Arwen Serpente Posted February 19, 2013 Share Posted February 19, 2013 About 10 minutes ago, I took a look at my SL Dashboard. The edges/margins are now covered with advertising links (non-SL links). Basically, it looks they are now using tracking cookies and selling RL ad space on our Dashboards. Take a look...As a note, the forums and marketplace remain the way they have always been (free of advertising). Edited to add - ok, now it's all gone. that was very wierd - I have no idea how that happened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Medhue Simoni Posted February 19, 2013 Share Posted February 19, 2013 Yeah, I just saw them, and then came here to see if any1 else saw them. How ridiculous is this? LL couldn't get the ads on their site to work, when they allowed us to advertise on them, but now they are doing it for Non SL companies. This is totally 1 of the WTF moments. I never got an AD when they offered them to us cause they never worked right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arwen Serpente Posted February 19, 2013 Author Share Posted February 19, 2013 Thank you Medhue for confirming that I wasn't going nuts. I really thought gremlins had taken over my computer. The ads are gone now on my dashboard. I wonder if they were testing something? How can they pop up one minute and then be gone again the next? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cayleen Linette Posted February 19, 2013 Share Posted February 19, 2013 They were there - and then gone - as if the SL website had been hacked. I know revenue is an issue with ANY business, but I really hope that using ads from outside SL is NOT where they are going to go with this. On the other hand - the advertising avenues that are currently provided are, for the most part, useless. Let's hope they get this right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Medhue Simoni Posted February 19, 2013 Share Posted February 19, 2013 Of course, the first thing I did was save screenshots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stefanosje Sellers Posted February 19, 2013 Share Posted February 19, 2013 Medhue Simoni wrote: Of course, the first thing I did was save screenshots. From a marketing point of view, this doesn't seem like LindenLab their cup of cake. I would atleast expect some a-brand ads that go internationally. Not some dodgy gold trade. Suggesting it's been haxed or a terrible test with retargeting? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arwen Serpente Posted February 19, 2013 Author Share Posted February 19, 2013 Those are identical to the ones that were on my dashboard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tibor Milasevic Posted February 19, 2013 Share Posted February 19, 2013 I saw the same ads using Google Chrome browser. Also for the first time this morning I saw an add for SL on New York Times web site, for which I subscribe. Wonder if there is a connection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren Scorpio Posted February 19, 2013 Share Posted February 19, 2013 Seems to me to be more like the website was hacked and the Lindens took care of it fast. The ads shown there seem to be of useless scam sites. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren Scorpio Posted February 19, 2013 Share Posted February 19, 2013 They are showing up again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Medhue Simoni Posted February 19, 2013 Share Posted February 19, 2013 Tibor Milasevic wrote: I saw the same ads using Google Chrome browser. Also for the first time this morning I saw an add for SL on New York Times web site, for which I subscribe. Wonder if there is a connection. I have seen LL advertising much more around the net, especially on more prominent sites. They have been promoting Patterns heavily, but I've also seen some for SL here and there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcus Hancroft Posted February 19, 2013 Share Posted February 19, 2013 With "Ad Block Plus" turned on, the ads are not there. I turned if off just to see, and they ARE there. So stupid. :matte-motes-angry: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amethyst Jetaime Posted February 19, 2013 Share Posted February 19, 2013 I saw all those ads too. If you reload your page a few times the ads change with each reload until finally they disappear. Very odd that. Hope this is not permanent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Hexem Posted February 20, 2013 Share Posted February 20, 2013 These were done so terribly, it almost looks like the site was hacked. It's the kind of thing you'd expect to see on a cheap scam site or something... Not just that, but they seem to link to scam sites. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Attica Bekkers Posted February 20, 2013 Share Posted February 20, 2013 A hack seems more likely than the lab going insane. As they could make more money advertising in world places with banner advertising than by advertising illegal stuff. I have to agree with gadget -sites with ads like that are almost invariably shonky. There are some exceptions I call it blackmailware- Places where you have to have pay a membership to in order to not see advertisng again. Runescape used to do this- Although they may have discontinued the practice as I have been a member 8 years and so havent seen them Anyway my dashboard is clean, so *phew*. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cerise Sorbet Posted February 20, 2013 Share Posted February 20, 2013 Doesn't really look like it's been hacked, the Google Ads sections look like they were added to the source in an orderly sort of way. It looks like they may be shutting the service on and off because the incorrect ad sizes are being served. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ela Talaj Posted February 20, 2013 Share Posted February 20, 2013 There appears to be one ad on the top of the page, which seems legitimate (on-line university). Don't think it is a hack. And don't see anything wrong with the Lab deciding to collect ad revenues either. Everyone else does. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Hexem Posted February 20, 2013 Share Posted February 20, 2013 The ones I had were about selling your gold online. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ela Talaj Posted February 20, 2013 Share Posted February 20, 2013 Great! Sell your heart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Medhue Simoni Posted February 20, 2013 Share Posted February 20, 2013 I don't understand how a site giving quotes on gold is a scam site. Does any1 understand how much gold is nowadays? 2 ounces of gold is more than some make in a whole month. 2 little ounces! Plus, to many people that understand, actual gold, not paper gold traded on the market, is extremely sought after. The word in gold circles is that paper gold traded on the market is massively hedged and there is more being traded than those holders actually have, meaning the value of real gold will skyrocket. Right now, it's at like $1600 per ounces, and could easily double when the scam in the paper market is revealed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odelia Emmons Posted February 20, 2013 Share Posted February 20, 2013 I've seen the same ads...they are there then disappear...I am in favor of LL doing what they can to increase revenues with things of this nature that are not harmful to anyone really. I'd certainly prefer this type of thing to (and i hesitate to even type this!) a tier or premium membership fee increase. Since its a privately held company, residents have no idea of their financial status. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sayrah Parx Posted February 20, 2013 Share Posted February 20, 2013 Thanks for the screenshots, the ads never loaded for me but it was obvious what the new empty space was for. In the webpage source it's clear that they're legitimate google banner ads. Space is defined for an ad on the top that's 728x90 and an ad on the side that's 160x600. Whoever is working on the website just has no idea what they're doing apparently, and they're being careless by working on it in production. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lutricia Roux Posted February 21, 2013 Share Posted February 21, 2013 Good to see it's not me seeing these ads, I thought my viewer had some issues first time I saw them. As someone stated earlier, they are genuine Google Ads but they are really placed all over the site and at some pages. What I feel is most disturbing is that, how they jump in and basically occupies the screen at some pages. If they going to use them, the very least they could do is place them correctly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dartagan Shepherd Posted February 21, 2013 Share Posted February 21, 2013 In the news today: Unidentified Lindens were seen being led from Linden Lab's headquarters in handcuffs, their heads covered by Linden swag for illegally violating TOS requirements for linking to external sites selling non-virtual goods. There are indicators that Linden violators will be held without bail and breakfest burritos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Czari Zenovka Posted February 22, 2013 Share Posted February 22, 2013 I have about 3 different "Blocker" programs on my browser so I have (thankfully) yet to see these ads. I *did* notice a few days ago that for the first time ever on the secondlife.com website I began getting "ad block" messages which I can choose to override or not. I puzzled over why this was suddenly happening until I was reading a similar thread today on the General forums and the lightbulb went on - my program/s are blocking the ads. I'm really glad I don't see them but am sad SL has resorted to gaudy ads on their website. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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