Banner Farm Screenshots
Banner Farms in the Crosshairs - Ben
Edelman
These full-size screenshots detail the practices set out in Banner Farms in the Crosshairs.
[ Inqwire - SurfSidekick | Global-Store - Look2me | Additional Hula Examples | Other Examples ]
Hula's Inqwire Buying Traffic from SurfSidekick
The screenshot below was captured on May 6, 2006.
Note SurfSidekick branding in the popup's title bar. The Inqwire window was opened as a popup on my test PC, without my doing anything to request it.
Note also SurfSidekick's placement of the window, with its "x" button off-screen. The absence of an on-screen "x" makes it harder for typical users to close the unwanted window and to remove the unwanted advertisements.
Hula's Global-Store Buying Traffic from Look2me / Ad-w-a-r-e
The screenshot below (captured on June 10, 2006) shows Hula's Global-Store.net and its large advertisements, without bona fide substantive non-advertising content.
This window was opened by Look2me's Ad-w-a-r-e spyware, without my doing anything to request it. Packet log analysis confirms that the window came from Look2me spyware, despite Look2me's failure to place its name on the popup it opened.
The screenshots below show additional ads placed by well-known advertisers into Hula banner farms. All screenshots were captured on June 11-12, 2006.
A Global-Store window promoting Circuit City (top center) and Vonage (bottom left):
Inqwire promoting IAC/Ask.com's Cursormania:
Global-Store promoting the Blu-ray Disc Association:
Global-Store promoting Classmates.com:
Venus123 promoting Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft as well as Monster.com:
Inqwire promoting Micron's Crucial Technology:
Additional Examples of Other Banner Farms
The screenshots below (captured on June 11, 2006) show additional ads placed by well-known advertisers into other (non-Hula) banner farms.
Whatsnewreport promoting Verizon:
Whatsnewreport promoting Claria's Personalweb as well as Washington Mutual:
