funny.........I KNOW I have GATOR on it! Cathie Link to post Share on other sites
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