OnlineBannersNow.com - old scam in new clothing
I just got a spam from these folks, and a quick look shows they're the same scam I exposed years ago. Here's the details:
Evaluation of CyberPhrases.com / RocketPositions.com / WindowPositions.com / SearchClimbers.com
Who is CyberPhrases?
Who is RocketPositions?
Who is SearchClimbers?
Who is WindowPositions?
I am a web host, programmer, and armchair technology consumer advocate.
A friend of mine invested a large sum of money into the CyberPhrases ad network. They claim to have an installed base of around 25 million users, and my friend was excited to be bringing such a large number of visitors to his site. My goal was to independently evaluate the value of this technology and ad network to determine if his money was well spent.
My findings were very disturbing and I felt it necessary to put this page together after hours of research.
Overview
This company essentially convinces web site owners that they can have top placement on Google for a given keyword. They demonstrate this with a program that essentially overrides what Google would normally show, according to who has paid $795 per keyword. Except nobody has the program, so the poor web site owners are buying snake oil.
What They Do
Their websites are very sparse on details. After reading everything, speaking with my friend, and directly to CyberPhrases, I've put together the following outline of their services:
- The Claims
- Approximately 25 million users have installed an "Internet Explorer Upgrade" which enables them to see the ads.
- The ads appear above Google (and other sites), embedded in the page as an IFRAME, when a Google user searches for a certain "owned" keyword.
- The upgrade is distributed on Download.com.
- The upgrade is distributed in many freeware applications, such as Kazaa Ghost.
- Keywords are sold to a single website owner. Prospects found primarily through a telemarketing campaign.
- They are growing rapidly, and their keywords are going fast and prices are going up, so buy fast.
- They offer reseller programs to allow middle men to get a cut of profits when helping to sell Keywords.
- They are proud of their software and consider it a benefit to users.
- Their software is easy to uninstall.
Who Are These Guys, Exactly?
The company goes by many names:
- CyberPhrases.com (http://www.cyberphrases.com)
- ExclusivePosition (http://www.exclusiveposition.com/)
- RocketPositions (http://www.rocketpositions.com) (Redirects to SearchClimbers)
Either these are all related, the same as, or a parent/child of SearchClimbers.
- SearchClimbers.com (http://www.searchclimbers.com)
How Does Someone Install and Try this Plugin, so they can see the targeted keyword ads?
- Go to http://www.cyberphrases.com
- Click "IE Upgrade"
- Note that the name now changes to WindowPositions.
- Don't worry, I'll show you how to uninstall this later.
- Click the appropriate link to download the UPGRADE.EXE file.
- Run it.
My first criticism of this company is their use of the term "Upgrade". Regardless of how beneficial they believe their software is, this is a misleading term whose intended purpose is to mislead and confuse potential keyword buyers that their browser is "out of date" and that by "upgrading" it, their browser will be like everyone else's - specifically, it will be like the 25 million people who have installed their "upgrade". From now on, I will simply refer to it as the "Plugin" since, in my opinion, that is what it resembles.
What does the Internet Explorer Plugin do?
The Plugin installer has no UI or prompt whatsoever. It appears to work only with Internet Explorer. It copies itself to C:\Program Files\Windowpositions as ieplugin003.dll. It also adds an Uninstall.exe to that folder. The Uninstaller forces a reboot to complete.
The installer It makes many Registry modifications, which I observed using SysInternals RegMon (http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/source/regmon.shtml). I did not investigate every single registry modification.
The uninstall appears under Add/Remove Programs as "Windowpositions Browser Upgrade". This may not exactly be expected for users that have installed it from other sources such as CyberPhrases.com.
When you use Google (or other sites), it monitors what you search for and compares them against known keywords. The plugin must contact their servers to do this, so they potentially can see everything that the Plugin users are searching for. I doubt they are interested in this, however. Their business is selling keywords to site owners.
If the Plugin determines that you've searched Google for a keyword that they have "sold" to someone, it embeds an IFRAME at the top of the Google site containing the keyword "owner's" website. The Plugin is modifying the browser in realtime.
This seems awfully similar to the Gator problem, where nytimes.com and other site publishers sued Gator for illegally modifying their site by superimposing ads on the sites with ads from the Gator ad network. The case was settled. See http://www.bizreport.com/news/4142 for more information.
The Plugin also redirects keyword queries issued from the Address Bar to windowpositions.com, which then instantly redirects and performs a search on searchclimbers.com. If keyword searching in IE has been disabled prior to installing the Plugin, it simply overrides this behavior to ensure their keyword redirection works. Well-behaved applications do not re-enable features that the user has explicitly disabled.
SpyBot - Search and Destroy, Lavasoft AdAware, and SpywareBlaster do not detect this plugin as Spyware. This is either an indicator that it is not considered spyware/adware by these program authors, or it is simply an indicator that it is not widespread enough to have yet been noticed by these authors.
Do They Really Have 25 Million Installed Users?
I have not yet seen evidence to indicate they do.
Their website says they are distributed on Download.com. However, searching Download.com for all of their known company names returns no files.
I spoke with a salesperson, and she said they propagate through bundles with freeware applications, available at Download.com. One example she gave was Kazaa Ghost, a not-so-popular anonymous P2P application. This application has over 127,000 registered downloads with Download.com - however, I downloaded and installed this application, but it did not contain the Plugin.
I am waiting for an email from the company where they promised to send me a list of applications that they are installed with, which I can independently verify. Requested on Dec 3, 2004. Response: None
The salesperson also claimed that they have an army of telemarketers that call businesses and convince them to install the software on all of their computers, in order to keep a balance of normal versus business users. I asked what benefit a company would have installing a piece of AdWare on their systems. They were violently opposed to the term AdWare, even though they appear to fit the definition perfectly (see http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/A/adware.html). They claim that they convince businesses to install the Plugin by convincing them that it improves their browsing experience by displaying targeted advertisements. I can't say that I know a single company that would willingly install this on their systems.
How Does SearchClimbers.com Fit Into All This?
The SearchClimbers search engine is not very powerful by today's standards. A search for "Britney", for example, returns only three to four pages of results, as do virtually any other searches. Their graphics at the top of the page don't even appear upon performing a search. The Plugin redirects keyword searches to this site - yet, ironically, the keywords they sell do not cause the keyword owner's site to appear. This behavior only appears on Google and other sites. The relationship with SearchClimbers is unclear.
It is my guess that SearchClimbers was a failed search business endeavor that was mostly abandoned when they discovered the "top placement" business model they are currently promoting.
What is the Sales Pitch?
From speaking with my friend, they seemed to use a variety of tactics to convince him that this was a good service:
- They present the Plugin as an "Internet Explorer Upgrade" to make it appear that the keyword buyer is simply using an "out-of-date" browser. They obscure the fact that you must have the Plugin to see the ads.
- The Plugin's spectacular behavior gives keyword buyers the impression that they are not only the top search result for a given keyword - something impossible to control on Google - but their site actually appears above Google (and other sites) embedded in the page in an IFRAME.
- They claimed that the pay-per-click model is no good. However, they charge a flat rate of about $795 per keyword and do not guarantee performance - at least with pay-per-click you don't have to pay if nobody is visiting your site.
- They claim that there is a 30-day money back guarantee, yet the contract explicitly states otherwise. There is only a 30-day binding arbitration clause - not exactly a pleasant experience.
- They offer steep discounts for payment methods that allow them to prevent a stop-payment, such as wire transfer. My friend recieved a substantial discount for this, and by the time I heard about the whole thing (literally minutes after the transaction), it was too late, and nearly $10,000 had been spent and will likely remain unrecoverable, due to the terms of the contract.
What's In The Contract?
The contract essentially indemnifies them against any lack of performance in site traffic as a result of buying these keywords. It explicitly states that there are no refunds on keywords, and it indemnifies them against misrepresentations made by independent salespeople. The salesperson told me that buying a keyword did guarantee traffic - but she seemed to mean that she really just believes this a lot. She seemed surprised when I explained that the contract explicitly states that there is no guarantee of increased site traffic.
It has a standard 30-day binding arbitration clause.
Conclusion
This company convinces customers that they can "beat the system" - the search system - by buying, and owning, a keyword which gives their site top placement over existing major search engines and sites like Google and Ebay.
In reality, users are required to install a Plugin to see this ad behavior. Their Plugin modifies Google and other sites without their permission - something Gator was sued for by the NYTimes and other publishers (the case was settled out of court.)
Essentially, nobody is using this Plugin, as it is really not being distributed. It's only given to potential customers to demonstrate how they can powerfully overcome the limitations of not having top placement according to Google or Yahoo. The customer buys a keyword for the exorbitant price of $795 per word and when someone with the Plugin searches for it, the customer's site comes up first. Only the customer really ever sees this though (and other customers who have been sold keywords.) The installed based of the Plugin is likely extremely tiny based on the research I have done.
Discussion Threads
- http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum22/2941.htm
- http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=3202
- http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=1259
- http://www.broadbandreports.com/forum/remark,9202942~mode=flat
