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Adware - Should I be Afraid?
by: Sharon Housley
Copyright 2004 Sharon Housley

Developers offering downloads are paying the price for the malformed truths that have been put forth regarding downloads. While not a political campaign the smears are ever present in the adware arena.

Years ago developers saw they could monetize freeware that was becoming expensive to host. Developers began working with Ad Networks such as the former Aureate and Conducent, who imbedded advertisements in the software. The software in many cases phoned home retrieving ads. In other cases adverts were imbedded directly into the download only being removed when the software was registered. Many well known software companies, including Netscape distributed ad supported versions, which allowed users to use the software for free. Developers were compensated either by install or the number of ads served. Advertisers welcomed new revenue streams to reach potential customers.

Adware or advertising-supported software is any software application in which advertisements are displayed while the program is running. These applications include additional code that displays the ads in pop-up windows or through a bar that appears on a computer screen. Adware helps recover program development costs, and helps to hold down the price of making the application for the user, often making it free of charge. As a result of the AdWare revenue programmers were motivated to write maintain, and upgrade valuable ad-enabled software. Adware was a great consumer trade off, so were did it all go wrong?

Unbeknownst to the developers a handful of ad serving companies were logging and profiling the surfing habits of those who had downloaded the ad-enabled software. After downloading free software, the new adware companies delivered pop-up and pop-under ads based on the consumers surfing interests. Adware has been criticized for including code that tracks a user's surfing habits, email address and personal information, which are passed to third parties, without the user's authorization or knowledge. This was the downfall of the ad serving technology and ad-enabled software.

In many cases consumers rightfully believe they have been and are being spied on, which prompted an outcry from privacy advocates. Adware is not a virus and may not be detected by anti-virus scanning programs. It does not spread the same way as most viruses spread. Many users do not know they are downloading a free program along with adware onto their computer. The lack of disclosure tarnished reputations of many well known, but misfortunate developers and software companies. The collapse of a number of venture backed ad-serving companies including Aureate and Conducent.

Fast forward to today. Few applications are now ad enabled. Those that are generally follow strict disclosure guidelines. Some developers opt to insert static (not changing) ads for other applications in their product line, into free versions, but these ads do not change and there is no record of what ads are clicked. Freeware can therefore be used free of charge and there is no evaluation time period as with shareware. Freeware is also often a basic or stripped down version of the shareware version. Developers make money off ads or those who want to upgrade from the free version. There are also developers who provide freeware out of principle, occasionally asking for a donation. The majority of freeware that employs the use of imbedded advertisements are provided in the true spirit of adware without the intent to track users, but just to be safe consumers should read the fine print.



About the author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for NotePage, Inc. http://www.notepage.neta company specializing in alphanumeric paging, SMS and wireless messaging software solutions. Other sites by Sharon can be found at http://www.rss-specifications.com, http://www.softwaremarketingresource.comand http://www.small-business-software.net



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 Tracking and Measuring RSS Feeds
 by: S. Housley

Measuring and tracking RSS while a fairly simple concept, is really anything but. Unlike websites, RSS have the added caveat of potential syndication, making accurate tracking a challenge to anyone but the extremely tech savvy.

It is not unrealistic for marketers to want to know how many subscribers they have, which items in their feeds attract the most interest, or how many click-throughs are generated as a result of an RSS feed.

There are a number of 3rd party providers who focus on tracking the consumption of RSS feeds. Some solutions are rudimentary but likely sufficient for a small business testing the waters with RSS. Other RSS tracking solutions are more complex and while they can come close to being accurate, with syndication there is no solution that tracks with 100% accuracy.

Techniques Used to track RSS Consumption

Small businesses can view web logs to provide information on how many times a specific file (RSS feed) is requested. The logs and information is rudimentary but will give a basic sense of a feeds success. Many 3rd party tracking options have additional tracking information available.

Hosting

The most common method to track the number of feed accesses or individuals accessing a feed is to use a 3rd party feed host. Companies like FeedBurner essentially track feeds based on accesses. The downside to using a 3rd party like Feedburner, is that the url is a FeedBurner url and any PageRank or popularity associated with the url will benefit the feed host rather than the feed creator. Additionally, no distinction is made between unique views or syndicate feeds.

FeedBurner provides a free no frills service to host RSS feeds and they have been proactive in circumventing user concerns. Recently implementing a service that eases users concerns about migrating from FeedBurner. There is a 3 step process for users interested in migrating from FeedBurner's free service, implementing a permanent redirect, and url forwarding.

Details can be found at: http://www.burningdoorc.om/feedburner/archives/001251.html

Some publishers, who were concerned about lock-in or wanted to retain control of the domain and feed urls often resist a hosting service. The new program FeedBurner Partner Pro is not free, but allows for users to point to their own domain, retaining complete control of their feeds without sacrificing statistical tracking.

The downside to using a service like FeedBurner is that some filtering applications used on corporate proxy servers block feeds residing on FeedBurner or other free hosts.

Redirects

Companies like SyndicateIQ have more complex tracking solutions that generate unique urls for each subscriber. The tracking benefits to such a customized solution is obvious. Individual user habits can be monitored and any users abusing their access and inappropriately syndicating a feeds content can have their feed turned off. The downside of course is that the success of RSS is in a large part due to the anonymity. Users don't want their personal habits tracked.

Considering the venture capital interest in these 3rd party hosting services. It is important to note that their value is in the data that they collect. As with any 3rd party service, it goes without saying that publishers should read the privacy policy carefully, be aware of who owns the rights to the collected information, and how that information might be used. It goes without saying that the value in many of the free services currently available lies in their aggregate data.

Uniquely Named Transparent Images

Uniquely named transparent 1x1 graphics can be added to the description field of an RSS feed. Users can use standard web logs to see the number of times the image is viewed and determine the number of times the feed was accessed.

Companies Specializing in Tracking and RSS Metrics

Pheedo - Pheedo creates tools that enable individuals, organizations and corporations to promote, analyze, and optimize their weblogs and content.

http://www.pheedo.com

SyndicateIQ - SyndicateIQ's position in the content distribution chain provides clients a set of analytics.

http://www.syndicateiq.com/

FeedBurner - FeedBurner offers a full range of services to help you build awareness, track circulation, and implement revenue-generating programs in your feed(s).

http://www.feedburner.com

Each individual using RSS needs to make a decision of the extent and importance of the analytics they require. Realizing that any system they employ is not going to be perfect.


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