Spyware: Lawsuits, Falling Stock Prices, and a Taxonomy of Spyware Installation Methods

I've been asked by a lot of people to help them fix their computers.

The things just don't run like they used to when they were new. Popup advertisements just appear out of nowhere. Sometimes so many popups that people can't even use their computers. The hours that I've wasted clearing away some of this garbage I'll never see a dollar for. I don't mind helping friend's who can't get rid of this stuff themselves. They didn't ask for this stuff to appear on their computers, and were tricked into installing it in most cases.

But there are other people who did know that my friends wouldn't want those advertisements, and that software. And when it comes to those CEOs and Presidents and Vice Presidents of companies, and marketing directors and other decision makers, I'm not upset about the potential hit that their companies might take on their stock prices if there is successful lawsuit against them for the placement of unwanted software on people's computers in less than transparent ways.

Searchviews has an article on the State of New York suit against Intermix Media, SearchViews: The Ripple Effect of the Eliot Spitzer Suit, and some of the potential collaterial impact upon a successful legal action. In addition to their thoughtful post, they point out a post on The Internet Stock Blog which considers how that case may impact other internet stocks - The Internet Danger List: stocks at risk from Spitzer's attack on Adware.

The attack on the illegal disemination of spyware and adware may not end with Eliot Spitzer's suit against Intermix Media (ticker: MIX). This report outlines why and provides a tentative list of other Internet stocks at risk.

According to that report, companies that could be impacted include Ask Jeeves, Findwhat, Yahoo!, Valueclick, Expedia, Netflix, Travelocity, and more.

Though I do want to clarify something. The risk isn't from Eliot Spitzer's lawsuit. The risk is from engaging in a means of advertising that is questionable to begin with, is unwanted by most of its recipients, and is potentially the target of litigation from anyone. When the business decision was made to manufacture or distribute software that people probably wouldn't install on their computers if they knew what it did, that's where the risk attached. A company that uses this type of advertising has to already know that they are also potentially a target.

Ben Edelman, who has been involved as an expert witness on the subject of spyware in a few legal cases, has started a series on his site about Spyware Installation Methods. Typical of his research on a number of other subjects, so far what he has produced is extremely thorough and thought provoking. His taxonomy of installation methods brings back some memories of the frustration I've faced at trying to clean up people's computers.

It's great to see someone with his knowledge and ability bringing some sunlight to the shady practices that these companies are employing.

Kudos to him, and to Eliot Spitzer.

Justice Doing Research on the Intarweb: An Impeachable Offense?

I'm trying to figure out if Tom Delay thinks that he is right, and the hero of his own little universe, or just terribly misguided: DeLay Slams Supreme Court Justice

Absolutely. We've got Justice Kennedy writing decisions based upon international law, not the Constitution of the United States? That's just outrageous," DeLay told Fox News Radio. "And not only that, but he said in session that he does his own research on the Internet? That is just incredibly outrageous.

Yep. Outrageous. I'll skip the international law versus constitutional law debate right now, but it's worth getting into. I really only have time for the other statement at this moment.

There are quite a few tools on the web that enable one to do research there fast and easily, including Lexis/Nexis. Frankly, I would be dismayed to find that a Supreme Court Justice didn't do research online.

And a little more upset over a Senator who appears to not understand the value that the web brings us.

The USA are Online Losers

An eye-opening article from Thomas Bleha at Foreign Affairs, Down to the Wire, tells of the steps that countries like Japan and South Korea have taken to bring high speed internet access to the citizens of their countries, and the missteps that the USA has taken.

Thanks to the government's competitive framework, the speed of the DSL service offered also rose dramatically, from 8 megabits per second in 2001 to 12, 26, and 40 megabits today. (The typical U.S. broadband connection, whether DSL or cable, is still only 1.5 megabits per second or slower.) Meanwhile, the price of monthly subscriptions remained stable, even for 26-megabit access speeds, at about $22 per month -- by far the lowest price in the world.

You might want to send a link for this article to your congressman. I want to send one to mine.

News Online is News Developing a Business Model?

I used to watch the news on TV when I was little.

I used to read two newspapers a day when I was in high school, and even into college.

I tried to make time for at least one newspaper a day after college, and mostly succeeeded.

I get a lot more of my news on the web these days, and I read papers from around the world. I'm better informed, and I read local papers that aren't local to me, instead of papers that are written for national or international consumption.

The Associated Press announced a couple of days ago that they are going to start charging news sources for their online content starting January 1st of next year.

Most of the 15,000 news outlets that buy AP's news, sports, business and entertainment coverage have been allowed to "re-purpose" the same material online at no extra cost since 1995. At that time, graphical Web browsers were just beginning to transform the Internet from an esoteric computer network to a mass medium.

It's difficult to tell what impact that may have on the cost of news online. Will news sites change the way they operate based upon this development? One thing I do know is that I don't see a lot of advertising directed at me when I visit Cincinnati papers to follow Reds stories.

As a long time fan, and East Coast dweller, I feel the chance to read those is wonderful. If they tried to sell me Reds hats or jerseys, I'd probably buy some. Yet I suspect that type of targeted advertising probably won't be the solution they attempt to adopt.

Will more and more newspapers shift to subscription based models? I hope not. If that's the answer they come up with, they may be missing out on some great opportunities.

A rocket in your garage

There's always some wise guy, who in a conversation about the future, refuses to admit that it will live up to expectations until we all have flying cars.

That will be the day.

Imagine the mess trying to keep track of all the traffic. Where would you take off from? Where would you land? Whose house would you damage if you made a mistake with all of those complicated navigational devices?

Picture flying along, and all of a sudden, you have a mechanical failure. You can't just pull over to the side. Chances are you are going to fall like a comet.

Or will you? Maybe the future isn't so far away. Maybe that wise guy was right.

CBS is reporting on a new technology that would make it much safer for people to navigate the airways in their own personal flying machines. Called Highways in the Sky, it would simplify cockpits tremendously, and make the navigational decisions for flyers. Possibly millions of flyers. Imagine being able to go 400 miles an hour, straight as the, er, car, flies.

A Case Against Standards: Take a Pill

Standard Ways of Design?

At work the other day, someone I work with complained about a web site where every external link created a new browser window. She wanted to know why.

My answer was that the site owner lacked confidence, and was afraid that once people clicked on a link to go to a new site, they wouldn't come back.

Someone else in the office stated that doing that was a design standard, and a lot of sites did it.

Am I wrong? Is that just the way things are done? Are am I right, and that's just the way things are done?

I remember putting together a couple of sites where I had all of the links on the site leading outside of the site launching new browser windows. My concern was that people would indeed leave and not be able to find their way back.

The more I thought about it, and the more I added content to the sites, to make them the types of places that people might come back to, the more it bothered me that those links might mean someone wouldn't return if I changed them so that they didn't open in new windows.

Taking a Risk

But I decided to go for it anyway. I also didn't like doing something that might get people upset - taking control of their browser.

There were a couple of links that opened to new pages where a refresh effectively broke the back button, so that people couldn't return. I wrote next to those links "opens in new window" and had those continue to open new browser windows.

The others, I changed. And then I started watching stats. I tried to get an idea of how many people stayed, and how many people left.

Seems I was worried over nothing. People did return to those pages. There was no drop off in visits, and people seemed to stick around.

Standards outside the Web

I do see a lot of discussions on standards around the web. Mostly those are aimed at getting web browsers and html editing programs using valid html and Cascading Style Sheets.

I mostly agree with the discussions I see there, though I do wonder that if browser manufacturers and the makers of those editing programs also don't try some new things out, that we might be stuck with some limited functionality in web design.

After all, the horse and buggy was once the standard for transportation. Automobiles have increased the distance people can travel, and have opened up opportunities that would never have come along if we were limited to only going so far as to not exhaust our horses. (Ok, I'm stretching things a little with that example.)

Take a Pill

All my ranting in this post is leading somewhere. There are other things in our everyday lives that have remained the same for years and years. And, on the surface, they seem to fill the purpose they hold very well.

Yet this article, from the New York Metro takes a close look at a redesign of the prescription pill bottle: The Perfect Prescription
How the pill bottle was remade: sensibly and beautifully. It includes a lot of good ideas. And the great part is that pills will be rolling out in these new bottles.

I am all for standards. That is, until something better comes along.

UK Catalog Sales Overtaken by Internet Orders

A study in the UK is reporting that more people are now ordering online than through mail order catalogs.

I sort of see that as good news, though it's not as optimistic for businesses as it might appear. While there has been growth on the web, there's been a larger dropoff of purchases from mail order.

Home shopping retailers must admit that the days of the big book are over and that the great hope of the home shopping industry is, or should be, the internet. The trouble with the mail order industry at the moment is that it tends to see the internet as a threat, where it should be seen as an opportunity.

There is something nice about having one of those big books of products in hand, and being able to leaf through the pages, and look at the different products. I used to love to do that with the old Edmonds Scientific catalogs, especially. The Whole Earth Review was a quirky, and interesting way to see offerings from a number of people.

Seems to me that there's room for both, and that using them together is a good approach for many businesses that are enjoying sales online.

Due Diligence for Small Business

Nice article from the Delaware Business Blog: Keep your Small Business Healthy by Improving Due Diligence.

Small businesses need to pay attention to all of the potential legal pitfalls that may face their businesses. The devil is in the details, and the details can be many. Especially make sure that you keep careful track of compliance with all of the small things that come up on a regular basis, such as quarterly estimated taxes, having a business license, etc.

If possible, define processes ahead of time to make these things easy to do. Talk to an accountant whom can help you plan ahead to make what could be chaotic into a matter of just following some simple steps and guidelines.

It's good to see the launch of the Delaware Business Blog. Welcome to the world of Business Blogging, Russell.

Microsoft Reinvents the Teddy Bear

Microsoft unveiled a new tool to aid in the parenting process - a Teddy bear that you can spy upon your toddler with.

Somewhere in a corporate boardroom, someone thought this was a good idea.

I'm going to assume that the people bringing this invention into the world, which allows for remote monitoring via a camera, and the sending and receiving of messages via microphones and speakers and a network connection, thought that this could help parents be in two places at the same time.

The bear was shown at a two day technology conference, as an attempt to show off the creativity of the corporate giant.

What Would Your Home Page Say?

Kim Krause asks the question, "what would your home page say if it could talk," and she gets an answer -- User Experience Web Design and Search Engines

Dear web site visitor.

I can't tell you how glad I am that you found my website. You have no idea the great lengths we?ve gone to get you here, let alone what we're about to do to keep you here...

A word of warning to web site owners, you might see a little of your web page in the answer.

Who is Your Audience: Using Personas to Focus Your Writing

I spent last week in New York City at a convention for internet marketers. It was an interesting experience, and I brought a lot of ideas away from it.

One of them involved the use of personas in developing the concept of a site. I've looked at these hypothetical audience members and what they might mean to the development of a site before. But, during a discussion on "Converting Visitors to Buyers," it struck me that personas could be just as useful for people who write sites that are purely informational in nature.

And that they might be useful for people who contribute to blogs.

So I poked around the web a little earlier tonight, and came across an excellent article on using personas to help writers of sites that focus upon providing news and stories and data and opinions to people. This one, Personas: Setting the Stage for Building Usable Information Sites, from Alison J. Head (with Kim Goodwin) described something close to what I was looking for.

On the drive home tonight, through purely unscientific means, I decided that four personas would probably be a good match for this site.

One would be fresh out of high school, possibly male, filled with the uncertain future of trying to face fending for himself, and possibly trying to start his own business - someday.

A second would be in the last year of college, looking at internships, graduate school, or other possibilities available to her, while at the same time trying to figure out how to pay back student loans.

A third would be a stay-at-home mother, trying to start an internet based business, learning about all of the things that one needs to know along the way, while caring for children, and being somewhat limited in what she can or can't do.

The fourth would be someone who had a successful career, and for one reason or another, left it and is trying to make it as a contractor or consultant. He's been divorced a couple of times, and also has some interests outside of work competing for his time and ability to focus solely upon his new chosen profession.

I'm going to attempt to flesh out these personas over the next few days and weeks, and link to them from the sidebar.

Once I've completed that task, I will attempt to focus my writings here to those four, and see if those fictional characters can benefit from what I write.

It might help knowing who it is that I'm writing for, when I publish these posts. Will it make a difference not focusing upon a general audience, but rather specific people with their own personalities and interests? It's worth trying.

Start Playing and Start Learning

What role will game playing have in the future of our education?

Possibly a large one.

That's a conclusion raised in Games that make leaders: top researchers on the rise of play in business and education, from the Wisconsin Technology Network.

A friend was talking about how the Army had distributed a game, for free, that seemed to be catching on with a lot of young users. So, this quote from the article wasn't that much of a surprise:

One of the biggest users of games as training tools is the U.S. Army, which released the free tactical game America's Army to boost its recruitment and has worked with commercial game companies on a variety of other titles.

One of the words I've been seeing lately in education and usability is "engageability." It is easier to teach someone when they are interested and actively engaged.

Seems that classrooms may have something to learn from a gaming industry that earns ore in sales these days than box office sales from Hollywood.

Have Passion in What You Do

I've been enjoying the posts over at Creating Passionate Users

For instance, a story about Creating Passionate Fans was a great illustration of the power of treating every moment as unique and interesting, and every chance to interact with someone an opportunity to make a lasting impression.

The right attitude can make all the difference.

A World of Music

Could the record industry in the US learn something about electronic distribution of music from the success that it seems to be bringing to singers and songs from other countries?

Interesting article here: Downloading Opens Doors to World Music

Songs that might never had a chance to have been heard on radio years ago, are finding listeners in the United States. Audiences are finding performers who wouldn't mind expanding their fan base.

And I, for one, am happy to hear it.

His Blog Cost Him His Job; His Blog Found Him a New One

Your blog can cost you your job.

OK, you've probably heard some stories about a blogger who was let go from a place of emploment, for things said or shown on their blogs.

Joe Gordon, the author of the The Woolamaloo Gazette experienced that first hand.

There has been more than one tale circulating across the internet of how someone has been fired, harassed, or reprimanded for blogging about work. boing boing came up with a list about a month ago of companies who "fired, threatened, disciplined, fined or not hired people because of their blog."

Here are some of the blogs that cost people their jobs, and posts that talk about the experience.:

Diary of a Flight Attendant: Queen of Sky Story Summary

eclecticism: Fifteen Minutes of Fame

Ninetininezeros: the official story, straight from the source

Dooce: Collecting Unemployment

The Sarcastic Journalist: Freedom of Speech

Troutgirl: Shitcanned

I just came across a list, which includes many of those bloggers above, and others who where fired for their blogs: Update 1: List of Fired Bloggers

In Joe Gordon's case, the experience seems to have had a Happy ending. Comic book chain Forbidden Planet has hired him. Because of his blog...

Yahoo! Talks Spelling

An amusing look at the troubles with building a spell check feature into a search engine: Yahoo! Search blog: How's Your Speling?

Better Banking Means More than Orange: It Means Better Relationships and Better Communities

Katherine Stone shares some excellent ideas about The Banking Experience at Decent Marketing.

Her thoughts concerning ING's approach to retail banking are also thoughtful and interesting.

A commentor pointed to a Fast Company article on ING, and I found myself smiling. Would You Like a Mortgage With Your Mocha? describes the corporate headquarters of ING pretty well.

Instead of building its own office tower, it has chosen to invest in reinvigorating the area around Wilmington's run-down train station. This summer, part of the company will move into a renovated Pennsylvania Railroad building wedged between the train station and the Christina River. ING Direct has been working with the city to connect its new building to the station by closing a street and erecting a glass atrium full of shops, restaurants, and an ING Direct Café. The company is also advocating a redo of the train station itself.

The article is from a couple of years ago, and the headquarters has been built.

I used to walk past their buildings at least once a week or so, to get to a riverfront produce market (and lunch area), before I left Wilmington a month ago. I'm not an ING customer, but I love this company for what they've done to make this small section of town a bright vibrant place.

Take an area that's run down, and needs a little tender-loving-care and personal attention. Build on the strengths of that area, and find the human side of the relationship and strive to make it better. Show the bright and optimistic side of things.

That's what they did to the section of Wilmington, Delaware, that they entered. And it sounds like that's what they are trying to do to banking, too.

What Do You Do on An Elevator?

I really enjoyed Dirk Knemeyer's post on The Elevator Experience.

I recently left a job where I did have to ride on elevators everyday, where I had to sit in rush hour traffic, and where I paid for parking.

Now I work in a small town which is busier on weekends than it is during the working week. I'm not sure if there are any buildings in town that have an elevator. parking is free, and there seems to always be a spot to park in near work.

I've been hit with a bit of culture shock over the change. But I'm enjoying it. The little differences are magnified as I'm getting used to the change.

I suspect that I'm not alone. It's getting easier to work with others located around the globe without having to do it from a metropolis.

Don't miss those elevator rides, either.

Google May Appeal French Trademark Decision: Trademarks and Online Advertising

Where does trademark law fit in the age of the internet, and online advertising?

That's a question being asked in courts not only in the United States, but also in places like France and Germany.

While Google prevailed in a trademark case in Germany, they haven't been as successful in French courts.

A recent loss in France over the use of trademarks in Google advertising has the search company considering appealing the trademark decision.

I'm not sure how successful such an appeal would be, but it seems like something that the search engine giant needs to pursue.

The high court in central Paris awarded the damages in a decision late Friday and ordered Google to stop displaying advertisements for Vuitton's rivals whenever Internet users typed Vuitton's name or other trademarks into the search engine.

So, what is the status of the use of trademarks in targeted advertising through a program like Google's? I know that it's almost impossible to police the web for all trademarks registered on a mix of international, federal, and state levels. It has to be even more difficult to know which words might be trademarks by the exercise of common law, without registration anywhere.

Should it make a difference if a company possessing a trademark contacts a Search Engine that has been enabling someone to bid on that company's trademark, and asks them to stop?

Is the bidding on competitor's trademarks the type of thing that can cause consumer confusion, or dilute the trademark, or both?

Interestingly, the French ruling seems to have been followed on all of the Google sites, not just the French version. Searches on the main Google page no longer show advertisments for the trademark that had been targeted by advertisers of Google's ad program.

For other French cases that have been brought against Google's adwords program on trademark grounds, see:

Le Google France Blames the Americans

AXA Challenges Google's Business Model

Google loses trademark dispute in France

In American Courts, there are also at least a couple of pending cases against Google by trademark holders who don't want their trademarks used as targeted terms for advertising by the search engine. There was a recent ruling in a case brought by the insurance company Geico, which Google seems to have one.

But, that ruling was in one district court in the United States, and it's possible that a judge in another district could come up with a different ruling. I haven't heard much about the litigation between Google and American Blind, but that doesn't mean that the parties involved aren't watching the legal actions in France carefully.

One of the points raised in the latest French case, by the judge ruling over the matter was interesting. The court stressed that since Google's keyword suggestion tool was what offered the trademarked term to the advertisers, Google may have to revamp its suggestion tool.

Here's one of the items raised in another litigant's case, from the complaint in rescuecom's trademark suit against Google:

The so-called "Sponsored Links" do not always clearly identify themselves as advertisements, and Google's layout of the ads does not conspicuously identify them as such. This is particularly true of the Sponsored Links which appear at the top of the Search Results. These ads at the top of the Search Results are designed by Google to look like part of the "non-sponsored" Search Results, and by virtue of the fact that they appear at the top of the list of Search Results, Internet Users may infer that they are the most relevant websites on the Search Results page.

Is this the type of thing that makes a difference?

Maybe even more importantly, the rescuecom complaint also raises an issue involving Google's suggestion tool, and its suggestion that the trademarked name be used as a target of advertising:

Upon information and belief, defendant Google has used an online program called a "Keyword Suggestion Tool" to suggest to one or more of Rescuecom Corporation's competitors that they should use the Rescuecom trademark as a Keyword for their advertising. Google's suggestion is designed to make such competitors' advertising more successful, and therefore more profitable for Google, by intercepting and diverting customers and potential customers of Rescuecom Corporation to others.

I'm not sure that was an issue that was raised in the Google versus Geico matter. This seems to have made a difference to a French judge. Will it have the same impact upon an American one?

Now that the Butler has a Blog...

I'm going to have to make a list of all of the official search engine and directory blogs.

It's just too important in this age of Internet search and marketing to keep in touch with what the search engines are doing not to keep on eye on what they share in their blogs.

The newest is the Ask Jeeves Blog.

Welcome to the blogosphere, Jeeves.