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Adware purveyors wage mob war
A turf war has been raging in the underbelly of the internet, where shady companies like Zango and Direct Revenue test the boundaries of legality with their adware software. (or to say it more politically correct: this is "software which a reasonably security-or privacy-minded computer user may want to be informed of")
In the past month, adult webmasters started crying foul over other webmaster stealing their Zango cookies, which is cheating them out of their adware installation rewards.
Zango pays webmasters to push its adware, offering an estimated 50 cents per installation. Webmasters now are charging that Zango is letting other affiliates take credit for their installations.
Although the practice itself isn’t new, it has been the subject of heated debates in the past weeks. Webmasters are pissed off because they are cheated out of their money, and Zango allegedly isn't doing enough to fight this.
Zango's lacking response now has prompted a group of adult website operators to hit back. Visitors who run the Zango software are presented with a warning and receive instruction on how to remove the software.
But Zango isn't prepared to go down without a fight. The company will create blacklist of these online porn vigilantes, allowing it to launch a pop up screen that overshadows the warning screen.
It's great when internet rats turn on each other, but in this case things are only getting more confusing for users.
technorati tags: zango, adware, 180solutions
October 26, 2006 at 10:40 PM | Permalink
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