2004 • Page 2 of 3 • PC Matic Blog

Our Gator Experiences

PC Matic Cybersecurity / June 4, 2004

–Rob Cheng and Dave Methvin

What is it like to be a Gator user? We get plenty of reports in our forums, but we decided to get first-hand information by installing GAIN software on our own systems. We also wanted to find out if there are any good things about GAIN ads–do they have the potential to help users find great deals on products and services? The results weren’t pretty. Rob’s system became very unstable almost immediately. Dave didn’t have system instability, but received many GAIN ads that were anything but targeted.

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How Did I Get Gator?

PC Matic Cybersecurity / June 4, 2004

Our survey found that an astounding 74 percent of Gator users did not know that a Gator or GAIN application had been installed on their system, and an additional 15 percent had not read Gator’s license agreement. Compare those results to Gator’s assertion that users are “inviting” Gator onto their PC’s. We decided to take a look at several ways in which Gator gets “invited” onto a PC, and whether the process may be confusing users into making an uninformed choice.

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Claria Goes Public

PC Matic Cybersecurity / June 3, 2004

June 3, 2004

Claria Corporation (formerly Gator Corporation) has filed an S-1 statement, the first step in the United States for an initial public offering (IPO) of stock. The S-1 is a very useful document because it requires the company to be very clear and honest about its business prospects. Potential investors use the S-1 to determine whether to buy stock, and to determine a fair price for that stock.

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May 2004 Newsletter

PC Matic Cybersecurity / May 11, 2004

Special Report: The FTC Spyware Workshop
Continued Attacks Against Anti-Spyware Sites
Inadequate Disclosure by Claria/Gator and WhenU
Where’s Your Newsletter?
Solve Your PC Problems At The Pit

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Gator Alternatives

PC Matic Cybersecurity / May 5, 2004

Are you using a Gator or GAIN-supported application and would like to keep its functionality but dump the popup ads, excessive memory use, and data collection? You’ve come to the right place. We’ve researched a collection of free or low-cost programs that are superior to Gator’s. For each Gator application below, you’ll see our picks for programs that offer similar functionality.

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Spyware Legislation?

chengrob / April 15, 2004

Dave and I attended the FTC Spyware Conference on April 19, 2004. With our latest survey information under our arms, we had hoped we could influence future spyware legislation. It was a learning experience and here is some of what we learned.

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PC Pitstop Research Methodology

chengrob / April 1, 2004

Our mission at PC Pitstop is simple: help people make their PCs faster, more stable and more secure. PC Pitstop runs diagnostics on users’ PCs to identify things that might help improve performance. The process is fully automated, private and safe.

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Our Position

PC Matic Cybersecurity / March 30, 2004

PC Pitstop is speaking out against Gator and similar products because we believe that most users do not benefit by having them installed. This is consistent with the basic tenets that drive both our business philosophy and the advice that we give to users.

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Overture and Gator

PC Matic Cybersecurity / March 30, 2004

Several companies that have contacted PC Pitstop are puzzled how they could be associated with Gator when they honestly don’t believe their company does business with Gator Corporation. Our first thought was that there was simply someone else in the organization responsible for advertising through the Gator Advertising Information Network (GAIN), or perhaps that a third-party ad agency they hired was responsible for placing Gator advertising. (For example, adware has caused concern for companies such as Toyota.) However, we have found another way that many companies may unwittingly be advertising on Gator through its partnership with Overture and the Search Scout feature.

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Gator’s Lawsuit

PC Matic Cybersecurity / March 30, 2004

–by Dave Methvin

So why is there a Gator Information Center anyway? Why did we single out Gator for a special section? In a way, you could say that Gator almost demanded that we single them out because they didn’t like the group they were in.

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