{"id":5043,"date":"2012-11-04T12:18:24","date_gmt":"2012-11-04T17:18:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/?p=5043"},"modified":"2012-11-08T15:52:21","modified_gmt":"2012-11-08T20:52:21","slug":"tricking-your-clicking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/tricking-your-clicking\/","title":{"rendered":"Tricking your clicking – refreshed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in the day, Web sites got paid for advertising on based on the number of page views the site received. This was good for Web site owners and for site visitors. No one had to click anything for the Web site owner to make some dollars on advertising. It was kind of like TV advertising where cost per advertisement is based on the number of viewers \u2014 the more viewers the more the TV channel can charge for the ad.<\/p>\n

But the Web was new and no one was sure what kind of advertising would work best. Web sites were happy, visitors were happy, but advertisers were not happy. They didn\u2019t feel they were getting their money\u2019s worth \u2014 and it\u2019s really all about the money after all.<\/p>\n

So everything changed. And now most Web sites that feature advertisements, only get paid if someone clicks on an advertisement. There\u2019s nothing intrinsically wrong with that \u2014 however it leads to some shenanigans by Web site owners in order to induce visitors to click on something they would not normally click on.<\/p>\n

Which leads us to the Download Button Conspiracy. It seems many sites have lowered themselves to blatant trickery in order to induce the visitor to click something. It\u2019s cheating, of course. It\u2019s cheating the site visitor and it\u2019s cheating the advertiser \u2014 unless the advertiser is in cahoots with this type of click scheme. And unfortunately, many are.<\/p>\n

And of the many that are, most are companies like Ask.com, Babylon, and other \u201ctoolbar\u201d specialists who just want to get their cruddy software on your computer so they can use your browser and your computer and your searches to make money. Who, in their right mind, would download Ask Toolbar or Babylon Toolbar and intentionally hijack their own browser? And there are many more besides Babylon and Ask. Now there seems to be a wave of new \u201cdownload managers\u201d promising faster and better downloads \u2013 and delivering nothing but more search and browser hijackers.<\/p>\n

Is there no end to the deceit and trickery? Apparently not if there is money to be made.<\/p>\n

We have had subscribers write to us and complain about freeware we have recommended, insisting the link was not for the program they thought, and oftentimes scolding us because our link “downloaded a trial of some other program”!<\/p>\n

WE CAUTION YOU AGAIN!\u00a0<\/em>When you are downloading files from free sites, many have made it more and more difficult, almost to the point of confusion and deceit, to know which DOWNLOAD button you are actually supposed to click to download the file you actually want to download.<\/p>\n

Why? Because every click equals money. The only click that doesn’t equal money is the click you make to download the file or program you want. So there is all kind of incentive for sites to mislead you and trick you into clicking something other than the actual download link to the program or file you want.<\/p>\n

There aren’t any programs you can install to help you choose the right download button. You have to use the only thing we have – we have to use our brains.<\/p>\n

Site’s like Download.com and SoftPedia earn lots of money by sticking download buttons all over their download pages hoping you’ll click the wrong one.<\/p>\n

There are some download sites who don’t do this — one we’ve found is FileHippo. FileHippo’s correct download links are always easy to find — they are always in the top right side of the page.<\/p>\n

Here’s an example of a\u00a0FileHippo<\/a>\u00a0download page:<\/p>\n

\"Cloudeight
\nNotice how easy it is to find the download link?<\/p>\n

Now compare that do a SoftPedia download page.<\/p>\n

\"Cloudeight<\/p>\n

Or a CNet download page.<\/p>\n

\"Cloudeight<\/p>\n

When we recommend a freeware program, we take care to download the correct file and test it well. And if the program contains bundled software (sometimes it’s almost impossible anymore to find great programs that don’t try to bundle something) we’ll warn you to use care during installation and uncheck the boxes that urge you to install something else besides the program you want.You should always use care<\/em>, especially in these times where so many freeware programs bundle other software, whenever you install anything. Even paid software is starting to bundle other software with it. It isn’t right, but it is what it is.<\/p>\n

Unless FileHippo starts getting crazy and sticking download buttons all over their download pages, we will continue to recommend them as our first choice for downloading software. You can see for yourself at\u00a0http:\/\/www.filehippo.com\/<\/a>\u00a0.<\/p>\n

Don’t let anyone trick your click.<\/p>\n

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Back in the day, Web sites got paid for advertising on based on the number of page views the site received. This was good for Web site owners and for site visitors. No one had to click anything for the Web site owner to make some dollars on advertising. It was kind of like TV advertising where cost\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5043"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5043"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5052,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5043\/revisions\/5052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}