[KeepingItClean]

So I downloaded the shopathome toolbar from their facebook page... I know they were suspended back in 2005, you can see the thread from abestweb is still in the archives.

I only installed on IE cause i dont' let toolbars eat all my browsers alive. I don't use IE so I can gladly offer it up to the toolbar gods...

Anyhow - after installing the toolbar - whenever I navigated directly to GAP.com or OldNavy.com or BarnesandNoble - I was shocked that it redirected me to ShopAtHome - on a quick redirect - and then back to the advertisers landing page. They dropped a cookie and CJ + LinkShare tracking info... (Doesn't do it for any GAN merchants)

I was confused. I didn't click anything... so in essence, they have millions of toolbars installed on computers that when people go direct to the advertiser - the advertiser now needs to pay ShopAtHome! WHAT IS GOING ON? Are they back up to their old tricks? What do you guys think.... ? Is this acceptable? Advertisers? Publishers? Interested to hear thoughts.

-Trying to Keep it Clean -

[Herb ԿԬ]

did they give you a Terms of Service to read before you downloaded it? And if so, was it easily found and easy to read?

[KeepingItClean]

I think the TOS are in there somewhere. I guess I just wanted to know what everyone thinks about them getting paid when a user types in an advertisers domain - directly. Isn't that kinda like borderline cookie stuffing?

I mean, if I was an advertiser, I'm not sure I want to be paying an affiliate - for a sale that I would have gotten anyway. Ya know? On the flipside, maybe we should all build toolbars that autoredirects and inserts our tracking - so we all get paid on it too! Yipppee!