Claria is perhaps best known for the Gator spyware products, which display ads on the computers of web surfers. It bills itself as the "leader in online behavioral marketing". As a result of the problems relating to its software and the way it has often been installed, Claria Corporation may be the internet-based company with the worst corporate reputation. The company changed its name to Claria Corporation on 30 October 2003, in an effort to "better communicate the expanding breadth of offerings that [they] provide to consumers and advertisers," according to CEO and President Jeff McFadden. The change was also likely an attempt to distance itself from the reputation its Gator products had earned it.
The company has three divisions, GAIN Publishing (Gator Advertising and Information Network), the division producing and marketing the ad-displaying software, including getting it bundled with other programs; GAIN Network, the company which sells ads on the network; and Feedback Research, which provides online research and analysis based on data from the ad network.
Originally released in 1998, Gator is most frequently installed along with other programs, such as WeatherBug, Go!Zilla, or Kazaa, who use advertising revenue to fund development of their software, offered free of charge. As of late 2003, it is installed on an estimated 38 million PCs. The products have been installed through misleading or no disclosure in the past, usually without disclosing that the program will be monitoring web browsing habits and displaying ads based on profiling of the user.
The Gator software has in the past undercut the fundamental ad-supported nature of many internet publishers by replacing banner ads on web sites with its own, thereby depriving the content provider of the revenue necessary to continue providing that content. In June 2002, a number of large publishers, including the New York Post, The New York Times, and Dow Jones & Company, sued Gator Software for its practice of replacing ads. Most of the lawsuits were settled out of court.
In September 2003, the company started threatening web sites with libel lawsuits when they classified Gator as spyware. Makers of such software prefer to call it adware. Consumers who object to having their web browsing habits monitored and profiled tend to use the name spyware instead, reflecting the monitoring of sites visited and transmittal of browsing habits which the software carries out as part of its operation.
Common side effects of the software and related programs are increased frequency of web browser crashes and slowing down of the computers runing them. It is not uncommon to find ten or more spyware programs installed on the computers of unknowing users, who don't realize why their systems are performing poorly until they are introduced to the products which remove the software.
Although Gator is usally installed without an uninstall routine, making it difficult to remove, many spyware removal tools can detect and remove it.
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