What Became of ExactAdvertising?

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?

“Something else going on” came to mind as I remembered a personal experience with ExactAdvertising. Several years ago I recieved an IM from a friend who is an affiliate (I’ll call my friend Joe). They had received an email from ExactAdvertising wanting Joe to distribute the ExactAdvertising adware through one of Joe’s web sites. Joe asked if I was interested in talking with the ExactAdvertising Rep. Of course I was and I was in the mood to play.

So I gave myself an executive position in Joe’s company, some title such as Director of Strategic Partnerships. I then called the ExactAdvertising contact from the email and listened to the pitch. Silly folks never verified *who* they were really talking to and what followed was a conversation over an hour where I asked somewhat leading questions. The short version of their proposal was for Joe to use ActiveX installations (provided by ExactAdvertising) to perform drive-by installations of their software on Joe’s site (a forum community). Although ExactAdvertising provided other promotional methods, such as banners, the ActiveX installation provided a much higher conversion rate (installation on end user’s computers). Obviously because the end user isn’t actually agreeing to the installation. Duh??? Not only were conversions higher but Joe could inject the ActiveX code into any of the banners he normally ran on his site allowing Joe to two possible revenue streams with each banner display. Woohoo!!!!!! The Rep actually spent quite a bit of time explaining the benefits and technical aspects of doing ActiveX installations (aka drive-by installation).

After asking and being told exactly *all* the different ExactAdvertising adware dumped upon the end user with each installation, I had to ask why would Joe want to distribute something that would potentially interfere with his revenue down the road? Afterall, Joe had a loyal community and those users would then be infected with ExactAdvertising’s adware. Adware which could then interfere with his other marketing efforts. Ahhhh……Joe’s site would be whitelisted in their software and his site wouldn’t experience any pop-ups, etc from ExactAdvertising. Amazing considering how often I had heard that ExactAdvertising didn’t interfere with other affiliate’s traffic or commissions.

The final memorable moment from my conversation with ExactAdvertising had to do with why they thought Joe’s site was such a good match for distributing their software. Apparently by that time P2P users had become “too sophisticated” with regards to removing adware bundled with free software. They would install the free software and then immediately remove the bundled adware, such as ExactAdvertising’s software. On the other hand, Joe had “less sophisticated” users on his forum site who wouldn’t necessarily remove the adware as quickly. They might take up to five days to remove it. Woohoo…again.

So what does my flashback have to do the current goings on for ExactAdvertising? This notice which can currently be found on the various ExactAdvertising web sites:

Imagine that…it seems ExactAdvertising had a class action filed against them over their installation methods and are now in the settlement phase for the lawsuit.

You can find the proposed settlement here. As is pretty standard in most legal settlements, ExactAdvertising admits no wrongdoing. The settlement seems to primarily restrict ExactAdvertising from engaging in all the questionable installation practices. And pay the attorney’s fees of $300,000. There is no financial reward to end users who had ExactAdvertising software installed on their computer.

The class includes any persons or entities who had the various ExactAdvertising software installed on their computer on or after September 30, 2002. If the settlement is approved by the Courts, then such persons will be included in the settlement unless they submit objection to the settlement in writing as outlined in the document. This is signficant because of another standard clause in such settlements which protects ExactAdvertising from any future claims by the class. The Courts will hold the Fairness Hearing for the proposed settlement on March 13, 2008.

I have to say this isn’t the greatest settlement I’ve ever seen. Was ExactAdvertising already planning on exiting the adware business or did they pull back because of this lawsuit (or the possiblity of such from somewhere not civil in nature like an AG office in NY)? I’ve no idea of the answer. It would seem a prudent to remain directly removed from the whole adware picture now that ExactAdvertising’s parent company is InnovationInteractive, which also owns 360i, SearchIgnite and LeadGeNetwork.

It will be interesting to see if their adware reappears down the road. Regardless, a $300,000 finanical payment going only to attorneys seems like a very small slap on the wrist for the past practices. After all I know the phone conversation I had with an employee of ExactAdvertising.