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Possible Prirated Links In Anand's Reviews

N

Netopia

Diamond Member
Greetings all!

I've got a situation that might not be a situation at all. I've noticed over the past few weeks that on my machine at home, while reading Anand's reviews that sometimes certain words will show up as hyperlinks. Things like the word "computer" in the middle of a sentence will suddenly be a link and if I point at it, it doesn't show the actual link down in the status bar but just shows something like "Great Deals On Computers". After clicking on a link over and over I was able to see "vibrantmedial.com" before I was redirected to a different page.

I brought up the EXACT same reviews on my work machine and the links weren't there! I went back that night to my home machine and the links were on those pages, but when I went to View->Source... the links WEREN'T in the HTML!! I'd previously read about programs which will dynamically scan pages displayed in your browser and find words that relate to THEIR customers and then change words on the page to links.... making it look like the author (in this case, AnandTech) is sponsoring the links when they really aren't.

As of this morning I'm now also getting the links on my work machine! I've not noticed the links anywhere but AnandTech, so it is possible that this is simply an income producing advertising gimmick for AnandTech, which is fine if that is actually what it is. I've run the latest AdAware and Spybot and neither comes up with anything.

Anyone else experiencing this?

Joe
 
Originally posted by: Netopia
Greetings all!

I've got a situation that might not be a situation at all. I've noticed over the past few weeks that on my machine at home, while reading Anand's reviews that sometimes certain words will show up as hyperlinks. Things like the word "computer" in the middle of a sentence will suddenly be a link and if I point at it, it doesn't show the actual link down in the status bar but just shows something like "Great Deals On Computers". After clicking on a link over and over I was able to see "vibrantmedial.com" before I was redirected to a different page.

I brought up the EXACT same reviews on my work machine and the links weren't there! I went back that night to my home machine and the links were on those pages, but when I went to View->Source... the links WEREN'T in the HTML!! I'd previously read about programs which will dynamically scan pages displayed in your browser and find words that relate to THEIR customers and then change words on the page to links.... making it look like the author (in this case, AnandTech) is sponsoring the links when they really aren't.

As of this morning I'm now also getting the links on my work machine! I've not noticed the links anywhere but AnandTech, so it is possible that this is simply an income producing advertising gimmick for AnandTech, which is fine if that is actually what it is. I've run the latest AdAware and Spybot and neither comes up with anything.

Anyone else experiencing this?

Joe
Click to expand...


Got an example?
 
Originally posted by: Netopia
it is possible that this is simply an income producing advertising gimmick for AnandTech, which is fine if that is actually what it is.
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure that's what it is... I've seen them here too.


 
I believe it's an IE6 feature that is autoenabled. The website has a choice of disabling it in their html code, but, it's on by default. Anand probably hasn't disabled it in their main page. Fat wallet has those links show up in their forums too.
 
hmmm. I've just noticed that. Went to the first article about the 9600 XT and the pop up links showed up. I'm using IE5.0 on win2000 (at work).

But the ads are in the source code - scroll down to the javascript near the bottom ;
"SCRIPT language="JavaScript1.1" SRC="http://usads.vibrantmedia.com/system/ExternalAdServeRedir ....."
 
Got an example?
Click to expand...
Page 3 of the Radeon 9600XT review

Our testbed remained the same:

AMD Athlon64 FX51
1GB DDR400 (2x512MB)
ASUS nForce3 motherboard <--------

On my machine, the word "motherboard" is a link that points to
this page.

We have not had time to go back and figure out a benchmark for BF1942 yet nor work out the issues with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004.

On my machine, the word "Microsoft" is a link to this page.

Neither of these sites look like something I would expect for AnandTech, so I think either his server or my machines are infected in some way, but I can't figure out how.

If it is indeed a feature that AnandTech knows of or is using I would truly love to hear from someone on staff just for my peace of mind.

Joe
 
But the ads are in the source code - scroll down to the javascript near the bottom ;
Click to expand...
Ahhhh... hadn't considered that. I was only looking at the HTML for the link.

So what is generating these links I wonder?

Joe
 
Those are ads. They've been in the reviews here for some time now.
Click to expand...
That might very well be the case... but then how come they have been on my home machine for a few weeks and have just now appeared on my work machine? One would think that if they were AnandTech generated links then they would show up as part of the page regardless of what machine they were viewed on.

Joe
 
Is your home and work machine configured exactly the same? There are too many variables that can come in to play here....
 
Originally posted by: Mutilator
Originally posted by: Netopia
it is possible that this is simply an income producing advertising gimmick for AnandTech, which is fine if that is actually what it is.
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure that's what it is... I've seen them here too.
Click to expand...

me too. I checked for spyware (similar to pnubb.dll or something like that) but I couldn't find any.
 
Anyone else have any ideas?

Are most people seeing these links... or more importantly, are ALL people seeing them... if not, then I still think something is fishy.

Joe
 
I just went through the new Radeon article and didn't see any links.

Although I seem to remember seeing them in an older article a week or 2 ago.
 
Its external advertising, plain and simple. Its in the source code so everyone should be seeing it, unless they've got javascript disabled.

If you've been seeing them sometimes and not others, then maybe Anandtech are just trialling them at the moment, to see what kind of click-through rate/commission they get. Have you actually looked at the same pages on both your home pc and work pc?
 
Could this be what you're talking about?

Anandtech is IntelliTXT enabled. This capability allows for our sponsors to present to you offers and information based on the content of AnandTech. This is done by highlighting selected words in the content. This capability is defaulted on. We request that you leave this capability on as AnandTech.com is an advertising supported site. Capabilities like IntelliTXT help us bring content to all our readers.
Click to expand...


edit: Yeah, I just disabled it and those links you were talking about are no longer there.
 
Where does one disable it?

I'm all for supporting AnandTech (like by being a subscriber and getting to NewEgg through AnandTech links) but I really don't like this particular form of advertising.

It is, however, GREAT to know that it isn't some sort of spyware/malware in action!

Joe
 
Originally posted by: Netopia
Where does one disable it?

I'm all for supporting AnandTech (like by being a subscriber and getting to NewEgg through AnandTech links) but I really don't like this particular form of advertising.

It is, however, GREAT to know that it isn't some sort of spyware/malware in action!

Joe
Click to expand...

Go to the main page and click on about.

link
 
I don't get it.. this intellitxt is a Microsoft feature of IE ? How come I never heard of it 'til now ?
 
Originally posted by: Dead Parrot Sketch
I don't get it.. this intellitxt is a Microsoft feature of IE ? How come I never heard of it 'til now ?
Click to expand...

no comment....

anyway, lots of sites used this when IE6 was new and everyone hated it...
 
Thanks to everyone for their input.

You know... you just HAVE to love the AnandTech Community when it comes to asking a question!

Joe
 
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