LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Adware
built 627 days ago
Adware is software that generates advertisements such as pop-up windows or hotlinks on Web pages that are not part of a page's code. Adware may add links to your favorites and your desktop. It will often change your home page and your search engine to sites that earn income from various advertisers. This income is dependent on, for example, how many people visit the adware site, or how many people click on the links or advertisements at the site. Ads are not bad by themselves but they become a problem when they are unauthorized. Unfortunately, many adware programs do not give users enough notice or control.
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Adware is at the center of debates over the Julie Amero case, in which a 40-year old substitue teacher was convicted after a classroom computer began spewing pornography. Supporters of Amero claim the computer was infested with adware. And that's entirely plausible. But whether the computer was or wasn't infested with adware is beside the point. Here's why.
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Unlike random Pop-up ads, Adware monitors the user's surfing to deliver targeted advertising based on the user's current search and search history. Typically, Adware takes the form of Pop-up ads or banners that appear while the user is surfing, and displays context-related promotions. Not all Adware is malicious. For example, if a user were looking at real estate sites, promotions for low mortgages rates would get a better return than ads for sporting goods. Adware makers see this as a purchasing opportunity geared to the users' personal tastes. Most consumers who understand how Adware operates resent their surfing being monitored.
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Adware companies make their money by distributing thousands upon thousands of ads on the internet. It's a fair amount of work to put advertising on the net, so to do it with any kind of volume whatsoever, most companies rely on "Ad Servers". The adware on your computer usually pulls ads from these ad servers. If it doesn't find any, it won't work. So one technique for blocking adware is to block your computer from accessing the ad server. By doing so, you block adware companies from transferring their ads to your computer...!
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Adware is often bundled with or embedded in "freeware"; software products that offer enhancements to available computer functionality at no charge. These can include some toolbars, sounds, cartoons, screensavers, games, graphics that attach to e-mails, programs that claim to improve computer performance and news/weather services. When users accept free software, agreeing to receive advertising is often the price they pay for these accessories. Often, when the Adware is removed, the accessory is removed too.
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Adware displays advertising content, often in a manner or context that may be unexpected and unwanted by users. Adware programs often create unwanted effects on a system like displaying pop-up advertisements and, in some instances, the lowering of either network connection or system performance. Some adware can ... collect the system's browsing information (e.g. sites visited) and send the information to a remote server on the Internet. The gathered information is used by a remote Web site or user for marketing purposes.
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