WhenU.com WhenU and Vomba to its whitelist of certified programs.
Intro
WhenU.com distributes the WhenU software program. The WhenU computer software program displays advertisements on the user's computer. It is bundled with many software programs. For accepting to receive advertisements, the user can download assorted software free of charge. WhenU is a proprietary, closed source program instead of being an open source or proprietary shared source program. There are two similar versions of the WhenU software: WhenU save and Searchbar. WhenU.com is also an ad agency. They sell advertisements that are then targeted towards users of WhenU based on data collected by the WhenU program.
Quick Links
- On the left hand side of this website, you will be able to find quick links to several important WhenU services. Click on the Overview of Practices and you will get a presentation of what WhenU does for you and how it is done. You will also find opinions of WhenU consumers, and see what they think about these services.
- The Resource Center is a mini site on online advertising, which is a helpful link to a brief overview on this subject.
- In case you want to advertise with Whenu, click on this section and enter some info on what you are advertising. This is important, as Whenu will try to find the best solutions to meet your needs.
- The Ad Delivery Demos were specially created by Whenu to show their customers how their process works. There are two nice demos one on graphical ads and one on the text links. The Demos were created and can be viewed with Flash.
What is WhenU
When you say WhenU (or WhenU.com), you could only be referring to a top provider of software-based contextual advertising. This website addresses people and businesses looking for helpful online deals, and provides these services at the right time with no questions asked.
Whenu.com accomodates any advertising needs, and promoses to get your product in front of a large audience.
WhenU serves three categories: Consumers, Advertisers and Partners. This page has sections that explain how WhenU.com serves these groups. All these contain info tailored to the needs of consumers, advertisers and partners, and include relevant case studies. Advertisers can achieve a larger number of consumers, partners get additional profits, and consumers become more informed while getting a cost-effective online experience.
Consumers
To get WhenU's software on your computer you have to opt in, or knowingly download it. The controversial targeted advertising learns about the user and displays pop up advertisements on the user's computer based on the data collected. About this WhenU says, "For instance, if you typed "airfares" into a browser, you might receive a special offer on flights to the Caribbean." [1]] WhenU.com claims that their software can be removed through Add Remove Programs and gives instructions on how to do this. [2]
Advertisers
WhenU boasts the targeting of the ads delivered through WhenU and the stats in the WhenU ad program. WhenU claims that advertisers should pick them because "WhenU combines innovative targeting technology with one of the largest audiences on the Internet to deliver timely and relevant advertising to interested consumers." When you work with WhenU, "you can take advantage of several unique benefits," the website says. WhenU also notes that they don't just do ad ware ads, they also do banner ads. [3]
Partners
According to WhenU, the benefits of bundling WhenU software in your programs include the income generated through their "proprietary targeting algorithm".
UControl
In 2005 WhenU.com created the controversial UControl "anti-spyware scanner" [4]. UControl was promptly added to The Spyware Warrior List of Rogue/Suspect Anti-Spyware Products & Web Sites. [5]. The definitions for UControl came from Aluria, another anti-spyware program. [6] The creators of Aluria receive a portion of the ad revenues that WhenU receives. [7]
The Answers You Need
The Customer Support section (on the WhenU website) will help you find answers to the possible questions you might have about WhenU.com or the services offered and lots more. It features the Quick Help section that has several categories you might access.
All things considered, it's up to the consumer to decide whether the benefits of Whenu.com outweigh its drawbacks. It can be a helpful website with comprehensive layout, with clear sections that are easy to access. A positive thing about WhenU is that there are no ads on its website. But be warned the software programs on the web site do display pop-up ads on the user's computer.
Criticism
WhenU is often criticized because it is a example of ad ware and spy ware [8]. WhenU also steals referrals so they get the money instead of the person that recommended the referred product [9]. WhenU has spammed. They have also used "Cloaking" to promote themselves in search engines and to drive competitors lower in search results [10]. Because of the "cloaking" Google and Yahoo had to remove WhenU.com from their search index along with other websites involved in the "cloaking" [11]. WhenU.com is considered a harmful website by the Anti-Virus company McAffe. McAffe says that in their tests they "found downloads on this site that some people consider adware, spyware, or other unwanted programs" [12]. WhenU.com has also violated their own privacy policy [13].
Privacy Policy Violations by WhenU
"As the user surfs the Internet, URLS visited by the user (i.e. the user's 'clickstream data') are NOT transmitted to WhenU.com or any third party server."
In fact this was found to be incorrect. WhenU sends the URLs of the websites that the user visits to the owners of WhenU.com.
- "Save! ... doesn't collect or send your browsing activity anywhere."
- "SaveNow ... does not track, collect, or send your browsing activity anywhere"
This is also incorrect.
- "WhenU.com does NOT transmit URLs visited by the user to WhenU.com or any third-party server."
This too is wrong.
- "Save! collects no ... browsing history."
This has also been found to be wrong.
Languages
English
WhenU Inc.
New York Headquarters
- 1 Penn Plaza, Suite 4532
- New York, NY 10119
Contact
- WhenU Inc
- Phone: 212-239-0000
- Fax: 212-239-4442
Management of WhenU
- William C. Day
- Chief Executive Officer
- 212 631 2118
-
- Adam Lichstein
- General Counsel and Head of Corporate Development
- 212 631 2144
-
- Matthew Hunt
- Chief Technology Officer
- 212 631 2194
-
- Joanna Bolles
- Vice President of Marketing
- 212 631 2172
-
- Fred Rolff
- Vice President, Finance
- 212 631 2113
-
News About WhenU
This is a section that will keep you up to date with the latest info on WhenU.com and on its achievements.
Community Reviews
Spyware
- WhenU is connected with many spyware attempts and possibly responsible of millions of hours of downtime on non suspecting non technical user machines.
If you have WhenU software on your machine and redirected this page for any reason, you better use Ad-Aware (Download.com has good pointer) to clean up your machine.
http://www.benedelman.org/spyware/whenu-privacy/ (and millions of other pages)
- posted by Anonymous on Feb 19, 2007, 6:06 pm
Discussion page: WhenU.com-discuss
Featured Page Nomination
WhenU.com was selected to be a featured wiki page, after having been nominated by the article's creator or some other AboutUs community member. Below is the discussion that led to it's being featured.
- First nominated on 19:55, 31 March 2007 (PDT)
- Because this page was featured a little over a month ago, its probably too early to re-nominate it at this point. There's been some great work done on the page since the feature though, so I'm going to make sure this gets a shout out on the CommunityPortal. --
TakKendrick | Talk 20:17, 31 March 2007 (PDT)
| 18 Feb. 2007 |
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Related Domains
External Links
- Alexa: Whenu.com
