Zango announced on their blog yesterday that they launched their first ad supported widget. 

The widget will allow people play Extreme Racing 2 through the widget for free. Of course it’s free…it’s Zango. Guess what though? Users won’t have to install Zango software to play the widget game. WOW!

So how is the widget ad supported? There will be a text link at the beginning and end of the game. What is the text link for? More free games on Zango….which does require the Zango software to be installed.

Zango also said that this “inaugural” widget will not require the installation of Zango adware to play the game through the widget. This leads me to possibly expect more widgets from them in the future. It also makes me wonder if future widgets might possibly require Zango adware installations.

I do so love following Zango’s blog.

When will some merchants learn? If you’re going to participate in public forums, it’s best to stick to the truth or it could come back to bite you in the butt. If you just have to lie, then at least make it a good lie.

There’s a thread over at ABW right now announcing Pets-Warehouse launch on Performics. In that thread, Bob Novak of Pets-Warehouse made the following post:

Bob was responding to some comments by a couple of affiliates regarding possible adware coming into his program moving from an exclusive SAS merchant to running on Performics as well.

The part of his post I’d like to comment on is:

“I had Kelly work with us a while back on suspicious activity.”

First of all it’s Kellie not Kelly. More importantly………….

AffiliateFairPlay has NEVER had any type of business relationship with Bob Novak nor Pets-Warehouse.com.

In case anyone is not unsure, I’ve never worked with Bob on any suspicious activity in his program. There has never been, nor do I doubt there will ever be, any association between myself and Bob.

I can’t even imagine how he came up with posting such or why. Except maybe that he got so caught up in his own spin that his head wound up his ass.

The extent to which I may have assisted Bob along these lines would have to be from the public information that I’ve posted over the years on ABW regarding “parasites” and adware. Of course that information is freely available to any merchant to educate themselves. It’s why I’ve posted there in the past. Maybe I found something in his program years ago and pointed it out in a thread??? That is something I’ve done on ABW numerous times over the years and I doubt I remember each incident. Certainly it wasn’t anything to stand out in my memory.  Either of the above certainly doesn’t warrant the implied relatlionship in Bob’s post.

I have never talked to Bob in person.
I’ve never emailed Bob.
I’ve never IM’ed Bob.
I’ve never talked to Bob on the phone.
In fact, my only contact with Bob has been to the extent he has periodically participated on ABW. I *do* recall slapping a temporary ban on him over at ABW when I was a moderator for his persistence disruption of any thread discussing another pet merchant by pimping his own program and bashing all other pet merchants.

To whatever degree affiliate’s may have a favorable perception of a program because they work together with AFP, this should not hold true for Pets-Warehouse, since no such relationship has ever existed. It’s nothing more than spin, and it’s bad spin at that.

I do have very open lines of communicatlion with both SAS and PFX. I expect those to continue. It has absolutely nothing to do with Pets-Warehouse.com however. I’m sure Bob has indirectly benefited from my relationship with SAS. He may well receive some indirect benefit on PFX. But that holds true for all merchant’s on those networks and other networks as well.

Slap me silly, but it seems that if you are trying to boost affiliate’s confidence in the integrity of your program, maybe being honest and not lying about actions you’ve taken to keep your program “parasite-free” (aside from the fact anyone who really does understand the issues recognizes that parasite-free doesn’t exist) is a good way to begin.

But regardless of the marketing approach you take for your program, under no cicumstances try to use my reputation to spin affiliates. Even the merchants I really do work with don’t pull that crap. Every single one of them has honored the tight controls I put in place on how the relationship can be depicted. Controls I’ve put in place to protect against people like Bob.

But fear not, I do see hope on the horizon that maybe Bob will stop pulling this kind of nonsense. Afterall, I see he’s now using his real name over on ABW instead of Henri.

It seems that a lawsuit was filed in Texas Eastern District Court on January 23, 2007 by Source Inc. alleging patent infringement related to a “Centralized Consumer Cash Value Accumulation System for Multiple Merchants”. Translation: loyalty/rebate system. Source Inc is saying they have the patent of others doing loyalty/rebate systems are infringing on their patent.

Listed as defendants in the suit are:

Access Development Corporation
bCorner.com, Inc.
Belcaro Group, Inc. (ShopAtHome)
Big Co-Op, Inc.
Intefral Technologies, Inc.
77BlueLLC (David Lewis)
Ebates Shopping.com, Inc.
Electronic Scrip Incorporated
The Ezshoppen Company
FatWallet.com, Inc. (Tim Storm)
iGive.com Holdings, LLC,
JellyFish, Inc. (recently purchased by M$)
Jet Set Joe Corporation
Little Grad, Inc.
MBC Direct, LLC
Mall Networks, Inc.
Misermart.com, Inc.
Mezl Media, Inc. (owned by ValueClick)
Mothers Work, Inc.
OC Rebates
Pinnacle Communications International, Inc.
Qdeals, Inc.
QuickRewards Network, Inc.
Shop.com
Simplicity Group, LLC
Spree.com Corporation
Tricordia, LLC
Tuition Fund, LLC
Webloyalty.com, Inc.
Zions First National Bank
Alliance Card, Inc.
Family Network, Inc.
JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Golden Retriver Systems, LLC
Summit State Bank
Nietech Corporation
U.S. Bancorp
U.S. Bank

I’m sure many will recognize several of the thirty-eight defendents on that list. Source Inc may not be done with the list of defendents yet as there is mention of “similar programs whose identities are not yet known”.

Source Inc is also seeking an injunction against each defendent.

Ok, so patent cases are filed, won and lost every day. But “wow” was my initial reaction.

I’m not sure if they are naming any loyalty/rebate program which tracks across multiple merchants or just ones with certain technology or what.

I haven’t read through the patents yet, but this is certainly going to be interesting.

References:
The SouthEast Texas Record (the content on this page may change. Scroll down to Source Inc vs Access Development Corp. et al)
Justia
US Patent Office Search Returns

ExactAdvertisng…remember them? They were behind such lovely adware applications as BargainBuddy (contextual pop-up application like Zango), CashBackBuddy (rebate reminder software), ExactSearch (PPCSE toolbar) and Bullseye Network (BargainBuddy rebranded).

I’ve noticed in the last year or so that several of their adware applications have been dead in the water so to speak. Installation web sites owned by ExactAdvertising were still up and had downloads available, but the adware did not function when installed. I wondered what was going on. Did they decide to pull out of the adware business or was something else happening? (more…)

I admit I haven’t been on FaceBook for very long. When I finally took the plunge, it was somewhat grudgingly, dragging both my feet all the way.  When I went to FaceBook tonight, I was greeted with this little beauty at the top of my home page.

(more…)

News of yet another settlement between a government agency related to adware. This time it’s AdultFriendFinder and the FTC. Maybe I need to start tagging these as “chickens coming home to roost.”

AdultFriendFinder and the FTC have reached a settlement over consumers being “pelted” with sexually explicit ads. The short story is the FTC says AdultFriendFinder delivered sexually explicit ads to it’s network of sites to consumers who weren’t looking for such and that’s against the federal law. AFF can’t do that anymore, either themselves or by their affiiates. From the FTC press release:

“Such ads were displayed to consumers who were searching online using terms such as “flowers,” “travel,” and “vacations.” In some cases, defendant’s sexually explicit ads were distributed using spyware and adware.” (more…)

Larry Rulison. over at the TimesUnion.com, has more to report this morning in the continuing indictment of two top WurldMedia executive. It seems to Gregory Kerber, former CEO of Wurld Media, is still employeed by the ROO Group, the publicly traded company who purchased Wurld Media this summer for $4.3 million. Kerber was hired by ROO after the purchase of Wurld Media as a senior vice-president of business development.

I wonder if Kerber had anything to do with all those pop-ups of Roo.com I was getting through adware? Adware inventory buys can be a pretty quick and cheap way to get a site’s traffic figures up when setting those good ole Rate Card prices for advertising on the site. Anyway, back to the Friday fun provided by Larry….

It seems a reporter from TimesUnion went to the offices of Roo, as a good reporter should, and those offices were located in a “nondescript building” with a locked front door. They did have a couch and Christmas tree in the front lobby behind that locked door though. Eh….Merry Christmas.  

Evidently, the Saratoga District Attorney’s office is still being a bit tight lipped on the specifics of charges brought against Kerber and Saxton. According to Times Untion, Assistand Distric Attorney of Saratoga did say

“The grand larceny and money laundering charges center on “certain financial transactions that occurred” related to the distribution of the proceeds from the sale to ROO earlier this year, Wendling said……Wendling would not say where authorities believe the proceeds ended up, although he said it was another entity separate from Wurld.”

My curiosity is piqued. I wonder if it ended up in the Lexy Foundation? No, that’s not news only me being tongue in cheek because it’s Friday. But those who were in affiliate marketing back in the early days of WurldMedia, Morpheus and Buyersport should remember about the Lexy Foundation. Just in case something changes on the site in the future:

Formed by the founders of Wurld Media….to assist the sick, disabled, downhearted, and poor. It was also used to justify the Buyersport software claiming the traffic of other affiliate’s as their own. Even when the software was just getting installed by users of Morpheus who were really just interested is being able to download free music, movies, software, etc. That downhearted part always did make me laugh. All those halos in the logo and with mouse-over of the menu seem pretty funny right now as well.

I do hope that during all this investigating going on that some official probing has happened or will happen into the Lexy Foundation as well. All considered, just to be sure that everything is on the up and up with the nonprofit.

I’ll continue to be watching as all of this progresses and more specific information regarding the charges become public record.

Yet another adware company is facing legal woes. It looks like the stuff has hit the fan for Wurld Media. The CEO, Gregory Kerber, and the CFO, Richard Saxton, were arraigned on Friday on a number of felony and misdemeanor charges. The charges include second-degree grand larceny, third-degree grand larceny, fourth-degree money laundering, first-degree falisifying business records, first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, failure to pay benefits, second degree criminal contempt and failure to withhold income taxes. This follows a seven month investigation by Spa City police and State tax agency. The two face a possible 50 years in jail. (more…)

November 11 is the technical Veterans Day. Today of course is the recognized Veterans Day. I came across this recently and thought it was fitting Veterans tribute, some what related to our industry. The performer Terry Kelly also wrote the lyrics and is based on a real life event.

To all those who have served their country your sacrifices are remembered and honored today and always.

What’s that all elusive path to direct revenue in a social media web site? We found a prime example and thought we’d share it with others.

Jango is a new social music site where you can listen to your favorite music, share it with friends, rate songs…all the usual social site type of stuff. The site is in beta right now and membership is by invite only.

The CEO of Jango is Daniel Kaufman and according to their web site “was founded in New York City in November 2006 by a group of old friends from Vermont, Sweden and other music hotbeds” Daniel Kaufman? Now that sounds familiar…someone who has been around the Internet biz for a while.

Staying with the theme of social sites, Kaufman’s LinkedIn Profile gives a bit more info.

Oh yeah, he was one of the founders and CEO of Dash.com. Remember them? It was an AllAdvantage type of thing. Install a toolbar and get paid to watch ads while you surfed. Like all the other such companies, they went belly up.

But there’s a bit of a gap in employment experience. What was Kaufman doing between January 2001 and November 2006? Well he was busy being the co-founder and executive over at DirectRevenue. Along with his friend and co-founder from Dash, Joshua Abram. Of course DirectRevenue is now a thing of the past between the actions of the FTC and NY Attorney General. For those who may not be familiar with the illustrious histories of Kaufman and Abram’s past Internet businesses, this article from MSNBC will give you at least a look at the tip of the iceberg. I really don’t see why the DirectRevenue days were omitted from is LinkedIn Profile.

But there you have it…the path of Direct Revenue…you get the idea. I do wonder who his other “friends” are involved in this venture.