Not More Smart Tags

[trafficg]

What are Smart Tags?

Smart Tags are in use this very moment and are Stealing/Hijacking your web sites visitors and profits. They are leading your visitors to your competitor's sites and to online products and not paying you a penny.

Microsoft says they have put a hold on the use of Smart Tags, that this feature will not be included in Windows XP. This may be so, but plug-ins to Internet Explorer are already possible. Over 4.9 million people worldwide have already downloaded one of these plug-ins from http://www.kazaa.com. and I have just discovered another plug-in from http://www.filemix.net (Installed with the Spedia.net paid to surf bar and available as a stand alone product for free)

What it boils down to is that keywords on your pages get converted to links to advertisers sites. This is essentially what Microsoft has been planning with Smart Tags.

SmartTags and SmartTag type plug-ins could destroy the Internet as we know it, this type of technology will destroy sites of all sizes and must be stopped.

Can we stop these plug-ins stealing our income and our traffic?

Pete Kelly

[Jeff]

That is horrible in that I can see little advantage to the user and this will eliminate one of the last remaining sources of revenue for content sites. I did read that you could put a tag on all of your pages to disable smat tags, but it hardly seems that you should have to. I'm not a lawyer, but it would seem that websites would have recourse against a browser or other plugin altering their content to derive revenue from it... wouldn't this break copyright? It certainly seems that if MS wants to link words in a review I write to sites which neither I nor my site endorse or have even reviewed that this would cause my site harm, not only in direct lost revenue due to lost affiliate revenue, stolen visitors, and lost ad sales, but more, in damages due to harmed reputation.

This seems about the same as getting a broadcasting tower of your own more powerful than the local stations and hacking into a network broadcast on Sunday morning. As the minister is coming on, you dub in "the holy cross church would like it's members to purchase their bibles at Ron's macro mart. Please turn off your TV's and don't go to church - instead please head down to Rons to pick up some new bibles and other religious trinkets..." (I should probably have thought of a better example, but this does seem just like trying to rebroadcast radio or TV by inserting your own ad's without paying the stations or creators you're taking the programing from a cent, which I can't see ever going over very well...)

[sheila]

Your kidding me! These things put tags into your pages between the time that the browser downloads it off your web server and the time that the end user views it in his browser? On the fly?

I agree with Jeff, that this really can't be legal. How can people be this dumb?

[trafficg]

I did read that you could put a tag on all of your pages to disable smart tags

I tried the meta-tag and it had no effect on the plug-ins. I also tried detecting the filemix.net plug-in with JavaScript and it could not be detected.

Pete.

[trafficg]

Your kidding me! These things put tags into your pages between the time that the browser downloads it off your web server and the time that the end user views it in his browser? On the fly?

I'm not kidding, you don't notice any time delay or anything while the plug-ins mess with your pages.

I'm wondering what big firms like Ford will do when they find out all there keywords link to another firm like General Motors etc..

Pete

[PaulKroll]

There are others (gator.com) with similar arrangements.

The gator plugin gets installed with other software, and typically it's all but unnoticable to a normal user. They never realize that they've just installed such a plugin, but they HAVE clicked the Yes button on the License Agreement dialog.

This makes it really hard to say it's illegal, since it's not changing and retransmitting copyrighted info: it's like a user handing the book they bought to a service that ads post-it notes with ads for other books, on the pages. If the user chooses to do that, the copyright holder doesn't have anything to say about it, even if the post-its block out parts of the book.

I'm hoping the FTC will help, since much of what gator is doing is way over the weasel line, but this is going to be a problem for some time to come.

[Jeff]

I found the gator plugin had been installed after a getright installation... never even saw the I agree box, just noticed it hovering in the system tray days later.:mad:

This makes it really hard to say it's illegal, since it's not changing and retransmitting copyrighted info
Well, it does retrieve the page from the server, edit, and then retransmit the changed contents to the monitor... altering my content for their profit still seems very much against copyright to me. (even if it is altered and retransmitted line by line of code rather than page by page, it still would seem to be altering and retransmitting. Especially since the motive is not usability of the site, but rather profit external and often contrary to the interests of the site, I have to believe there would be a case. Google highlighting search terms is one thing. One ford dealer framing the content of another dealer's site with links to their own contact page seems quite different.)
it's like a user handing the book they bought to a service that ads post-it notes with ads for other books, on the pages. If the user chooses to do that, the copyright holder doesn't have anything to say about it, even if the post-its block out parts of the book
Except that neither the re-tagging plugin company nor the user has bought my website.

--better learn flash... trust no one

[BOF]

I don't know how likely it is that anyone would want to use programs such as KaZaA or eZula, but apparently they are similarly insidious.

http://slashdot.org/features/01/07/31/2015216.shtml

http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,5095127,00.html

[gofishgrl]

This site has a very extensive thread about eZula/Toptext which I think every site owner needs to be concerned about.

http://gethighforums.com/Forum10/HTML/001386.html

Here is a list of concerns for this program(Thanks for the list HaHa!):
Website owner/maintainer concerns:
* Alters copyrighted site content without permission by adding links
* Alters copyrighted site design with yellow highlighting and underlines
* Places text link advertising on websites without compensating the sites' owners
* Turns companies' own websites against them by adding text link ads that lead to their competitors websites
* Hijacks websites' visitors by adding external links
* Alters the intended click flow of a site by turning links into dropdown boxes that promote links out of the site
* On sites that use the common design convention of yellow highlighting for words and links, masquerades as part of the intended page design
* Adds links that may not be appropriate for a site's intended audience
* Breaks the common policy of keeping editorial content separate from ads, calling a journalist's and/or site's ethics and integrity into question
* Insinuates links to products & services into "recommended" lists, putting the page author's reputation at risk and making them a liability target
* When a site's users are ready to buy the site's product or service, clicking on 'Shopping Cart' or a similar link may show users a link to another site, causing the site to lose revenue
* Text link ads show up in online legal agreements like privacy policies and terms of service, bringing their strictly legal purpose into question
* Forces web authors to expend precious time and energy trying to minimize TopText damage to their pages

Advertiser concerns:
* Causes websites to break any exclusivity clauses they may have with advertisers by placing text link ads from other advertisers on the same page
* Stabs Ezula advertisers in the back by doing the same thing to their sites once users click on a link to get to them
* On sites where advertisers pay for listings, particularly those with descriptions, alters the text of their paid listings by inserting links to their competitors

Web User concerns:
* Text link ads invade the signature files and comments of participants in online forums, insinuating a connection to the product or service advertised
* The end result of widespread use of TopText and similar applications will be a mass movement from free content to paid content by website owners, since they will be deprived of advertising revenue

TopText End-User concerns:
* Uses vague opt-out language in Kazaa's installation dialog and an inaccurate TopText application description, ensuring that only those with prior knowledge of TopText will know to avoid installing it
* Confuses, annoys, angers and/or frightens software users, who often think they have contracted a computer virus
* Average users may believe that TopText is necessary for Kazaa to function
* Does not provide users with disable/delete information in the Kazaa help file
* Is difficult for many users to delete from their systems
* Leaves trojan-like components behind after uninstall

How do you know if you have this program on your computer already? If you visit this page I set up on my site, you should be able to tell:

http://www.fishingfordeals.com/scumware.html

Some of the text on that page will be underlined in yellow. You need to be using IE and on a PC.

[Harley]

Its a bit dated, but still a fairly good overview of the whole Smart Tags issue:

http://www.alistapart.com/stories/smarttags/

Harley

[sheila]

gofishgirl:
I visited your example page, but couldn't see anything like links and stuff in it. (I tried it in NS 6.1 and in IE 5.0.)

[jak]

For those who want to read MORE on "smart tags" you can go to the:

http://webpronews.com website

or to go directly to the smart tag's page:

http://www.WebProNews.com/2001/0821.html

It gives a great general overview and description of what Microsoft is hoping to do.

* gads * I can't wait to see if Microsoft's "Passport" software comes to any fruition.

cheers,

julie
jak graphic solutions, inc.

-- you CAN be too rich AND too thin --

[Deb]

Hey, check it out...you guys made the news ;)

http://www.sitepointforums.com/showthread.php?threadid=32094

Seriously, for those interested in this problem you may want to visit the above URL as well.

Deb
- Go Get'm

[Jeff]

Interesting...

A while back I did a website for the installer who setup my Starband system ( http://www.starrsatellite.com )

They emailed me to ask why I had put a popup for DirecTV on their site, and if I could get rid of it. (they sell starband and dish tv, so it seemed very strange.) Since I couldn't reproduce the popup, I couldn't figure out how they were picking it up, whether it was an exit popup from another site, or what. Today they emailed me back and said that they found the Gator plugin had been installed on their system and it was what was popping up their competitor's popup when they visited their own site. Yuk! I'm really hating these smart-tag rebranding advertising-theft technologies - hopefully soon there will be a way to stomp them all out either with code or legal menas.