Claria, er, um, Gator - An Infamous PR Problem

There is an excellent article on InternetWeek.com all about spyware and popup maker extraordinaire Claria's bid to remake themselves into something a bit less smarmy. Here's a few highlights:

"Seven-year-old Claria Corporation is looking to branch out from its traditional business of advertising-supported software into contextual advertising and personalized search for users. Those would be tough businesses for any company to get into, as it puts the company in competition with Google, Yahoo, and Amazon.com's A9 search engine. But Claria has an extra handicap: It's widely believed in the security industry that the company is a leading spyware producer."

And as I've blogged here, and here, and here, Microsoft jumped in the dirty end of the wading pool this past month when it downgraded its alert status for Gator from "quarantine" to a wimpy "ignore."

I would say that Gator has its work cut out for it if it's serious about positioning itself as a legitimate online market presence. The name itself, "Gator", is synonymous with bad ad practices, which is why most people believe the name has been changed.

"Critics said the company changed its name in 2003 to try to escape the spyware stigma. "It seems the heat was getting to be too much for Gator," said the technology blog Techdirt at the time. "The company's name is almost completely synonymous with spyware, and they're trying to shed that reputation... [The company should] stop offering spyware that often confuses or sneaks its way onto people's computers without them realizing it."

Claria/Gator wants to shake off their reputation of smarm, but I think they'll find it's going to be three steps forward, two steps back. Anyone who's been on the Net for any length of time can probably speak of a (bad) experience with some sort of spyware or adware, and chances are, some of that junk was straight from Gator.

"The Webroot list of most dangerous spyware lists Claria's Gator software and GAIN adware network jointly in the number-two slot."

Hard to dispute that. I have my own horror story; a few years back, Gator completely tied up my computer to the point that my sys admin SO had to reformat the entire thing. So I'm not too fond of the Claria/Gator comeback; in fact, I would venture to say that my opinion probably mirrors most Web savvy folks.

Related:

• Free Adware and Spyware Removers On The Web: Here are a few programs that you can download for free from the Web that will remove spyware and adware from your system.
• A Novel Approach to Keeping Your Computer Virus Free: A monologue about computer virus protection, presented for your enjoyment.
• Setting Basic Security Options with Firefox: Firefox is an extremely secure browser that will help you search the Web virtually popup and spyware free.