Protecting the viewable content of your web site from the vandalism
of unwanted competitor linking is fast becoming a new basic necessity
of web site development and web security since the numbers of
consumers who have TopText enabled browsers is staggering. To
understand more about this new technology and how it works
please read our article: Who is Stealing Your Web Traffic
According to CNet's Download.com, the free
software products that are incorporating the components to enable
these links have been downloaded well over120 million times, and
the numbers are growing rapidly at an average of over three hundred
thousand new downloads per week. (These figures are as of
Sept. 2002 and that's just from CNet's site alone since we are
unable to get estimates from all the other free download sites.)
If you do not have the TopText plug-in parasite plug-in installed
on your computer you will not be able to view this form of contexual
linking, but just because you can't see them do not assume that
your site is safe because these links will still be viewable to
those who do have TopText installed and it effects all web sites
that happen to a "text string" that matches one of eZula's
targeted ad link "text strings". We also have a list
of known
KeyWords that are
or have been used as active targeted "text strings"
and are viewable to
eZula/TopText
enabled browsers. Feel free to check to see if any words you might
be using in your web site are listed.
If by chance you have viewed your site with a computer which
has TopText installed and discovered these links on your site
by now I am sure that you have gotten quite upset and began checking
your code, your host files and even tried reloading your pages
--We did the very same thing. I sadly have to tell you that reloading
your web pages will not have any effect since the linking occurs
via the browser on the client side and not the source code. You
could clear your browsers of cookies and empty the cache which
in some instances will clear some of the links from your own browser,
you can even try deleting TopText from your computer - but what
about the rest of 120+ million computers out there that currently
have TopText in their browsers!.
Since TopText is a client side Internet Explorer plug-in only
TopText enabled IE browsers can view them. Generally, these links
do not appear within the NetScape Browser. If you have a web site
but do not have TopText or Surf + plug-ins installed on your computer
you would not be able to view these links. Check out our TopText Screen shots to see how these
links can be viewed to someone who has TopText installed.
An important thing for you to understand is that TopText linking
generally attaches to a text string of a word or phrase as it
appears in the client side browser window and there are reports
that it can also attach additional hyperlinks over the existing
text hyper links within your site if the words used are a match.
When this occurs TopText opens up a pop-up listing your link as
well as their advertiser links. However, the majority of TopText
links will link to the plain informational text of your web site.
We have also noted the following observation: The Explorer browser
only seems able to display a maximum of 6 of these links on any
given page. This is why they always appear in the upper portion
of the various search engine screens.
How to disable and remove the yellow TopText links
There are several approaches that can be taken to block these
links from being viewable on your web site. We have a very simple
way to disable these links and prevent them from displaying on
your web page. These scripts are free to use provided that you
include the credits. The first TopText fix script will automatically
refresh the web page quickly and in a way that will disable the
TopText links, the second is an alternative java script that block
the links from appearing.
Recommended Web Fix
We highly recommend that you use a style sheet "span"
attribute to disable the links. Patrick Crampton at http://www.sgtsearch.com/blacklist/ttext.html
has found a fix using style sheets! His suggestion is to use the
following:
<style type="text/css"><!--
span {font-size:12px} --></style>
This would need to be placed on all pages that need protections.
The attributes within the span can be changed. You can also incorporate
this into an external sytle sheet! We have tested it and it does
appear to work well!
If you plan to adapt and use this style via a linked style sheet
you must also include <span class="classname">
& </span> tags around the selected text & link sections
that are at risk. (This combined style sheet code has been tested
on both IE & NetScape as well as Mac and displays uniformly
well on all platforms.)
The Refresh and Disable Script:
We have included a remotely hosted"refresh" script
to prevent TopText &
Surf+ links from showing
up on your web site. You can copy either of these codes into your
pages and the links will be repressed and no longer able to display.
Place one either just after the <BODY> tag, or just before
the </BODY> tag (after body will prevent the reload from
being noticeable, before /body protects you in case our server
becomes slow and unresponsive, your page will still load). This
code needs to be on every page you want to protect!
Here is a remotely hosted script from to add
to your web site which will repress TopText Links:
<SCRIPT language="JavaScript"
src="http://www.searchking.com/servlet/ezulafix">
</SCRIPT>
However, It has come to our attention that the
SearchKing ezulafix script might be generating pop-under
ads to the web sites that are using the script.We noticed
this while trying to trace why our site was suddenly generating
a large number of pupup ads on all the pages of our site.
There fore we have disconntinued using it and feel that
this script should be used at your own risk!
|
Other Approaches
There are a number of other additional approaches to combat this
technology, feel free to check out the others to find the one
that is best for your needs. Theifware has several new scripts
to also disable TopText at http://www.thiefware.com/disabler/ .You
might also want to check out a Cascading Style Sheet script by
Patrick Crampton at http://www.sgtsearch.com/blacklist/ttext.html
We have included links to them as well as additional help sites
on our additional resources page .
IMPORTANT NOTE:
Although we can take steps to protect our individual web sites
we still have no control over the links that are misdirecting
surfers directly from other web sites and the major the search
engines. In addition, many search engines require web sites to
pay a fee to be listed. These links are being added to search
engines in the same underhanded way and essentially ride on the
search engine’s infrastructure without paying any fees. These
links are diluting the value of any advertising you might have
purchased directly from the search engines. This is a clear violation
of regulations set down by the FTC against unfair competition
in the market place. Please take the time to check out our legal information section to file
a complaint against eZula with the FTC!
As of this writing we know of only one search engine that is
actively partnered with eZula and that is LookSmart. For more
information on this please see Thiefware's report at http://www.thiefware.com/looksmart.ezula.shtml
Special
TopText & Surf+ UpDate 11/02/04
We have discovered that there are Contextual Advertising
Links which look very similar to TopText & Surf+ links
which are legitimate and sponsored by participating web
sites for more information
click here! |
Alert your viewers about spyware
with our spyware detection script!
Help us raise awareness of the problems of spyware by alerting
your website visitors if they have spyware installed on
their computers. If we can alert consumers to this problem
it will benefit all of us as a whole. Only through awareness
will it be possible to eventually stop these unethical marketing
practices. If you would like to help us simply add the following
remote script to your web site which will alert your viewers
and visitors if they have spyware installed on their computers.
<script language="JavaScript"
src="http://www.unwantedlinks.com/parasite/parasite3.js">
</script>
This script can be placed anywhere in the body of your
site and remains totally invisible unless it detects at
least one of several browser based spyware plug-ins (including
TopText). Therefore, the spyware alert will only be viewable
to those viewers who have at least one of the identified
spyware programs installed at which point it will display
an simple text alert letting them know about it. Our script
can currently identify 124 different spyware programs. (
For more information
and to see a sample click here!)
Or feel free to use a copy of our spyware quotes script
to help raise awareness which appears in our left panel
<script language="JavaScript"
src="http://www.unwantedlinks.com/spywarequotes-feed.js"
type="text/JavaScript"></script>
This script will feed one quote at the exact location it
is placed within your site. It rotates a total of 30 random
spyware quotes. (This script will display additional random
quotes if it is included more than once) You can enclose
it in font tags to match your site text.
Here is a sample of how it looks.
|
Additional Web Master Alerts!
Find out about LookSmart's partnership with eZula
http://www.thiefware.com/looksmart.ezula.shtml
Affiliate Earning Theft
Another alarming aspect of many of these new spyware programs
is that they can also now "steal" a web site owners
affiliate earnings This is accomplished by redirecting the affiliate"string"
to credit the spyware/adware program instead of the true web site
owner via the end users browser. For more information see our
article "Who's Stealing Your
Affiliate Earnings!"
We have found a number of programs that state that they have
the ability to protect affiliate strings from being altered or
tampered with. Many of these programs charge a varity of fees,
however we have also found at least one simple and easy to use
program that can also perfom the same function for free. The way
these link protectors work is that they translate your affilate
string in to ASCII or HTML Unicode to make reading the string
more difficut. Many times they also include "no-right-click"
commands to also try to limit access to the source code. The idea
is to prevent users from by passing your affiliate string to purchase
products without crediting your account and can also prevent individual
hackers from altering your string and replacing it with their
own. As of this writing we are not sure how effective they are
against the types of link hijacking that occurs with spyware programs.
Here is a free utility program that can generate an altenative
page which will cloak and encrypt your affiliate links to help
protect you from affiliate hijackers. All you need to do is update
your affliate links to lead to this new page on your youw web
site. It works like a framed page from your site and will display
the affliate page in full with the affliate string cloaked to
prevent tampering. (I suggest that you target the links open into
a blank window) http://www.rotation-magic.com/affiliate-link-cloaker.html
Programmers can also duplicate this effect manually. For more
information on how these types of affilate link cloakers work
and information on how to do it yourself see
http://www.jamesshuggins.com/h/web1/affiliate_link_cloaker.htm
Also see http://www.thiefware.com/whenu/
Since these programs operate via an end users computer which
has been contaminated on the clients side our options to combat
them are limited.
| **
Spyware & Adware Test Scan **
If you are viewing this site with Internet
Explorer and see an alert displayed here then it is an indication
that your computer is infected with one or more spyware
programs that we can scan for. If you do not see any alert
displayed in the center of this notice then our scan did
not detect any of the 122 spyware programs we can scan for,
however, there are still many other programs out there that
we can not yet scan for.
Please note: Currently
we can scan for a 122 distinct spyware programs that can
effect PC users and the alert will only be display if a
specific targeted program is identified. Unfortunately,
we are limited to finding only certain types of spyware
and there are many other forms of spyware and adware that
we can not currently test for.
In addition, our test scan does not
work well with NetScape or other browsers, if you suspect
that you might have spyware on your computer please feel
free to check this page while using Internet Explorer.
Also, if you have a Personal FireWall installed it may
interfere with our ability to scan your computer for Parasite
Adware and Spyware. |
Based on this news report it looks like Kazaa and eZula might
be gearing up for a more aggressive use of the TopText plug-in
ad champagnes!
New Kazaa Could Ignite More Controversy
The owner of the widely used Kazaa file-swapping software, Sharman
Networks, has launched a significantly expanded version of its
controversial P2P (peer-to-peer) application. Additionally, the
company has signed an agreement with a European Internet service
provider that will actively promote Kazaa. Users have downloaded
the previous version of Kazaa about 119 million times, according
to Sharman. The program enables users to download digital media
files of all kinds from the hard drives of other Kazaa users.
Billions of audio, video and other files have been downloaded
by users scattered around the world. The new version includes
a search tool that allows users to search for ordinary Web pages.
P2P industry observers noted that this utility could mean Web
surfers will spend more time using Kazaa. In conjunction with
the launch of this feature, Sharman Networks will begin selling
keywords to Web merchants and others who want to promote their
goods and services by displaying them prominently in Web search
results. The new Kazaa also includes a playlist tool that enables
users to download entire albums as easily as they previously downloaded
single songs.
Sept 2002
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/19477.html
Other Web Master Concerns!
Microsofts Smart Tags
You can also protect your web site from Microsofts Smart tags
(which are different from TopText links) with the following script:
You will need to insert the following meta tag lines between
your <head> </head> tags on each page:
<meta name="MSSmartTagsPreventParsing" content="TRUE">
For more information on this see our article:
Microsoft & Others Still Implementing
Smart Tags
Gator's Ad & Banner Switching
Currently we do not have a fix for
Gator.
Based on our research Gator can target and dispatch competitor
pop-up ads over your site as well as switch the ads you sponsor.
However, they have been involved in litigation with the Interactive
Advertising Bureau (IAB) and they have temporarily suspended their
ad switching program. For additional information see our article:
Is Gator Highjacking Your Banner Ads?
Surf +
We have also discovered that Surf+ has currently
suspended it's browser linking however it might be reactivated
at any time. The refresh codes listed above for TopText will work
against Surf+. In addition, the last know version of EasyLink's
Surf+ was inhibited by frames and can not display on a framed
based site. If you want to protect your site from Surf+ in the
event that they come back on line you could try splitting your
pages with an unnoticeable 2 pixel top frame. It is also worth
noting that Surf+ links were the ones most responsible for the
linking of innocent words and phrases to porn sites and other
inappropriate materials as well as being able to redirect your
hyperlinks.
Browseup
Browseup (a new independent product we need to watch out for)
allows independent users to add their own links & images to
the surface of other peoples web sites and can actually attach
links to your images as well as add images to the surface of your
web site. We have not had any indication that Browseup is working
with any large scale advertising programs, it appears to be an
independent download. We still need to address the technical aspects
of these other technologies to learn more about how to prevent
these particular links.
Spam Harvesters
Webmasters and Web Site owners should also check out our article
on:
How to Protect Web Site Email Addresses
From Harvesters and Spammers
File a Complaint with the FTC & BBB
Complaints can and do work if we all complain loudly enough and
to the right agencies. Complaints have gotten Surf + to suspend
their links and slowed Gator down with their ad switching!
You can file a complaint with the FTC and BBB. See our Legal
Information Section, you can file a complaint directly on
line from this site!
Please take a moment to write to your
congressmen about protecting your privacy and passing stronger
anti-spam laws!
There are number of new laws pending without your support they
will not get passed. Let your congressmen know that we want stronger
privacy protections. For more information see our legal
section.
For Additional Information to protect or market your
web site check out our other articles:
Email Marketing Ethics
and Spam Reporting
Top 10 Ways To Legitimately Ask
For Your Visitor's Contact Info
Fight Guest Book and Public Forum
Spam!
Ethical Marketing Tips & Security Info
| Little known fact:
Did you know that Network Solutions /VeriSign sells the
information gathered when a company registers a Web address
with its subsidiary Network Solutions (NSI). NSI has sold
such data for some time, but is now moving aggressively
to sell data by sponsoring newsletters distributed to direct
marketers, according to Cheryl Regan, a spokesperson for
VeriSign. The data being sold is gathered when a company
registers a domain name with NSI, and includes the company
name, street address, telephone number, and e-mail address.
This data is available at NSI's Web site under the "Who
Is" database, but anyone who wants the full set of
data has to sift through one Web site at a time. The typical
data buyers are Internet service providers, Web hosting
companies, and telecommunications companies.
Sources:
"Network Solutions Selling Database Info," Margret
Johnston, IDG News Service, 2/16/01.
"Network Solutions Offers Its Database Of Domain-Names
to Marketing Firms," Thomas E. Weber, The Wall Street
Journal, 2/16/01.
http://www.pcworld.com/
http://www.cnn.com/
In addition, VeriSign is or has been one of eZula's advertising
clients adding links onto other peoples web sites! See our
Hall of Shame for more information. |
Special
TopText & Surf+ UpDate 11/02/04
We have discovered that there are Contextual Advertising
Links which look very similar to TopText & Surf+ links
which are legitimate and sponsored by participating web
sites for more information
click here! |
Please show your support and raise awareness by displaying one
of our logo banners on your site
