How Understanding Adware Can Enhance Your Internet Experience


by Synadigm - Date: 2007-01-15 - Word Count: 383 Share This!

Adware is truly an amazing thing. While people consider it to be nothing but a software form of aggravation and a danger to their computer, adware has affected the Internet in a positive manner. So why does it matter to know about adware? When all is said and done, adware has made a dramatic impact on the Internet that we know of today.

Through the affects of the media, adware is considered nothing but a malicious piece of software that goes around and infects computers. It is important to understand that adware was never meant to be malicious in nature, unlike spyware and malware. With this in mind, it can be understood why various media sources confuse the true idea of adware. In their stories, the media usually categorize threats as "adware" when in fact they should be using terms like "spyware" or "malware". Adware's initial intention was just to change the paradigm in which advertisements were delivered to potential customers.

Since adware was initially just intended as a new way to deliver advertisements, there was much money to be made by simply adding adware to software. Before you knew it, the funding provided by adware was spawning new forms of software, such as freeware and shareware. This new idea of being able to download and use software for free also helped develop other new things; online communities. All different types of Internet users started collaborating with one another to make free software better and more functional, all the way up to the point of rivaling commercial substitutes.

At the same time, adware can be considered as a downfall of the Internet. While adware was funding all sorts of different projects, it was also aggravating all different types of computer users. Adware became more abusive and pop up advertisements on people's computers more often. On top of that, people started installing and adding adware in places where people would never expect it, such as in commercial products and websites. What once used to be a new advertising medium has now become a cyper nightmare.

When people thought adware couldn't get any worse, hackers and malicious software programmers got involved. They started to make their own versions of adware that were more unethical in nature. As businesses became more anxious for new prospects, they turned to developers which would develop a different breed of adware. Instead of just popping up advertisements on people's computers, this adware would also track people's browsing habits as well as various other things. This act of tracking brought forth spyware, the next generation of adware.

The evolutions of adware didn't stop there though. Taking the idea of bundling adware with software, hackers started removing the advertising aspects entirely out of adware to make them more stealth-like and difficult for users to identify. More and more often you would hear about viruses, Trojans, worms and the like camouflaging themselves within free software without the knowledge of users (or even developers in some manners). With a goal to just infect and destroy as much as possible, malware started entering computers worldwide.

When things did not look like they could get any better for adware, they did. Security experts started collaborating with each other to deliver cost-effective and free security software to eliminate malware and spyware, which became financially available to Internet users through legitimate adware. That being said, you can find tons of security software freely available on the Internet, a lot of which rivals commercial counterparts.

Currently, adware is still seen as a threat and considered more of a nuisance than anything else. Fortunately, with plenty of adware removal solutions freely and commercially available now, people can now control the types and amount of adware they care to have on their computers.

Tags: Adware, Pop Up, Pop Ups



About the Author:
Josh George has been helping others protect themselves against adware and annoying pop-ups since 1998. His website contains free adware information, adware tools, and useful guides proven to help prevent annoying pop-ups from appearing on computers. If you want to learn how to help protect your own system from annoying adware, have a look at his site: Adware Resource.

Related Tags: malware, spyware, adware, pop ups, pop up, pop-up, pop-ups, advertisements

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