LOP, or Live Online Portal, is an adware component that is installed on computers.

Lop.com is a web site owned by C2Media (NOTE: C2 Media is the name of a totally unrelated company from C2Media LTD which owns LOP.com). It is a pay-per-click search portal where other websites will pay for each click to their sites via LOP. This was never a bad idea, but a method they used to get people to their site was to install an adware component on people’s computers which would advertise their site through pop-ups. The installer could turn the user’s web browser into a device with a links to lop.com.

Older variants of LOP were quite predictable and installed Browser Helper Objects and startup entries with known names. Lately, LOP variants have been using random English words strung together in a phrase as their executable names and have been placing these executables in the user’s application data directory. For example, there are LOP variants which call their file “meal dog house bone.exe”.

LOP can usually be easily removed using Ad-Aware and Spybot S&D (as well as various other spyware removal programs). You may also ask the support forums below for help on how to remove LOP.

Known programs that bundle LOP

• Patchou’s Messenger Plus

References

• Healan, M. (2004). Lop.com. Retrieved Jun. 13, 2005, from SpywareInfo Web site: http://www.spywareinfo.com/articles/lop/.
• Clover, A. (n.d.). lop. Retrieved Jun. 13, 2005, from doxdesk.com Web site: http://www.doxdesk.com/parasite/lop.html.

Links

• LOP Information Website
• SpywareInfo Forums
• TomCoyote Forums
• BFC Computer Help
• Security and Malware Board

Loyaltyware is a sub-category of adware. It works around the notion of user “loyalty” by providing incentives in the form of cash, points, airline miles, or other type of goods while shopping. Examples include WebRebates, Top Moxie, and Ebates Moe Money Maker.

Links

• Spyware Guide: LoyaltyWare

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The term adware frequently refers to any software which displays advertisements, whether or not it does so with the user’s consent. Programs such as the Eudora mail client display advertisements as an alternative to shareware registration fees. These classify as “adware” in the sense of advertising-supported software, but not as spyware. They do not operate surreptitiously or mislead the user.

Many of the programs frequently classified as spyware function as adware in a different sense: their chief observed behavior consists of displaying advertising. Claria Corporation’s Gator Software and Exact Advertising’s BargainBuddy provide examples of this sort of program. Visited Web sites frequently install Gator on client machines in a surreptitious manner, and it directs revenue to the installing site and to Claria by displaying advertisements to the user. The user experiences a large number of pop-up advertisements.

Other spyware behaviors, such as reporting on websites the user visits, frequently accompany the displaying of advertisements. Monitoring web activity aims at building up a marketing profile on users in order to sell “targeted” advertisement impressions. The prevalence of spyware has cast suspicion upon other programs that track Web browsing, even for statistical or research purposes. Some observers describe the Alexa Toolbar, an Internet Explorer plug-in published by Amazon.com, as spyware (and some anti-spyware programs report it as such) although many users choose to install it.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

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Amazon at the Affiliate Meet Market

Early days

In the early days of affiliate marketing, there was very little control over what affiliates were doing, which was abused by a large number of affiliates. Affiliates used false advertisements, trademark bidding on search engines, forced clicks to get tracking cookies set on users’ computers, and Adware. Many affiliate programs were poorly managed.

This changed dramatically over the last few years for multiple reasons. Revenue generated online grew quickly. The e-commerce website, viewed as a marketing toy in the early days of the web, became an integrated part of the overall business plan and in some cases grew to a bigger business than the existing offline business. Many companies hired outside affiliate management companies to manage the affiliate program.

When Google, the most popular search engine on the Internet, introduced AdWords (pay-per-click advertising pioneered by Goto.com, then Overture.com and now Yahoo! Search Marketing) many Merchants became aware of the issue of trademark bidding by affiliates. The terms of service were quickly modified by most merchants and structures were put in place to monitor affiliate activities.

Adware

Adware is still an issue today, but affiliate marketers have taken steps to fight it. Merchants usually had no clue what adware was, what it does and how it was damaging their brand. Affiliate marketers became aware of the issue much quicker, especially because they noticed that adware often overwrites their tracking cookie and results in a decline of commissions. Affiliates who do not use adware became enraged by adware, which they felt was stealing hard earned commission from them. Adware usually has no valuable purpose or provides any useful content to the often unaware user that has the adware running on his computer. Affiliates discussed the issues in various affiliate forums such as ABestWeb and started to get organized. It became obvious that the best way to cut off adware was by discouraging merchants from advertising via adware. Merchants that did not care or even supported adware were made public by affiliates, which damaged the merchants’ reputations and also hurt the merchants’ general affiliate marketing efforts. Many affiliates simply “canned” the merchant or switched to a competitor’s affiliate program. Eventually, affiliate networks were also forced by merchants and affiliates to take a stand and ban adware publishers from their network.

The new Web

The rise of blogging, interactive online communities and other new technologies, web sites and services based on the concepts that are now called Web 2.0 have impacted the affiliate marketing world as well. The new media allowed merchants to get closer to their affiliates and improved communication between each other. New portals like Return on Affiliates allow affiliates, merchants, and networks to interconnect easily, on a professional and a personal level.

New developments have made it harder for unscrupulous affiliates to make money. Emerging black sheep are detected and made known to the affiliate marketing community with much greater speed and efficiency.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Video: Network Marketing and the Economy! Can Distributors Survive?

Application

Adware is software integrated into or bundled with a program. It is usually seen by the programmer as a way to recover programming development costs, and in some cases it may allow the program to be provided to the user free of charge or at a reduced price. The advertising income may allow or motivate the programmer to continue to write, maintain and upgrade the software product.

Some adware is also shareware, and so the word may be used as term of distinction to differentiate between types of shareware software. What differentiates adware from other shareware is that it is primarily advertising-supported. Users may also be given the option to pay for a “registered” or “licensed” copy to do away with the advertisements.

Controversy

There are concerns about adware because it often takes the form of spyware, in which information about the user’s activity is tracked, reported, and often re-sold, often without the knowledge or consent of the user. Of even greater concern is malware, which may interfere with the function of other software applications, in order to force users to visit a particular web site.

It is not uncommon for people to confuse “adware” with “spyware” and “malware”, especially since these concepts overlap. For example, if one user installs “adware” on a computer, and consents to a tracking feature, the “adware” becomes “spyware” when another user visits that computer, and interacts with and is tracked by the “adware” without their consent.

Spyware has prompted an outcry from computer security and privacy advocates, including the Electronic Privacy Information Center [1]. Often, spyware applications send the user’s browsing habits to an adserving company, which then targets adverts at the user based on their interests. Kazaa and eXeem are popular programs which incorporate software of this type.

Adware programs other than spyware do not invisibly collect and upload this activity record or personal information when the user of the computer has not expected or approved of the transfer, but some vendors of adware maintain that their application which does this is not also spyware, due to disclosure of program activities: for example, a product vendor may indicate that since somewhere in the product’s Terms of Use there is a clause that third-party software will be included that may collect and may report on computer use, that this Terms of Use disclosure means the product is just adware.

A number of software applications are available to help computer users search for and modify adware programs to block the presentation of advertisements and to remove spyware modules. To avoid a backlash, as with the advertising industry in general, creators of adware must balance their attempts to generate revenue with users’ desire to be left alone.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Adware or advertising-supported software is any software package which automatically plays, displays, or downloads advertising material to a computer after the software is installed on it or while the application is being used.

An example of mild adware

Well-known adware programs

• 123 Messenger
• 180 Solutions
  • 180SearchAssistant
  • Zango
• Bonzi Buddy
• ClipGenie
• Comet Cursor
• Cydoor
• Direct Revenue
  • Aurora (adware)
• Ebates MoneyMaker
• Gator
• PornDigger!
• WinFixer
• Hotbar

Links

• Anti-Spyware Coalition
• Spyware / Adware Removal Tutorial – Spyware / Adware Removal Tutorial

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.