BusinessWeek Online has an article this week talking about the business of pop-up ads, using Claria as their example. Amazingly, pop-up adds have a 3% clickthrough rate. They state in the article that 3 of 97 people shown an ad click on it.
Kudos for BusinessWeek for also discussing the dirty side of Claria's activities, which they highlighted in this paragraph:
Many of the Web surfers it targets have little clue as to what they're getting. If they did, say critics, the industry wouldn't have to contrive sneaky tactics to slip the software onto desktops. One common ploy: A "security alert" pops up when a user visits a particular site, offering a software download. Many users click "yes" without realizing they're getting an adware program unrelated to the site they're trying to view. Even customers who wade through the fine print can sometimes be duped by vague language promising "Internet enhancements" and "search augmentation." Says Rutecki: "I understand they've got to make a buck, but there's got to be another way. It's like somebody coming into your yard in middle of the night and putting up signs."
If Claria was really serious about 'helping people' or making our web experience better, they'd find a more ethical way of doing it, rather than trying to trick us with faux security updates and mislabeling what their software does.
I frankly believe that it's a shame that Claria will have an IPO and people will provide them funding that they will use to continue to use to deceive people and clutter their computer with unwanted ads.
Anyway, the entire text of the article can be found here:
Guess What, You Asked For Those Pop-up Ads by Ben Elgin
I also found this interesting:
Stopping Pop-ups Saves Life
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