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October 3, 2002

Mixed Feelings

Okay. I hate Gator. I think they are one of the most annoying software companies out there. But I'm not sure I agree with UPS here:

Gator ships ads to wrong Web site. Shipping company UPS has filed a lawsuit against Gator in the U.S. District Court of Atlanta, charging the online software provider with delivering unauthorized ads to visitors of its Web site. [CNET News.com]

When I was a PC user, Gator was always trying to install their software on my system. And at one time I even had their software installed without realizing just how slimy they are. But if I want to run a piece of software on my PC that shows me ads as I'm browsing the web then I should be able to. I haven't seen how Gator's software works, but my guess is they don't indicate when the ads are being served by them. This is probably their biggest problem. I don't think they make any effort to indicate that ads they are displaying aren't from the site you are visiting.

Oh, and a note to software makers. Please don't support Gator. Yeah, I know you like that you can give your software away for 'free' and still make money. I can think of at least a few programs that I haven't bothered with due to the inclusion of Gator.

Posted by snooze at October 3, 2002 3:18 PM