All That Glitters Is Not Gold!
Posted by | Under Bullshit, Review Thursday Mar 20, 2008
I have found our second candidate in the "Bullsh!t" category. The site is called Glittericio.us and just about the only positive thing I can say is the name is appropriate, and perfect from a marketing perspective.
Now you may say, "But it's cute!" and to that I reply, "Cute doesn't pay the bills". Especially when you realize that this site ALSO serves or hosts each of the individual images, each time someone views a site they are on. That is a lot of bandwidth. In this story alone there are 46 individual images served from Glittericio.us.
The answer to this question is found in the images below:
This site is ad sponsored. An advertising sponsored site in its self is not an issue to us. CITB is an advertising sponsored site. Our issue with Glittericio.us is the TYPE of products that make up the MAJORITY of their advertisements. Most of the advertisements on this site are for products which on their face do not seem harmful to the average user. BUT, THEY CAN BE!
This site is targeted to teens and pre-teens with MySpace.com and other "Social Networking" site pages. They find this site and think "How Kewl Dude! My page will look so sweet with this!" Then they see an ad like the one highlighted above. When this link is followed, it offers a "free" add-on to your browser that will allow you to add 3-D and other types of effects to text for your website or social networking page. It seems like a great thing - a FREE tool for my web browser. But, often these add-ons contain spyware known as "ad-ware".
Advertisements and Spyware
Many spyware programs display advertisements. Some programs simply display pop-up ads on a regular basis; for instance, one every several minutes, or one when the user opens a new browser window. Others display ads in response to specific sites that the user visits. Spyware operators present this feature as desirable to advertisers, who may buy ad placement in pop-ups displayed when the user visits a particular site. Also, one of the purposes of some spyware programs is to gather information on user behavior.
A further issue in the case of some spyware programs has to do with the replacement of banner ads on viewed web sites. Spyware that acts as a web proxy or a Browser Helper Object can replace references to a site's own advertisements (which fund the site) with advertisements that instead fund the spyware operator. This cuts into the margins of advertising-funded Web sites.
A large number of toolbars, some added by spyware
overwhelm Internet Explorer running on Windows XP
Effects and Behaviors
Users frequently notice unwanted behavior and a degrading of their system performance. These types of "FREE" add-ons often create significant unwanted CPU activity, disk usage, and network traffic, all of which slow the computer down. Stability issues with your browser and system-wide crashes are also common.
Often spyware is not even evident. Users assume in those situations that the issues are hardware related, Windows installation problems, or a virus. Some owners of badly infected systems resort to buying a new computer because their existing system "has become too slow".
Only rarely does a single piece of software render a computer unusable. Rather, a computer is likely to have multiple infections. A 2004 AOL study noted that if a computer has any spyware at all, it typically has dozens of different pieces installed. The cumulative effect, and the interactions between spyware components, causes the symptoms commonly reported by users: a computer, which slows to a crawl, overwhelmed by the many parasitic processes running on it.
Save Yourself With Knowledge!
Here are several links we recommend to help you diagnose and resolve issues related to spyware and system performance:
Lifehacker Article - Is it spyware? Use TaskList to find out
FaceTime Security Labs maintains the popular SpywareGuide.com
CITB EDITORS NOTE: We recommend that ALL Windows users run BOTH of these free software programs at least once a month or if they notice any of the behaviors noted in this story.
Software - Spybot Search & Destroy
Software - Ad-Aware 2007 Free
There is an old adage that goes, "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch!" The REAL cost of the types of sites like Glittericio.us, which in reality prey on the naivety of teenagers, cause us to put this site and all others like it in the BULLSH!T category. RUN don't walk from this site NOW! Save Yourself With Knowledge! Remember "All That Glitters Is Not Gold!"
CITB Quote of the day: "The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible." - Albert Einstein Tags: free, fun, images, information, list, security, site review, software, web
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