Widgets being used as new advertising platform

[zekrahminator]

Now that both Mac OS X and Windows Vista have widgets, or cool little gadgets you can spread around your desktop, ad companies have decided to try their hand at widgets. These ad-widgets would probably be put into a widget that actually does something, such as check facebook/myspace/sports statistics. Whether or not these advertisements would actually do anything would be hard to determine, considering tracking these widgets would be extremely illegal.

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[kwchang007]

hehe i can't wait till someone hacks the widget and just takes the useful part.

 

[Garb3]

yeah but u know u are goin to get loads of them with spyware and stuff tho so why not just stick with the m$ and mac os x ones that u get with it. i tries the beta of vista and apart for the bugs i like the the widges

 

[Wile E]

Meh, I shut my widgets off in both OS X and Vista. They just don't serve enough purpose for me. I think I might have used the weather widgets once every week or 2, tops.

 

[WarEagleAU]

Damn adware. I hate that crap. I wish they would all just die!

 

[Dippyskoodlez]

Damn adware. I hate that crap. I wish they would all just die!

Why is OS X included in this article?

WIdgets must be purposefully installed, and activly used...

SPyware widgets have and never will be a concern for os x..

The main source for apple widgets has always been apples site... or the actual vendors site..

Poor windows vista users.

 

[Benpi]

Dippy just doesn't want to believe the fact that his Mac isn't better than a PC, regardless of what the pop-culture mac adverts say. There's no reason that a Myspace Gadget/Widget couldn't have ads on the mac version.

Also, you say, "poor windows vista users" as if one can accomplish less on a windows PC than a mac OS pc. lolxorxz

 

[Dippyskoodlez]

Dippy just doesn't want to believe the fact that his Mac isn't better than a PC, regardless of what the pop-culture mac adverts say. There's no reason that a Myspace Gadget/Widget couldn't have ads on the mac version.

Also, you say, "poor windows vista users" as if one can accomplish less on a windows PC than a mac OS pc. lolxorxz

No, I say poor vista users because there will inevitably be spyware which automatically adds a widget, very close to how people get the bazillion search bars for IE.

I'm not saying a widget wont be an ad- in fact it is just that! Thats purely what widgets ARE.

They however, are aimed at making a users experience better with said site.


a "Myspace" widget is just an ad for.. well myspace.


Now if you chose to put an ad in the widget you are making, don't expect people to use it. SPace is very limited, and if someone like facebook did it, they wouldn't get anyone using it.


We haven't seen the windows vista spyware can get opened yet... .wdgt files for os x...(yo have to double click to open and then confirm) But on windows, could an installer? Perhaps a trojan? I bet it could.


Then again, If you're using a myspace widget you deserve to have your windows install full of shit.

Its a myspace widget afterall!

 

[Benpi]

There will be spyware which automatically adds widgets? That's not what this topic is about. It's about companies inserting advertisements into widgets. Like a pimple cream link on a myspace ad. You're assuming that people will start downloading viruses that install a bunch of widgets, and run them automatically.

I know it's pop-culture and hip to hate on MS products, but the Mac advertisements have your brain all foggy-like.

 

[Dippyskoodlez]

I know it's pop-culture and hip to hate on MS products, but the Mac advertisements have your brain all foggy-like.

You've obviously never used widgets.

I'm dual booting vista and os x right now... If people are placing ads on widgets, you're not using a widget correctly for its intended design are are falling for one of the many bloatware tactics windows has always been full of.

See below. This is what a widget looks like.

If yo're using a widget that they can place full sized banner ads in, you're an idiot. Use a web browser, it uses less memory, and is more effecient for space conservation.

 

[Benpi]

I never said full sized banner ads. If there were ads on widgets, they'd be small, maybe with just text links. Anyway, the only cool widget I've ever seen in my life was the Dual Core meter (for windows). Still, there's absolutely no reason they couldn't add spam to Mac widgets as well as Windows widgets. Everyone know's you're just trash talking windows because you want to be cool with the teenie boppers.

Windows is an awesome OS. It supports WAY more software and hardware than mac does. There are thousands of gadgets for windows, and if you don't like ads, don't download gadgets with ads. - - you have a choice with a windows PC.

---- or maybe you should just analyze the topic little more before you post.

 

[Dippyskoodlez]

Windows is an awesome OS. It supports WAY more software and hardware than mac does. There are thousands of gadgets for windows, and if you don't like ads, don't download gadgets with ads. - - you have a choice with a windows PC.

Gaping holes in IE? Spyware? Virus's? No, they don't do it yet. Could they? Very easily.

You have just as much choice on a mac as to what widgets you display, but you have MORE control over what is installed, not only displayed. You have MORE choice on os x.

But my point is, if you're using a widget with an ad in it, you're a moron.

Windows is an awesome OS. It supports WAY more software and hardware than mac does.

You're calling me a blind fanboy?


You wanna blame me for analyzing the topic, go ahead, but this is just a concept article, its not actually been "done" per say. Ads could vary. It can be taken almost any way you want.

There is no room for ads in widgets, and there never will be.

 

[xvi]

We haven't seen the windows vista spyware can get opened yet... .wdgt files for os x...(yo have to double click to open and then confirm) But on windows, could an installer? Perhaps a trojan? I bet it could.

Have you actually looked at what OS X updates include? Have you seen how many bug fixes and loopholes they patch in each update? You would have a very non-functional Mac if you turned those updates off. Any programmer can make a program to do anything he/she wants to on ANY OPERATING SYSTEM. Just because you "have to click it" doesn't mean it's secure. Vista's UAC makes you "click it".

Personally, I think Microsoft's reputation for security has been greatly improved since XP SP2 when they added the Security Center which would complain unless Automatic Updates were turned on. Everyone knows the MSBLAST/Blaster virus, but not many people know that there was a patch on Windows Update to fix it a few months before the virus came out.

One of the big tips for virus programmers is to watch Windows Update to see what security holes are patched. They'll research the security hole that the Microsoft Research Team found, then exploit it.

Believe me, Mac's are not nearly as secure as you think they are. Support them in a business/college and you'll see why. Better yet, give a Mac to my girlfriend. Her Powerbook is thrashed.

My motto as far as Mac vs PC is the same one you hear at the end of a series of Mac vs PC ad spoofs. "JUST PICK ONE!"

I never said full sized banner ads. If there were ads on widgets, they'd be small, maybe with just text links.

Does this remind anyone else of MSN Messenger? Ugh.

I'm not saying PC is better, I'm just saying Mac isn't always as amazing as it looks.

 

[Benpi]

You wanna blame me for analyzing the topic, go ahead.

I said that you should analyze the topic before you post. You didn't actually read the topic, which is why you started blasting MS for putting banner sized ADs in their gadgets - something any mac fanboy would do. Ads come in all shapes and sizes, and like I said before, if they're going to put an ad in a gadget, it's going to be very tiny - otherwise people simply won't download it.

 

[Dippyskoodlez]

Have you actually looked at what OS X updates include? Have you seen how many bug fixes and loopholes they patch in each update? You would have a very non-functional Mac if you turned those updates off. Any programmer can make a program to do anything he/she wants to on ANY OPERATING SYSTEM. Just because you "have to click it" doesn't mean it's secure. Vista's UAC makes you "click it".

It doesn't matter if you fix a million bugs every day.

What matters is how many are exploited before they are fixed.

When it comes to windows, its like trying to get something through a swiss cheese hole.

OS X has holes, I'm sure. Problem is, Noone knows about them. Instead of staring at swiss cheese trying to shoot through it, you're doing it blindfolded.

and btw, I disabled Vista's UAC. its annoying as fuck. And best yet, I now get a pop up every 20 minutes saying ZOMG OHNOES YOU DISABLED UAC CLICK HERE TO FIXIE.

srsly, is it necessary? OS X handles security much more elegantly.

I said that you should analyze the topic before you post. You didn't actually read the topic, which is why you started blasting MS for putting banner sized ADs in their gadgets - something any mac fanboy would do. Ads come in all shapes and sizes, and like I said before, if they're going to put an ad in a gadget, it's going to be very tiny - otherwise people simply won't download it.

I'm not blasting anything about MS putting ads in their widget ripoffs.

Im blasting MS for how easy it will be to DO.

Comprehension is #1.

You're blasting me, labeling me a mac fanboi without understanding my whole argument, instead you just assume I'm out to annhiliate all things windows.

 

[Benpi]

I completely understand your argument. And I understand that you're an extreme mac fan. Your argument is that it's easy to include ads on gadgets for Windows, but not for Mac - which is wrong. A programmer could slap an ad on their gadget for either platform, and it'd be just as easy. Your argument based off of the story you made up about how windows will force users to install gadgets with banner sized ads because of a virus. You, my friend, have seen too many mac commercials. I don't know who you're trying to convert to your Mac religion, but it's not going over so well.

As for exploiting OSs - hackers aren't idiots. If you're going to hack an OS for financial reasons, or for terror, why would you waste your time hacking a mac, when 95% of all users are on Windows? Guarantee if MacOS was the popular setup, it'd have the most exploits. Anyway, I've had enough with your macboy talk for now, I'm leaving for europe in 2 hours, so don't bother responding as you won't get a reply.

Oh yea, I'm too leet for iPhoto, iMovie, and Garageband, so I have absolutely no use for a mac.

 

[Dippyskoodlez]

I completely understand your argument. And I understand that you're an extreme mac fan. Your argument is that it's easy to include ads on gadgets for Windows, but not for Mac - which is wrong.

NO

I'm saying getting an advertisement RIDDEN widget to the user will be trivial because the OS is swiss cheese to hackers.

Windows users are going to be annoyed enough by UAC to either flat out turn it off completely negating any usefulness, or they will quickly be trained to just flat out click accept and next to any and everything that pops up.

that is the major problem with windows spyware today. UAC makes it worse.

My argument is its going to be trivial to get a user to fill their computer once again with spyware, ridden with advertisement filled widgets. Not that its easy to "include widgets". Thats the biggest crock of shit I've ever heard. Widgets are like 8 lines of HTML.