I used to love Gator. It was a terrific utulity that securely remembered your passwords and contact information, allowing me to fill forms on the Internet literally in seconds. Then the pop-up ads started. Whenever I visited an Internet vendor, Gator would cause a competitor’s ad to pop up on the screen. That was enough for me.
Interestingly, Gator targets almost 7,500 sites for this treatment. Ben Edelman at Harvard has a terrific analysis of Gator’s advertisements and targeting.