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Nobody's going to skin this Gator
By Stefanie Olsen
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
September 4, 2001, 1:00 PM PT
newsmakers As "Chief
ExecuGator" of controversial software company Gator, Jeff McFadden is biting
back at critics of his baby.
The 3-year-old company filed a lawsuit last week against the Interactive Advertising
Bureau, contending that the chief trade group for online advertising made libelous
statements in the press about Gator's ad-delivery software. Earlier, the IAB
had described Gator's controversial new banner pop-ups, which deliberately obscure
banners of the Web sites it represents, as illegal.
McFadden, 47, begs to differ. Because millions of consumers consent
to run Gator's helper application and advertising software on their PCs, Gator
is within its rights and on its way to transforming the Internet advertising
industry, McFadden says.
The company, which employs about 110 people in Redwood City, Calif.,
was founded in 1998 and launched its first helper application in 1999. It was
founded by Dennis Coleman, a co-founder at Symantec, and its investors include
US Venture Partners, Technology Crossover Ventures, Investor Growth Capital
and Crosslink Partners.
McFadden, a former vice president of business development at Excite,
recently talked to CNET News.com after his action against the IAB.
Q: Briefly describe Gator's uses.
A: We offer consumers free software applications and we do that in exchange
for a chance to show them some advertising. Our first application was the Gator
Wallet with 8 million customers...It fills out forms and log-in screens and
automatically compares prices when you shop online.
The form helper application popped up to help people over 100
million times last month at over 700,000 different Web sites. We deliver advertising
messages in pop-up windows based on the Web sites a person visits, so it's personalized
advertising. An example: A user that is buying flowers might see a coupon for
flowers.
For the advertiser, this works 20 to 50 times better than the
advertising they can buy at Web sites because it's personalized and relevant.
The click-through rate on our pop-up advertising ranges from 6 (percent) to
26 percent--a great deal higher than conventional Internet advertising.
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