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Table of Contents
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A Eulogy for Advertising?
A Helping Hand
Favorite Freeware
Featured Download

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A Eulogy for Advertising?

Here in the United States, we have a popular holiday weekend called Memorial Day which just happens to fall on this weekend. It is named Memorial Day because we remember our country's soldiers who have died. I am sure most of you who reside in other countries have similar holidays, but I wanted to honor Memorial Day by remembering and reflecting on something that many people have said is dead: Online advertising. I want to look at 2 aspects of online advertising that affect you directly: 1. Advertising on websites through banner ads, buttons, pop-up ads, etc. 2. Advertising based on cookies. First, online ads are all over the internet. You probably will view dozens and hundreds of ads while you surf the internet without even realizing it. However, how many times have you actually clicked on an ad? I could probably count on one hand the number of times I clicked on an ad in the past 2 years. Why is that? You and I are not usually interested in what those ads have to offer. Now, personally, I do not mind certain forms of internet advertising such as a banner ad or a button ad, though I refuse to visit a website that uses pop-up ads. Here is why I do not mind internet advertising. Advertising is what pays for "free" internet sites. Your favorite sports site is able to offer its services to you for free because the advertising on its site covers the costs. The same concept has been used in the offline world as well such as radio or TV. Why should we expect it to be any different online? Second, let's look at this mysterious word called cookies. I am not talking about chocolate chip cookies; I am talking about little text files that are sometimes saved to your computer after you visit certain websites. Despite all that you have heard, most cookies pose no harm to you. The main purpose of cookies is to remember who visited a certain website, or more appropriately, that this computer visited this website. For instance, I have a favorite sports website that stores a cookie on my computer. This cookie is updated to tell the website when I visit it next that I checked out the baseball scores. Thus, there will usually be some targeted ads that appear on the sports site that target my interest in baseball. Thus, one use of cookies is to provided better targeted advertising that tailor to your interests. Another use of cookies is to just identify who you are when you visit a site in order to save you a few extra steps such as logging in or selecting your country. I actually appreciate this feature of cookies since I like to move around the internet fast without too many obstacles. However, despite all the good points about advertising and cookies, there are some things you need to watch out for. I have compiled a few tips for you below.

John Saddler
info@setsystems.com

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A Helping Hand

• Cookies can be abused at times. If you are concerned about cookies and want to control whether a cookie is saved on your computer, then you will need to adjust your browser setting. If you use Internet Explorer, you need to navigate to the Internet Options menu, choose Security and then select custom level. Custom level gives you the choice of having Internet Explorer prompt you before it adds cookies to your computer. If you use Netscape, you will want to choose "Preferences," "Advanced," and then "Cookies" to adjust the settings for those.
• Another thing you need to be cautious about is when you are at a website entering very important information such as a social security number or login information to your bank account. After you have logged out of a site such as a banking site, you should close down your browser and then open it up again if you want to browse further. Doing this is just a good safeguard against the possibility of your personal information being compromised.
• If you come to a site that uses pop-up ads, think twice before using that site. Quite frankly, if someone is using a pop-up ad, they either are not aware how annoying it is, or they do not care about people who visit their site.
• If you do not use ad-blocking software and do not mind internet advertising, do click on some ads that interest you. The day is coming soon when some websites will no longer provide you content and service for free if ads do not generate any revenue for those sites. The only way ads can generate revenue is by people clicking on them.

If you have any feedback about this sometimes controversial subject, please let me know. If you have any helpful tips or experience with online advertising, please do not hesitate to e-mail me.

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Favorite Freeware - Luanna's Cookie Muncher, 70 kb - by Knightsmith Online

http://www.knightsmithonline.com
Download Program
Specs - Win 95/98/ME/NT/2000, Internet Explorer

Some of you may decide that you do not want cookies to be stored on your computer at all. If that is the case, then this small program is for you. This program will automatically delete cookies from your computer as soon as they are made, so you will not have to deal with any cookies that might be there for unethical purposes. Note: If you prefer to have cookies stored on your computer, then do not download this program.

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Featured Download - PopUp Killer, 2.66 mb - xFX JumpStart

http://software.xfx.net
Download Program
Specs - Win 95/98/ME/2000, Internet browser - Freeware (Optional $7 donation)

Like its name states, this program is great for stopping pop-ads before they appear. On top of that, it also can block the pop-up ads that sometimes appear after leaving a website. If you despise pop-up ads (like myself), you should download this handy utility. It will definitely improve your internet experience.

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