"Imagine how powerful it could be to widen the effectiveness of search engine keyword advertising to the entire Web. This will enable you to reach millions of qualified users from every web page that contextually matches your campaign objective and your product or service keywords, anywhere on the Web." – eZula.com
eZula is a new Pay Per Click service and they have partnered with you to drive visitors away from your web site. You don't get to choose about participating and the only reward you will get is…. well, actually you don't get diddly.
You do get something, but I can't say what in polite company.
They get to sell targeted traffic based on the content of every web page in the world without having to resort to developing any content, running a PPC search engine, or actually doing much of anything. Sounds like the Web to me.
Currently, TopText only works with the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser.
To back up a bit before continuing to vent my anger over this issue, the story goes something like this:
There is a new file sharing system launched in the wake of the MP3 sharing/stealing war, and the new system is called KaZaa. You download it, install it and get right back to sharing bootleg music files. KaZaa claims that almost 6 million people have downloaded and installed its system.
Unfortunately when you install KaZaa you also get at least one virus installed on your computer. I call it a virus because by most descriptions I've seen of the term, TopText qualifies as a virus. You don't ask for it. It takes control of your browser and makes changes to everything you read on the Internet.
TopText operates with a browser to highlight words on every web page, inserting a yellow background behind keywords that have been purchased through their media sales company eZula, Inc. If a web user clicks on one of those yellow highlighted words on a web page, the user is whisked away to the site of the company paying the most that day for each click-through. If a user whose browser is infected with TopText visits your web site, they will be offered links to competitor's web sites for every keyword they find on your site for which they have a buyer.
This is not much, if any, different from the Smart Tags system that Microsoft announced for their Windows XP browser. Media and webmaster pressure and outrage caused Microsoft to cancel, for now, their release of that feature.
This new invasion of our web sites is different because the media appears to care not at all. Where is their righteous indignation now? I'll tell you… nowhere. Talking about a bunch of companies nobody has ever heard of is not glitzy enough compared to attacking Microsoft.
So, if this misuse of technology is to be beaten, you are going to have to do it.
Word was that you can send your list of sites to mailto:support@ezula.com and they would block their virus from operating on your pages. That turns out to be untrue but phone calls to eZula are showing some results. If all 300,000 of you call in your list and follow up every day until they block it, you could probably show them a little something about how webmasters feel about companies infringing on their intellectual property rights.
Respected download web sites such as C/NET's Download.com are actively helping this virus to spread on an unsuspecting world. I wonder why they would distribute something that would place links to competitor sites on their own web pages? After repeated attempts to enlist their help in stopping the spread of this virus, C/NET continues to defend their position of aiding the spread of this unethical program. Must really need the banner impressions.
EZula claims that they have a relationship with a major ISP which should come as no surprise keeping in mind how many ISPs are starving for income.
The MP3 file sharing software allows anyone to share files for free. Free is the only model that works for that whole industry. People don't want to pay when they can get valuable content for free. So KaZaa had to find somewhere that they could generate profits without have to work at it. So they chose my web site and yours. If they can steal our traffic and sell it to our competitors, that should be profitable, right?
Sure it is. They can get (currently) from $.30 to $1.00 for every click through and they don't have to share with anyone. Does anyone else see the irony in this? It shouldn't come as a great surprise that a company built on the premise that everyone should be able to get free music and cut the musicians totally out of the system would turn to another way of stealing content and do it in a way that cuts the content developers total out of the system.
Why pay to advertise on my web site when you can pay these bozos to hack into my content and send you some cheap, stolen traffic. To add insult to injury, they deface my sites with their ugly yellow background colors.
Maybe TopText is both a virus and a hacker at the same time. Hackers find ways to change the content of your web pages. TopText does it by infecting Net user's computers.
Hacus? VirCker? Scumbag?
