Is
Someone Hijacking your Visitors?
By
Robert Smith
©2004 All Rights Reserved
Recently while reviewing some text changes on one of
my web pages I noticed something that nearly knocked
me off of my chair. I found several new links on all
the pages of my website. I had not created them. No
one had paid me anything for the links on my pages.
Moreover, many were leading my visitors to my competitor's
websites. Someone was web-jacking my hard earned visitors.
These new links have a heavy yellow underline. When
the mouse hovers over them, they show a bright yellow
background, much more noticeable than any of the other
hyperlinks on my pages. You can see an example of these
links on the following page.
http://www.smithfam.com/smartag.html
I thought it might be a virus so I visited Symantec.
I wanted to see if there was a newer virus data file
or a virus warning that would explain these links. On
the Symantec site, where I found the words "virus protection."
I found a link to Symantec's rival, McAfee.com Corp.
Same results.
Something
Is Badly Wrong Here
I
went to work to find the source of these mystery links.
I discovered that after deleting all my cache files
in Microsoft's Internet Explorer, the links went away,
but every time I restarted IE, the links came back.
They also appeared in ebooks compiled to use IE for
display. These links didn't show up when viewed in Netscape.
Microsoft
Smart Links Technology
Smart
Tags, according to Microsoft, are "... a feature
of Internet Explorer that add smart links to pages you
view. Smart Tags enable real-time, dynamic recognition
of content on web pages and offer you relevant options
as you work. By hovering and clicking on these smart
links, you can get access to additional information
or perform convenient web tasks." Many Internet
marketers, fearing Smart Links could be used to hijack
visitors by using their content to divert traffic to
another website without permission or compensation,
complained loudly to Microsoft. Microsoft's received
a so much negative feedback from webmasters about the
damage Smart Tags technology poses to developers and
businesses on the Internet that a month ago, it announced
they had backed off of plans to ad "Smart Tags" to its
Windows XP operating system. "Smart-Tag" Technology
is like a scalpel. In the hands of a doctor, it can
restore health, but in the hands of a killer it can
cause only pain and suffering.
Disabling
Smart Tags on Your WebPages
If
you are a Web author, you can disable Smart Tag recognition
in Internet Explorer within a Web page by adding a Meta
tag to that Web page. After adding this tag, any Smart
Tags that the author has added to the page will continue
to work, but Internet Explorer will not dynamically
add new tags when users view the page. The tag is:
<meta
name="MSSmartTagsPreventParsing" content="TRUE">
More Info:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/preview/smarttags/
On The downside, while this may disable Smart Tags by
Microsoft it does nothing to disable browser pluggins.
Or to remove these specific links from our pages
What
Makes This Work?
To
make a long story short I discovered the source of these
links was a browser pluggin my son had installed as
part of a file-sharing program similar to Napster. KaZaa
is the fourth most downloaded PC program on Cnet Network's
Download.Com site. It has been downloaded 4.9 million
times since July 11.
http://www.kazaa.com/
KaZaA makes it possible for people to download licensed
software and music without paying the owners anything.
When KaZaA is downloaded a copy of a special Internet
Explorer pluggin is installed. The pluggin adds hyper-links
to keywords purchased by advertisers on every page the
user views with Internet Explorer ANYWHERE on the Internet.
The
Source of The Pluggin
The
pluggin is named TOPtext. It's provided by eZula.com.
It's listed in the KaZaA installer as: "TOPtext,
a browser plugin to give Internet Explorer relevant
quick links"
http://www.eZula.com/
I contacted several of the advertisers the links sent
me to and in every case they claimed they had had complaints,
but had no actual knowledge of where the links were
coming from. Even after I supplied them with information
about the source of the links, they all have remained
active.
"Contextual
Advertising Theory"
EZula
supporters say "contextual advertising has promise because
it is far less obtrusive than other forms of online
and offline advertising while delivering only what a
consumer wants." The purpose of my website is to deliver
value-added content on the subject of Internet Marketing
and Home Based Business. I have spent over five years
developing this site, and I maintain well over 5,000
pages of valuable free content. This content works much
like a TV program. It provides a vehicle for delivering
highly targeted traffic and builds trust and sales over
time. In the case of TV, programming content is possible
because advertisers pay for commercials. No third party
is allowed supply different commercials in place of
the paid commercials. If third parties were allowed
to hijack TV programming where would the money to develop
the programming come from? It's exactly the same on
the web. Now I have learned that in less than 20 days,
over four million potential customers visiting my website
may see links appearing on my pages to products I don't
sell and would not recommend. I maintain that my website
content belongs to me and your content belongs to you.
I can only assume all content developers would feel
the same way. No one has the right to hijack our hard
earned traffic by adding links to the words we use.
Vote
With Your Feet
We
can't put the genie back in the bottle. If advertisers
and the buying public are willing to fund this type
of advertising, this technology may be the killer blow
for small content rich web developers. Small businesses
such as myself can't afford to sue the corporations
that dream this stuff up. The best we can do is to not
support the advertisers. We can also let them know that
we don't support this form of advertising and will not
buy their products.
The
Bottom Line
Microsoft's
Smart Tags technology and browser pluggins like TOPtext
pose a substantial threat to content driven marketing.
Shawn Collins has launched an online petition to protest
against Smart Tags. You can sign the "No More Smart
Tags" petition here:
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/nmst2001/
If you feel this form of advertising is a violation
of the copyright laws that protect your content, you
may also want to register your thoughts with eZula.com,
the company that owns the TOPtext pluggins in use today.
http://www.ezula.com/company/contact.asp
If this technology is allowed to develop, I am concerned
that soon the whole concept of developing free content
for the Internet will be threatened. If content developers
can't earn income indirectly through content development,
we soon may be required to pay for every scrap of information
we now get free. Have your sales dropped off lately?
In just the last 20 days over 4 million web surfers
are viewing links on your website you didn't put there.
These links are taking your customers elsewhere, the
really scary part is unless you have TOPtext installed
on your browser you won't even know it's happening.
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