Adware is a program that displays ads to the user. The ads can be pop-up screens so called interstitial ads, ordinary banners within the program, ads in the active browser windows frame as the ads Web3000 where displaying and of any other type of ads displayed to for the user. The adware programs are generally two programs, one that does some thing useful and one that displays the ads.
The key for the users are that they can use program free-of-charge. The key for the developer is to get paid for all the free programs. For example last year we made more than twice the money on the adware than on the registrations. Not that the registration rates where low in any kind more the fact that every user who tried the adware/shareware programs from Rosoft Engineering generated money even though they got the program for free.
Adware developers and we the software developers have to keep a balance between fair revenue and not showing to much ads. To do what Web3000 did wasn't that good, at the end the bombarded the users with ads forcing many to uninstall immediately and that gave us a very bad feedback. 180Solutions model is far better. They have no spyware included that collects personal information and the ad looks like the rest of the pop-up and pup-under ads you see when you are browsing. An even better way is to do as WhenU and their program Save! WhenU has developed a smart way to target ads while keeping all data on the users computer. In stead of sending information to WhenUs sever WhenUs server send a list of ads that the program on the users computer can choose from. The program on the users computer decides what ad to show depending on what pages the user has watched. WhenU doesn't know any thing of how users surf. The draw back of the WhenU model is that they can't tell their advertisers how to advertise.
As always you should first should try to uninstall all programs from the Control Panel using the program Add/Remove Programs.
Adware should not be mistaken by spyware. A spyware program is a program that gathers personal information of how you serf. A program that gathers information on how you serf but don't connect the information to any personal data is not a spyware. Many adware developer are nowadays trying to keep the surf information on the machine not even gathering information in aggregate. As WhenU says: Their programs ClockSync and Save that we started to use in February 2004 doesn't collect any personal information, browser habits or click track information. They have found a quite nice way of targeting the ads. In stead of sending the browsing information to the ad-server they send a small database with ads that are available. Then the program checks if any of the browsed pages matches any of the ads. The adware from WhenU collect user information the very same way Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) does. How else could IE be able to fill in the address for you when you type in the address bar? For every adware that I use the part that gathers the information can't see who is surfing or where and when. They can only see how many users that visited certain pages and what type of sites. The way 180Solutions gathers the information is by connecting the data to a number that is unique to every user. No personal data is connected to this number. Some ads shown may however ask you for information. That could be from advertisers that are using the network that are displaying the ads for you. If you don't like spyware you simply don't reply to these ads, just ignore them.
It's also worth mentioning the new MSN Search Toolbar and what information they collect. MSN Search Toolbar collects far more information from the user than 180search Assistant, WhenU Search Toolbar and My Serach Toolbar What's even more funny is that the program MS antiadware program list all other adware programs as spyware and say that the are harmful to your private. Now what about MSN Search Toolbar? I guess this is just a way to try to get monopoly among the Internet search tools. The same way they have done with the Internet Explorer and Windows OS. As I see it this is a thing for the US supreme court and the anti thrust law.
The income from the adware is as much as from the registrations and some times even more. Last year I made more than $40,000 on the adware. I think the adware is perfect for small software manufactures as Rosoft Engineering. A good thing with adware is that Rosoft Engineering gets paid while you users are able to use the programs free-of-charge as long as the adware is installed.
An adware program doesn't necessarily have to be a spyware program. The program I now include with my limited editions is no spyware. However the adware program may pop-up ads with questions but as long as you don't answer any of these no information is gathered. The only information that is gathered by 180Solutions is a unique developer id and my developer id. This is used to track the number of ads shown on your computer. For more information about 180Solutions privacy look here.
[Home]