Claria Corporation
Encyclopedia
Claria Corporation was a software company based in Redwood City, California
with products many considered spyware
. It was established in 1998 by Denis Coleman. Its name was often used interchangeably with its Gain advertising network, which it claimed serviced over 40 million users. Claria exited the adware
business at the end of second quarter 2006., and eventually shut down completely in October 2008. However, its software still remains installed on millions of PCs.
The "Gator" (also known as Gain AdServer) products collected personal information from its unknowing users, including all websites visited and portions of credit card numbers to target and display ads on the computers of web surfers. It billed itself as the "leader in online behavioral marketing". The company changed its name to Claria Corporation on October 30, 2003 in an effort to "better communicate the expanding breadth of offerings that [they] provide to consumers and advertisers", according to CEO and President Jeff McFadden. Strategic rebranding
such as this is often an attempt by a corporation at distancing itself from "past product errors or partnerships".
, or Kazaa
. The development of these programs is partially funded by revenue from advertising displayed by Gator. By mid-2003 Gator was installed on an estimated 35 million PCs.
Even though Gator was installed with an uninstall
available via Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel on Microsoft Windows
, many spyware removal tools can also detect and remove it. Gator's end user license agreement attempts to disallow its manual removal by prohibiting "unauthorized means" of uninstallation.
The Gator software undercut the fundamental ad-supported nature of many Internet publishers by replacing banner ads on web sites with its own, thereby depriving the content provider of the revenue necessary to continue providing that content. In June 2002 a number of large publishers, including the New York Post
, The New York Times
, and Dow Jones & Company
, sued Gator Software for its practice of replacing ads.
Most of the lawsuits were settled out of court in February 2003.
Gator attempted to combat spyware
labels with litigation
. In September 2003 the company threatened sites such as PC Pitstop with libel lawsuits.
While using the software, a user was shown advertisements. According to Computer Associates' spyware information center, all applications in the suite are classified as both adware
and spyware
, as they both display ads unrelated to the product while the primary user interface is not visible. These programs all employ the user's Internet connection to report behavior information back to Claria. Although the user's explicit consent is always required to install these applications, Claria took advantage of the fact that most users choose not bothering to educate themselves about what they are installing. In most cases, during the install process, users must choose whether to install the "free" version (which serves lots of ads as described above) or to pay the $30 for a version that serves no ads. Since the announcement to shut the ad network down, Claria has stopped accepting payment for "ad free" versions.
search results page has sponsored content: such as no pop-ups and use of sponsored search listings.
firms, including Greylock
, Technology Crossover Ventures, and U.S. Venture Partners
. Andy Bechtolsheim
was an early investor.
They filed for a $150 million IPO in April 2004, stating income of $35 million on revenues of $90 million in 2003.
Investors were concerned that its practices might be illegal, at least in Utah
at the time.
Another concern was that most revenue came from one partner: Yahoo Overture
.
Claria withdrew the filing in August 2004.
's TruPrevent Technologies, still label Claria products as both adware and spyware.
In March 2006, Claria claimed that it would be exiting the adware business and focusing on personalized search
technology.
On July 1, 2006, Claria ceased displaying pop-up ads. Around this time, a new company NebuAd
was formed with some former Claria employees with another approach to targeted advertisements.
On April 21, 2008, Claria sold the gator.com domain.
In October, 2008, rebranded as Jelly Cloud, the company quietly shut down.
Today, Claria's former senior management team occupy variety of leadership roles throughout the online marketing industry. Scott VanDeVelde, Claria's last CEO and former Chief Revenue Officer, is now Chief Revenue Officer at Dotomi, an online advertising firm specializing in personalized media. Scott Eagle, Claria's former Chief Operating Officer and Chief Marketing Officer, joined eHarmony
, an online dating company, as Chief Marketing Officer. Former CEO Jeff McFadden and former VP of Business Development Mitchell Weisman are now part of the leadership team at LifeStreet Corporation, the largest ad network on Facebook - though at LifeStreet McFadden's and Weismans roles are now reversed, with Weisman as CEO and McFadden as EVP. Tony Martin, Claria's former VP of Engineering, ran engineering and operations at Playlist
. Claria's former VP Engineering and Analytics, Dominic Bennett, and Claria's Senior Director of Finance Dennis Jang, are now part of the leadership team at Turn
, a leading online advertising DSP, as VP Engineering and VP Finance respectively. Former Claria CTO, Mark Pennell, is now a senior software engineer at Demand Media
.
Redwood City, California
Redwood City is a California charter city located on the San Francisco Peninsula in Northern California, approximately 27 miles south of San Francisco, and 24 miles north of San Jose. Redwood City's history spans from its earliest inhabitation by the Ohlone people, to its tradition as a port for...
with products many considered spyware
Spyware
Spyware is a type of malware that can be installed on computers, and which collects small pieces of information about users without their knowledge. The presence of spyware is typically hidden from the user, and can be difficult to detect. Typically, spyware is secretly installed on the user's...
. It was established in 1998 by Denis Coleman. Its name was often used interchangeably with its Gain advertising network, which it claimed serviced over 40 million users. Claria exited the adware
Adware
Adware, or advertising-supported software, is any software package which automatically plays, displays, or downloads advertisements to a computer. These advertisements can be in the form of a pop-up. They may also be in the user interface of the software or on a screen presented to the user during...
business at the end of second quarter 2006., and eventually shut down completely in October 2008. However, its software still remains installed on millions of PCs.
The "Gator" (also known as Gain AdServer) products collected personal information from its unknowing users, including all websites visited and portions of credit card numbers to target and display ads on the computers of web surfers. It billed itself as the "leader in online behavioral marketing". The company changed its name to Claria Corporation on October 30, 2003 in an effort to "better communicate the expanding breadth of offerings that [they] provide to consumers and advertisers", according to CEO and President Jeff McFadden. Strategic rebranding
Rebranding
Rebranding is the creation of a new name, term, symbol, design, or a combination of them for an established brand with the intention of developing a differentiated position in the mind of stakeholders and competitors....
such as this is often an attempt by a corporation at distancing itself from "past product errors or partnerships".
Gator
Originally released in 1999, Gator was most frequently installed together with programs being offered free of charge, such as Go!ZillaGo!Zilla
Go!Zilla is a proprietary download manager originally developed by Aaron Ostler in 1995, and later purchased by Radiate in 1999, for use on Windows. It is shareware and its previous ad supported version drew controversy among users and privacy advocates...
, or Kazaa
Kazaa
Kazaa Media Desktop started as a peer-to-peer file sharing application using the FastTrack protocol licensed by Joltid Ltd. and operated as Kazaa by Sharman Networks...
. The development of these programs is partially funded by revenue from advertising displayed by Gator. By mid-2003 Gator was installed on an estimated 35 million PCs.
Even though Gator was installed with an uninstall
Uninstaller
An uninstaller, also called a deinstaller, is a utility software designed to remove other software or parts of it from a computer. It is the opposite of an installer.-Components:...
available via Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel on Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, many spyware removal tools can also detect and remove it. Gator's end user license agreement attempts to disallow its manual removal by prohibiting "unauthorized means" of uninstallation.
The Gator software undercut the fundamental ad-supported nature of many Internet publishers by replacing banner ads on web sites with its own, thereby depriving the content provider of the revenue necessary to continue providing that content. In June 2002 a number of large publishers, including the New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, and Dow Jones & Company
Dow Jones & Company
Dow Jones & Company is an American publishing and financial information firm.The company was founded in 1882 by three reporters: Charles Dow, Edward Jones, and Charles Bergstresser. Like The New York Times and the Washington Post, the company was in recent years publicly traded but privately...
, sued Gator Software for its practice of replacing ads.
Most of the lawsuits were settled out of court in February 2003.
Gator attempted to combat spyware
Spyware
Spyware is a type of malware that can be installed on computers, and which collects small pieces of information about users without their knowledge. The presence of spyware is typically hidden from the user, and can be difficult to detect. Typically, spyware is secretly installed on the user's...
labels with litigation
Spamigation
Spamigation is mass litigation conducted to intimidate large numbers of people. The term was coined by Brad Templeton of the Electronic Frontier Foundation to explain the tactics of the Recording Industry Association of America , which files large numbers of lawsuits against individuals for file...
. In September 2003 the company threatened sites such as PC Pitstop with libel lawsuits.
Other defunct applications
Gator corporation released a suite of "free" Internet applications that performed various tasks. However, after installing the applications, a user would continually be shown ads from the Gain network, even when the programs were not running in the foreground. This suite included:- eWallet - a program that will automatically fill in personal information on webpages from a stored set of data entered by the user. The original form-fill software application product of the corporation for at least one year.
- GotSmiley
- Dashbar - an advertisement supported search toolbar by Claria. Intrusive in that it displays pop up ads during an Internet browsing session.
- Date Manager
- Precision Time
- Screenscenes
- Weatherscope
- WebSecureAlert
While using the software, a user was shown advertisements. According to Computer Associates' spyware information center, all applications in the suite are classified as both adware
Adware
Adware, or advertising-supported software, is any software package which automatically plays, displays, or downloads advertisements to a computer. These advertisements can be in the form of a pop-up. They may also be in the user interface of the software or on a screen presented to the user during...
and spyware
Spyware
Spyware is a type of malware that can be installed on computers, and which collects small pieces of information about users without their knowledge. The presence of spyware is typically hidden from the user, and can be difficult to detect. Typically, spyware is secretly installed on the user's...
, as they both display ads unrelated to the product while the primary user interface is not visible. These programs all employ the user's Internet connection to report behavior information back to Claria. Although the user's explicit consent is always required to install these applications, Claria took advantage of the fact that most users choose not bothering to educate themselves about what they are installing. In most cases, during the install process, users must choose whether to install the "free" version (which serves lots of ads as described above) or to pay the $30 for a version that serves no ads. Since the announcement to shut the ad network down, Claria has stopped accepting payment for "ad free" versions.
PersonalWeb
PersonalWeb was an advertising model proposed by Claria, in which clients installed an application that serves up behaviorally targeted content to a browser home page, rather than their previous model. This "home page application" was still supported by ads; however, the intention was to use ads that are less intrusive, much in the way that a typical GoogleGoogle
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
search results page has sponsored content: such as no pop-ups and use of sponsored search listings.
Backers
Despite their unpopular reputation, Claria Corporation had received backing from major venture capitalVenture capital
Venture capital is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as...
firms, including Greylock
Greylock
Greylock Partners is one of the oldest venture capital firms, founded in 1965, with committed capital of over $2 billion under management. The firm focuses on early stage companies in the consumer, enterprise software and infrastructure as well as semiconductor sectors.Today, Greylock operates out...
, Technology Crossover Ventures, and U.S. Venture Partners
U.S. Venture Partners
U.S. Venture Partners , is a venture capital investment firm headquartered on Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley focusing on investments in an array of segments including semiconductors, software as a service, communications, storage, wireless, Internet 2.0, Cleantech, Medical devices and...
. Andy Bechtolsheim
Andy Bechtolsheim
Andreas von Bechtolsheim is an electrical engineer who co-founded Sun Microsystems in 1982 and was its chief hardware designer....
was an early investor.
They filed for a $150 million IPO in April 2004, stating income of $35 million on revenues of $90 million in 2003.
Investors were concerned that its practices might be illegal, at least in Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
at the time.
Another concern was that most revenue came from one partner: Yahoo Overture
Yahoo! Search Marketing
Yahoo! Search Marketing is a keyword-based "Pay per click" or "Sponsored search" Internet advertising service provided by Yahoo!.Yahoo began offering this service after acquiring Overture Services, Inc....
.
Claria withdrew the filing in August 2004.
Recent news
In July 2005, Microsoft Corporation came under fire when it revealed that their anti-spyware product would no longer quarantine Claria software as "spyware" (though it still offererd users the option to remove the software). Microsoft was reportedly contemplating the purchase of Claria, which many consumers felt to be a conflict of interest. Other spyware-reporting agencies, such as Computer Associates and Panda SoftwarePanda Software
Panda Security SL, formerly Panda Software, is a computer security company founded in 1990 by Panda's former CEO, Mikel Urizarbarrena, in the city of Bilbao, Spain...
's TruPrevent Technologies, still label Claria products as both adware and spyware.
In March 2006, Claria claimed that it would be exiting the adware business and focusing on personalized search
Personalized search
Personalized search refers to search experiences that are tailored specifically to an individual's interests by incorporating information about the individual beyond specific query provided. Pitkow et al...
technology.
On July 1, 2006, Claria ceased displaying pop-up ads. Around this time, a new company NebuAd
NebuAd
NebuAd was an American online advertising company based in Redwood City, California, with offices in New York and London and was funded by the investment companies Sierra Ventures and Menlo Ventures....
was formed with some former Claria employees with another approach to targeted advertisements.
On April 21, 2008, Claria sold the gator.com domain.
In October, 2008, rebranded as Jelly Cloud, the company quietly shut down.
Today, Claria's former senior management team occupy variety of leadership roles throughout the online marketing industry. Scott VanDeVelde, Claria's last CEO and former Chief Revenue Officer, is now Chief Revenue Officer at Dotomi, an online advertising firm specializing in personalized media. Scott Eagle, Claria's former Chief Operating Officer and Chief Marketing Officer, joined eHarmony
EHarmony
eHarmony is an online dating website grounded in relationship science that matches single men and women for long-term relationships. To optimize the matching process, eHarmony operates eHarmony Labs, a relationship research facility, and publishes eHarmony Advice, a relationship advice site...
, an online dating company, as Chief Marketing Officer. Former CEO Jeff McFadden and former VP of Business Development Mitchell Weisman are now part of the leadership team at LifeStreet Corporation, the largest ad network on Facebook - though at LifeStreet McFadden's and Weismans roles are now reversed, with Weisman as CEO and McFadden as EVP. Tony Martin, Claria's former VP of Engineering, ran engineering and operations at Playlist
Playlist
In its most general form, a playlist is simply a list of songs. They can be played in sequential or shuffled order. The term has several specialized meanings in the realms of radio broadcasting and personal computers.-In radio:...
. Claria's former VP Engineering and Analytics, Dominic Bennett, and Claria's Senior Director of Finance Dennis Jang, are now part of the leadership team at Turn
Turn
Turn may refer to:In music:* Turn , a sequence of several notes next to each other in the scale* Turn , an Irish rock group* Turn LP, a 2005 rock album by Turn* Turn , a 2004 punk album by The Ex...
, a leading online advertising DSP, as VP Engineering and VP Finance respectively. Former Claria CTO, Mark Pennell, is now a senior software engineer at Demand Media
Demand Media
Demand Media, Inc. is an online media company and content farm that operates online brands such as eHow, and Cracked, and is known for creating online content through its Demand Media Studios division based on a combination of measured consumer demand and predicted ROI...
.