Bytemarks
'Contextual' ads are coercive ads

By Burt Lum

There's a disturbance in cyberspace that threatens to unravel the very fabric it was build upon. The new threat comes not in the form of hacks or viruses, but instead as unwanted advertising called "contextual" advertising. This form of advertising appears as yellow, underlined text in a Web site that if clicked upon, will send the visitor to the Web site of the advertiser.

What makes this form of advertising insidious is that it's done without the prior knowledge of the Web site's owner. There is no compensation going back to that owner and in all likelihood, when the visitor finds out what has happened, they would avoid that Web site in the future.

Here's how it works: A potential advertiser signs up for contextual advertising. The system begins to systematically identify keywords throughout the Internet, for example, words like Hawai'i or aloha. These words then would be linked to the advertiser's Web site and highlighted by a yellow underline in the text of the original Web site.

In order to view this highlighted text you need to download a program like Top Text. Read about this Windows plug-in at the Top Text Web site.

My first thought: Just don't download Top Text. Quite coincidentally, a friend of mine recently told me about a new Napster-like program that is all the rage called KaZaa. Initially I thought, great, until I read an article: Millions of music-sharing enthusiasts downloaded KaZaa not knowing that Top Text is attached, loaded and modifies countless Internet Explorer browsers.

A campaign is growing to combat this form of contextual advertising. For a good place to start learning more about what can be done, go to this opposing Web site.

The independent Web developer should be especially concerned. Putting creative energy and ideas into a Web site only to have keywords unknowingly linked to an unwanted advertiser's site is not what the Internet was built on. ;-)

Burt Lum is one click away at burt@brouhaha.net.