This page shows specific network transmissions that implement 180's double-popup
cookie-stuffing, targeting a request for lillianvernon.com made at approximately
10am (Eastern) on October 7, 2004. See also a video (WMV
format, view in full-screen mode) confirming what took place, including
showing my Cookies folder before and after receiving the 180solutions popup.
The thumbnail at right shows the final on-screen display -- the lillianvernon.com
site, covered in part by the double popup that reached lillianvernon.com through
an affiliate link.
In this example, I sought to document how 180 (and its advertisers) can set
affiliate codes even when users merely type in a site's domain name (such that
affiliate commissions would not ordinarily be payable). My testing proceeded
in the following way:
Consistent with the rest of my site, the network logs below omit my DUID (my
unique 180solutions user ID number) as well as the 180 affiliate publisher ID.
In my testing of October 2004, lillianvernon.com is but one of many merchants
that remain targeted by 180solutions double popups. Some targeted merchants
use affiliate networks; others run in-house affiliate programs. Some double
popups reach affiliate links through redirect servers, while others (including
this one) entail 180solutions sending users directly to an affiliate link via
no other intermediaries.
keyword
trigger
GET /showme.aspx?keyword=
.lillianvernon.com+lillianvernon.com&did=762&ver=5.12&duid=
531byhiprtvdgvadrfmfcgtxxyrjmg
&partner_id=215082838&product_id=762&browser_ok=y&rnd=30&basename=zango
user
id
&tzbias=5&MT=0183FC0BF9506C1ADFBFBDC3C4898DDCA926B8485AFD32E26DA97C4E09F61408EE
&DMT=0183FC0BF9506C1ADFBFBDC3C4898DDCA926B8485AFD32E26DA97C4E09F61408EE
&MT2=0128060A745663330C9E6066F0D97142DFA6F62AE9
&MT3=0188795C626888EF0A9D90262512A3259A7AFABE2C&WID=01C394DC8DD88880&GMA=1
&GVI=1&GPI=1&HMP=83FA3675C412FDC8532080F0E694793B74A854F7&bid=0&SID=VCVUVCJS
&OS=5.1.2600.2&SLID=1033&ULID=1033&TLOC=1033&ACP=1252&OCP=437&DB=iexplore.exe
&IEV=6.0.2800.1&TPM=200785920&APM=26607616&TVM=2147352576&AVM=2035044352
&FDS=1684951040&LAD=1601:1:1:0:0:0&WE=5 HTTP/1.1
Accept: */*
Accept-Language: en-us Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate
User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)
Host: tv.180solutions.com
Content-Length: 1620
Connection: Keep-Alive
data1=
[binary data omitted]
HTTP/1.1 100 Continue
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Thu, 07 Oct 2004 14:48:40 GMT
Server: Microsoft-IIS/6.0
X-Powered-By: ASP.NET
X-AspNet-Version: 1.1.4322
Cache-Control: private, no-store
Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
Content-Length: 3299
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<meta name="vs_targetSchema" content="http://schemas.microsoft.com/intellisense/ie5">
</HEAD>
<body>
ad
to be shown
ad_url: <input id=ad_url name=ad_url
value=
http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=[publisher
ID omitted]&offerid=37989.10000079&type=3&subid=0><br>
ad_takefocus: <input id=ad_takefocus name=ad_takefocus value=n><br>
ad_activationdelay: <input id=ad_activationdelay name=ad_activationdelay
value=0><br>
ad_resizable: <input id=ad_resizable name=ad_resizable value=y><br>
ad_scrollbars: <input id=ad_scrollbars name=ad_scrollbars value=y><br>
ad_menubar: <input id=ad_menubar name=ad_menubar value=y><br>
ad_statusbar: <input id=ad_statusbar name=ad_statusbar value=y><br>
ad_toolbar: <input id=ad_toolbar name=ad_toolbar value=y><br>
ad_addressbar: <input id=ad_addressbar name=ad_addressbar value=y><br>
ad_fullscreen: <input id=ad_fullscreen name=ad_fullscreen value=n><br>
ad_statustext: <input id=ad_statustext name=ad_statustext value=><br>
ad_theatermode: <input id=ad_theatermode name=ad_theatermode value=n><br>
ad_id: <input id=ad_id name=ad_id value=91969><BR>
keyword_id: <input id=keyword_id name=keyword_id value=513022><BR>
ad_windowtitle: <input id=ad_windowtitle name=ad_windowtitle value="Brought
to you by the Zango Search Assistant"><br>
<INPUT ID=kw_exclude TYPE=text style="VISIBILITY: hidden;" VALUE=".exactsearch.net"><br>
<INPUT ID=ad_shown TYPE=text VALUE="y" style="VISIBILITY:
hidden;"><br>
<INPUT ID=data1 style="VISIBILITY: hidden;" VALUE="
[binary
data omitted]">
<SPAN class="957085619-06032003"><FONT face="Arial"
color="#ff0000" size="5">Thank you
for your patience. You will be redirected to your destination site
in a
few seconds.</FONT></SPAN>
</body>
</HTML>
As
discussed in Affiliate Code Replacement via Popup "Double"
Windows within The Effect of 180solutions on Affiliate Commissions
and Merchants, 180 has implemented a system that can set affiliate tracking
codes by showing a user a duplicate copy of a merchant's site. These popups
set affiliate codes that, in the ordinary course of events, cause 180 (and its
advertisers) to be paid commissions otherwise payable to other affiliates, and
cause 180 (and its advertisers) to be paid commissions even if no commissions
would otherwise be paid. For a listing of affected merchants (as of tests of
June 2004), see merchants targeted with double
windows. See also merchants I previously
found to be targeted with silent cookie-stuffing.