IntelliTXT Ranting

[ViRGE]

As some of you may know, I'm one of the webmasters for TeamAnandTech.com, the Distributed Computing team set up under the AnandTech banner. Because AnandTech doesn't have a general contact address(just addresses for each of the article authors), we sometimes get emails that are intended to be directed towards AT staff, but come our way since we keep a webmaster@ address. Some of these have included some poor tier-3 Taiwanese company that wanted to get AnandTech to review one of its products(a SATA card, I think), some comments on recent articles(more good than bad), and now the latest one, someone complaining about the IntelliText keywords/ads that are enabled by default on the AnandTech website.

For those of you that don't know what IntelliTXT(aka IntelliText) is, it's an ad service AT and a number of other websites use, where it causes certain keywords to become green underlined links, that link back to whoever paid for the keyword placement. AnandTech of course gets paid for using it, but has an IntelliTXT page that lets you turn that specific advertising feature off and on(though Firefox + AdBlock also gets rid of it).

Below is a conversation I had with that user about the problem; I've copied the email here in hopes of starting a useful dialog. The email has been changed to protect the identity/stupidity of the innocent.

From: xxx
I've been coming to your site for hardware reviews and valuable knowledge for years now. Today, on your http://www.anandtech.com/cpuch...ts/showdoc.aspx?i=2248 page, I found something that seemed to be helpful: something that was meant to look like a link to where I could find information on some Athlon 64 motherboard. It was these last three words that were underlined.

Imagine my disquiet when it turned out to have nothing to do with any motherboard of any kind, but asked me for my postal code, which made me immediately suspicious, and then sent me to a CAA website, which is all about auto insurance. In between the postal code entry and the CAA site, there was this bit about InteliX or something like that, claiming to be a marketing tool and "not spyware".

Don't give me that bullshit. It's similar to a hijacker, sending me to sites I have no interest in at the moment, and false advertising because it is your site that's saying it's information about motherboards. It's anything but information; it's sales & marketing of the worst kind: highly unethical. I'm now forced to try to do research on this problem, run my spybot and other spyware programs, and try to remove this.

I did have respect for your site and CAA, and have actually been a loyal customer of CAA for quite some time. That stops now. It's an invasion of my time, a dirty trick, and if I can avoid it, I'll never visit any of these associated sites again. Somehow, I think I will be able to avoid all of your sites...

You've all lost customers paying hundreds and thousands of dollars, for what? for a few pennies in a redirect.

From: ViRGE
xxx, you've reached the website of Team Anandtech, a site affiliated with AnandTech, but not responsible for any of the content on the AnandTech site. Unfortunately, we can't directly do anything about your complaints, so the best advice we can offer is to email the owner of AnandTech, Anand Lal Shimpi at anand@anandtech.com, and hope that he replies to you.

As for the more direct problem of "sponsored links," what you're seeing is called IntelliText, an automated system that puts down links based on what people are paying IntelliText for the keyword. It's a Javascript script sent to your web browser and *really* is not spyware(i.e. it doesn't install anything), though it's annoying enough that it might as well be.;-) AnandTech(unlike most sites) gives you the option to turn the feature off or on(by setting a cookie); if you go to http://www.anandtech.com/siteinfo.aspx?intelli=y you can click on a link that will disable IntelliText keywords/ads for AnandTech. Alternatively, you can install the Firefox web browser(http://www.mozilla.org/firefox), which when coupled with the AdBlock extension, will allow you to disable the IntelliText ads(and more) right at your browser.

From: xxx
Note, she CC'd Anand on this

ok, thanks for the reply, but you (as an affiliated site) and Anand should know that it was immediately after my being caught by this that my IE's tools/options became inoperable. It had been HIJACKED by aaa, and it took me literally hours (maybe 6-8) to research how to fix it, regedit, download myriad programs & updates, etc.

You mention that it is a javascript script sent to my web browser. Therefore it is a MALICIOUS script. It is a hijacker, and IE hijackers are considered EXTREMELY MALICIOUS by myself and the spyware world because they do take control of users' pc's and doesn't allow us to easily surf or change our own security settings. Whenever a site visitor is so inconvenienced, the companies that are using such sponsored links and marketing tools are doing themselves more harm than good because of the backlash of hatred they will save from netizens. The use of IntelliText is, therefore, NOT REASONABLE and IS VERY MALICIOUS, from every standpoint.

Why would anyone want to use a site that uses such unethical practises? There are too many competitors to Anand out there. The fact remains that I don't, so I'll vote with my mouse and won't be back.

From: ViRGE
As far as the merits of IntelliText go, I don't like it(just as I don't like any Spyware), but according to Scumware.com, a spyware info site I trust, it's only the most basic of adware(http://www.scumware.com/apps/s...Malware-Applications/), and does not return any private information, a condition required to be considered spyware, meaning that it's just adware. Still, I copied this email down, and started a thread on the AnandTech Forums(http://forums.anandtech.com) over in the "Forums Issues" category so that a dialog can be started among users, and perhaps among AnandTech staff too. I invite you to take a look, and discuss with other users at your leisure the problem at hand - it's likely going to be the best way to influence any sort of change.

As for the "hijacking," if anything was hijacked, there's something on the AAA site directly that did that. You wouldn't have been infected just from the IntelliText script, as it does not have that capability according to all sources I know of; IntelliText doesn't install anything on a user's computer, not itself or other applications.

 

[imported_Phil]

Hmm, let's see...

AdBlock -> http://*intellitxt* -> OK.

Problem solved.

[Edit] I need to lern hwo to reed.

 

[SirPsycho]

I absolutely despise many forms of advertising on the Internet. My personal archnemeses are Flash popup ads, and especially the ones that play sound or music. Thankfully, Anandtech has the sense not to use those. I don't see them anyway, because I block Flash and popups, but I don't block regular ads. I also disable animation for the same reason. It's simply too distracting to try to read with all sorts of whirling, spinning, flashing crap all around and in the pages trying to get my attention, so I don't feel too bad about blocking them since I would just close the page and never click on the ads anyway in that case.

However, I actually don't mind the Intellitxt much. I certainly like it a lot better than Flash ads, that's for sure. It's much less intrusive. The main problem that I have with it right now is that it completely screws things up in Firefox. The page gets rendered, and then all of a sudden, things are jumping all over the page, and it's almost as bad as Flash at that point. If they could fix that, I wouldn't mind it at all.

Also, I think it needs to be made a lot more clear that the links that show up aren't necessarily recommended or endorsed by the sites that are hosting them. It needs to be blatantly obvious that it is a paid advertisement and not editorial content. I know the difference, but Joe and Jane User might not.

If those things could be corrected, I think it would be a great alternative to annoying Flash crap. I'd love to see it and Google's text ads replace Flash for good.

 

[olds]

You sir, are to be commended for searching.
:thumbsup:

 

[EagleKeeper]

The potential problem with this hijack attempt is that even though you must click on the underlined words(link) to start the process, you have no idea on where you can end up.

A spoof site could be where you are redirected causing additional stuff to be installed wiithout your knowledge. ie, it is not a trusted site.

I had this happen back in March of this year. An underlined link somehow dump junk as described and was hijacking the browser. Banner ads at times when visitiing AT and other news sites (real news and tech info) would randomly change to p0rn ads. Toolbars were messed up.

The system needed to be wiped and rebuilt, I could not get any of the ad aware/virus killers to completely cleanup the system.

Other engineers had that happen to them in the same time frame, so it was not just my habbits.
No-one was able to figure out where it originally came from, however, much time was lost to try and correct the problem.

Links are expected to go to the relevant areas, allowing links that do otherwise is deception.
The Intelletex experience that I had did not always let me see in advance what the link was directing to.
I learned to avoid clicking any of those types of links.

Even with a clean system, I will not do so, who knows where it will lead; my time is to valuble to me to waste going where I do not intende and/or trying to recover from an attempt to control my system.

 

[imported_tekie]

HOW TO KILL INTELLITXT HYPERLINKS:
(green double-underline links)

Go to c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc and edit the file named HOSTS
Append the following to it:

127.0.0.1 SITENAME.us.intellitxt.com

Where SITENAME is the name of the web site you have found containing
IntelliTXT hyper links. Some examples:

127.0.0.1 compnet.us.intellitxt.com #Blocks Intellitxt hyperlinks on Computing.Net
127.0.0.1 experts.us.intellitxt.com #Blocks Intellitxt hyperlinks on Experts-Exchange.com

Note 1: All text after # is ignored, use for comments.
Note 2: SITENAME does not necessarily match the web site's URL name.
To find the proper name:
- Right click on the web site and choose "View Source" from the menu.
- Choose Edit-Find in Notepad to search for: intellitxt.com
Example from www.computing.net:
src="http://compnet.us.intellitxt.com/intellitxt/front.asp

Close and restart Internet Explorer for the HOSTS file changes to take affect.
Visit the site again and bang! IntelliTXT is dead.

 

[Confused]

Alternatively get Firefox and the AdBlock extension and put a wildcard block of *intellitxt* 🙂

 

[kamper]

Originally posted by: tekie
HOW TO KILL INTELLITXT HYPERLINKS:
(green double-underline links)
...
Profit

Sure that fixes it but it's a brutal solution. :thumbsup: to Confused's choice, or any other browser that will do this.

 

[Malak]

Wow, I've never seen these links before. If they really aren't going to anywhere related that's pretty useless...

 

[rise]

i think i clicked on one ONCE and said, well that just leads to that, therefore, disregard. i guess i saw i could disable them but that seems kinda bothersome 😛

 

[Wolfsraider]

I recently had a trojan that did the same thing, only it affected my posts, all keywords on a web page etc... so it may not even be related.

Mike

 

[ViRGE]

To say I'm surprised to see this again is an understatement.:Q

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: Dopefiend
Hmm, let's see...

AdBlock -> http://*intellitxt* -> OK.

Problem solved.

[Edit] I need to lern hwo to reed.

you need to learn how to spell....... REaD and be more polite.

I agree Intellitxt is very annoying, it is often way too hard to tell the differance between an ad and a link the author had intendid to be there and it makes reading the page aggravating. By the way opera users don't have to worry about filters and plugins because intellitxt is not compatable with opera.