September 28th, 2005
Direct Revenue changing courses?
According to Direct Revenue’s new CEO, Jean Philippe Maheu, the company is ending the use of third party affiliates to distribute their software. From the press release:
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Sept. 27, 2005–Direct Revenue, a leading provider of desktop advertising and behavioral marketing services, announces that it has ended the use of third-party affiliate networks to distribute its software. Direct Revenue now distributes its adware client exclusively through its own promotion of free advertising-supported software and a set of distribution partners with which it has direct relationships.
I hope this means the end of installations of Direct Revenue’s software through security exploits where it’s usually accompanied by adware/spyware from other vendors. The company has been fighting a class action lawsuit filed in April and is apparently trying to improve their image now. The Aurora software and it’s component file nail.exe have been the top search engine terms at my website since May. Direct Revenue’s software has also been found in spyware infestations through Bit Torrent and instant messaging.
I sincerely hope this company is serious about changing their distribution methods. At Spyware Warrior forums we have hundreds of posts from users asking for help to remove Direct Revenue’s software and none of them know how or where they got it. It will be interesting to see if the numbers of infected users asking for help change. We (in the anti-spyware community) will be watching. In other news, Direct Revenue announced recently they have changed their branding and renamed everything to "The Best Offers Network".
