My browser is being hijacked by mercedesshop?

[franklyspeaking]

Something just about rendered my laptop useless. I did a spyware scan an cleaned up a bunch of stuff and now it works okay. This has happened twice in the last month, but it hasn't bothered the other computers I occaisionally use. What ever it was it happened while on this forum.....not good.

[probear]

I wondered if my experience was a fluke. One and only one thread threw me into another window ad....honestly, it was weird to say the least. It happened either yesterday or today....

Haven't had the problem since.

Both my Mac at home and the shop PeeCee have no problems with the site.

[JimmyL]

This will be the kiss of death, but it hasn't happened to me yet. I go back and forth between two laptops: A Dell and a Compaq. Neither are very new.
Both running XP Pro and Firefox. I have updated to the latest 3.0 Firefox in the last week. It doesn't automatically update from 2.0.whatever, you have to go to the site.
Maybe I'm just lucky because I have never heard of most of the stuff folks here are using.....

[Bill Wood]

I have tried everything I can think of and cannot duplicate this problem.
Somehow I have to get more information before this issue can be solved.

In the mean time I'm going to turn off all Chitika ads and see if that helps. Google ads will still appear. If the problem persists, I'll turn Chitika back on and try turning Google off.

[Cervan]

i used firefox, never had this happen.

[pawoSD]

I've never had an issue with this site on any system I've used it on (which is many)......must just be issues on some peoples computers.

Originally Posted by Webmaster

I have tried everything I can think of and cannot duplicate this problem.
Somehow I have to get more information before this issue can be solved.

In the mean time I'm going to turn off all Chitika ads and see if that helps. Google ads will still appear. If the problem persists, I'll turn Chitika back on and try turning Google off.

Yesterday it was happening consistently with safari 3.1.2 until I installed pithhelmet, then it never happened again.

Edit: I just tried disabling pithhelmet, and I'm not having any issues now.

[Bill Wood]

Originally Posted by Craig

Edit: I just tried disabling pithhelmet, and I'm not having any issues now.

Thanks for the feedback!

Maybe Chitika was the problem...I'll continue to monitor.

[iwrock]

I just got a porno ad across the top of my screen....

[Larry Delor]

I no longer seem to be waiting for the chikita page waiting to load, or whatever it was doing (quite annoying, since my browser never seemed to quit, and going "back" sometimes required more than just one usual click.)

Haven't gotten any ads for Porn though, darn the luck.

[JimmyL]

Originally Posted by Larry Delor

I no longer seem to be waiting for the chikita page waiting to load, or whatever it was doing (quite annoying, since my browser never seemed to quit, and going "back" sometimes required more than just one usual click.)

What exactly is Chikita or the Chikita page???

[Chad300tdt]

Originally Posted by JimmyL

What exactly is Chikita or the Chikita page???

Chitika, Inc. is the creator of an online blogger-driven merchandising/shopping network, based in Marlborough, Massachusetts. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitika

Chikita likes to dance
http://www.likemybody.com/hot-picture/c/chikita.htm

[Bill Wood]

Chitika, one of our advertisers, was serving the popups and redirects without my knowledge. Due to their "behavioral targeting" I was not able to view these ads myself and that explains why only certain people were seeing the popups.

I have disabled the Chitika ads and will not reinstate them until I can be assured this will not happen.

Thanks for everyone's feedback!

[DeliveryValve]

From Wikipedia

"Behavioral targeting or behavioural targeting is a technique used by online publishers and advertisers to increase the effectiveness of their campaigns.

Behavioral targeting uses information collected on an individual's web-browsing behavior, such as the pages they have visited or the searches they have made, to select which advertisements to display to that individual. Practitioners believe this helps them deliver their online advertisements to the users who are most likely to be influenced by them.

Behavioral marketing can be used on its own or in conjunction with other forms of targeting based on factors like geography, demographics or the surrounding content.

Examples of behavioral targeting in advertising targeting systems include: AdLINK 360, Avail, Boomerang, Criteo, DoubleClick (prior to 2002)[1], nugg.ad, prudsys and WunderLoop.

Behavioral Targeting allows site owners or ad networks to display content more relevant to the interests of the individual viewing the page. On the theory that properly targeted ads will fetch more consumer interest, the seller may ask for a premium for these over random advertising or ads based on the context of a site."



I am going to have to ask my wife to stop looking at the fashion sites!