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Internet.com Channel Seven : Why I Love Gator
by Christopher Saunders
Assistant Editor, Internet Advertising Report
9/07/01
Crammed into a New York City Subway car this morning, awaiting
the end of another two-stop, thirty-minute commute on the so-called "express"
line, I happened to notice that someone had pasted a small ad for one of those
"Lose Weight Fast -- Guaranteed!" programs... right on top of a billboard advertisement
for Budweiser.
It's not too different from what Gator.com is doing -- right?
Redwood City, Calif.-based Gator.com,
as you're no doubt aware, makes a software product that fills in online forms.
Users download it -- either by itself, or bundled with other downloadable software,
such as WeatherBug or KaZaA -- and the program dutifully fills
in online forms with information (including passwords) that you've given it.
It also displays advertising, which is how Gator makes its money,
and it's that capability that is the source of all this uproar. The controversy
centers around one particular type of ad sold by Gator -- the unit appear on
top of ads already on Web pages, effectively blocking the publisher's intended
ad from being seen. And it's nigh impossible for an uninformed user to realize
that the Gator-delivered ad hadn't been put there by the page designer, since
it scrolls with the page.
Naturally, everyone in the Web ad industry hates this sort of
thing.
Budweiser and humble pie
Or do they? Some comments notwithstanding from groups like the American Association
of Advertising Agencies, the folks that actually purchase ads online seem to
be flocking to the system. Dodge, Vivendi Universal, HotJobs,
Dell and uBid.com are all advertising on Gator. Several of the
deals on Gator are, in fact, brokered by interactive agencies, which, in many
cases, even design the very executions that run on the service.
Indeed, Gator executives tell me that because of all the so-called
bad press that the company's getting lately, advertisers are chomping at the
bit to try out its services. And no wonder, with the company promising better
targeting across sites than DoubleClick and 24/7 Media can deliver.
(Gator's recent lawsuit against the Interactive Advertising Bureau, alleging
"malicious disparagement," certainly won't hurt its sales efforts.) ..
Read
the full article at Internet.com Channel Seven..
