More Content Stealing Tools

Posted on April 1, 2005

Forbes reports on a new content stealing technology called Browster. Browsters work with Internet Explorer. Forbes says Browsters lets you "prefetch Web sites by running your mouse over page links. The linked sites pop up in a new window, wrapped in ads that Browster sells."

So, basically they are taking the content created by other publishers and placing ads on top of it. It sounds very familiar to Gator, which placed ads on top of the content of web publishers without their approval. Gator was later sued by The Washington Post, The New York Times, Dow Jones and seven other publishers. Gator.com's Companion Pop-up Banner, obscured advertising and/or editorial content on websites through the use of specially designed pop-up windows and without the consent of websites or third party advertisers. The lawsuit was settled out of court, but this company is still around today and is known as Claria.

Forbes.com compares Browster to some technology Google has been tinkering around with. Google's AutoLink technology inserts links into other publisher's websites. Microsoft was slammed by web publishers in 2001 when it tried a similar concept called SmartTags and had to drop the idea.