Can Claria aka Gator Shake off Bad Rep with new Ad Network?
Firm formerly known as Gator looks for credibility
Remember Gator? Of course you do, how could anyone forget? Well, Claria as they are now attempting to be known have plans for a massive ad network. BehaiourLink as it will be known will work much like adsense or similar schemes by the sound of it but will focus on behaviourally targeted ads rather than pure contextual.
Both Cnet and Clicz have pieces on the upcoming launch today. This from Cnet:
More than three years ago, Claria (then known as Gator) sparked a furor among online publishers with its practice of covering up their ad banners with its own. The Washington Post, The New York Times and Dow Jones, among others, sued Gator for covering their Web pages with its own ads, claiming the company violated copyrights and stole revenue in doing so. The suit settled out of court, but Claria has fought to clean up its image since, even by changing its name.
and this from Zachary Rodgers:
Behavioral marketing firm Claria is expected Tuesday to detail plans for its new ad network, BehaviorLink, in which its ads will appear on publishers' sites, rather than in pop-up ads. The network is set to debut in the second quarter of 2005.
The new offering will operate like any other third party ad network, in many respects. Claria will buy run-of-site standard ad units from around 3,000 publishers, then serve relevant ads to Internet users who have installed its software, based on their recent behavior. It expects to spend more than $100 million annually on media, which it will then resell on a CPM, CPC or CPA basis.
Targeting ads via a network will provide the company formerly known as Gator with a revenue alternative to its infamous desktop pop-ups. That offering has been very lucrative for Claria and its advertisers over the last several years - the company says it brought in $90 million in revenues in 2003. It has also drawn the ire of marketers, publishers and privacy advocates, at least 10 of which have filed litigation against the company.
I suppose it's unsurprising that Gator oops! i mean Claria should jump straight into another field frought with privacy issues. The question now is if they can shake off their appalling reputation amongst web folk and gain the trust of publishers?
Added: I've just noticed that Mike at Techdirt has a nice write up and some good links on this aswell:
Claria is still trying to refine its image and its business model. A year and a half ago they started threatening anyone who called their software spyware and then changed their name to Claria to avoid the negative stigma associated with the Gator name. While they tried and failed to go public last year, they're still trying to clean up their image. This would be a good thing, as their image needs cleaning up... except it still seems somewhat sketchy.
no
and now you have brought it to my attention I will be uber wary of Claria and I will urge other people I come across to be as wary.
big money
It goes to show you how much money there is to be made in the privacy gray-areas as well as in the aggessive marketing space with use of software toolbars and plugins, enough to weather the bad press, angry fellow web professionals, and lawsuits.
The moves by MS to lock down the browser and OS have surely pushed these guys to this model. It is ironic that they're now moving to one that partners up with the same publishers they offended, even poetic. No doubt that the affiliate activists won't take this laying down.