June 23rd, 2006
Claria wants you to uninstall their software
Claria, formerly known as Gator, issued a statement on their website stating that all GAIN software will stop displaying pop up ads on July 1, 2006. That sounds like a good thing, yes? Claria will cease supporting all GAIN supported applications on October 1, 2006. They say the software may not function properly after that time, but, if you don’t uninstall the software now, it will continue to "collect data about your web usage from your computer for research and other purposes as described in our Privacy Statement until September 30, 2006".
If you currently have any GAIN-Supported software installed on your computer, Claria recommends uninstalling them now. Since Claria will no longer support these applications in the near future, there is the possibility that they will cease to function properly. You can continue to use these products if you choose, and will no longer receive GAIN branded pop up and pop under ads after June 30, 2006. This doesn’t mean that you won’t receive other pop up and pop under ads from other web properties — you just won’t receive any from the GAIN Network.
There’s a link to help you determine what GAIN supported programs you might have, and a list of the GAIN apps here. In the course of research, I’ve installed all the GAIN apps at one time or another, and I didn’t find any with a value proposition good enough to make me want to keep them. I don’t think anyone will be mourning the loss of Claria’s GAIN supported apps, but I could be wrong…
Claria is not disappearing from the scene, though. No siree. They now have PersonalWeb, which is still in beta.
PersonalWeb is advanced personalization technology combined with something Web users utilize every day — a browser Home page. Our Beta is a demonstration of how Claria technology can drive automatic Web content targeting, organization and discovery to create a simpler, more relevant Web experience.
Thanks, Claria, but I think I’ll pass on this one. If you are thinking about using PersonalWeb, I’d suggest reading the privacy policy first.
Credit: Thanks to Richard Smith for the link.
