We're Being Watched...

[Dave Baumann]

This one has me a little intrigued. I've recently installed a new westats package that tracks a lot of data that I didn't have before and since installing it I've noticed that the domain "sp1.allresearch.com" is one of the primary bandwidth users here. Looking at their site the appear to be be some kind of web data aggregation service that do things like "online peer group analysis".

I'm kinda curious as to exactly what this operation does, how it goes about selecting which sites to look at (I'm guessing it must be targetted since even Googlebot uses less than 1/10'th the bandwidth these do) and what type of information it stores about myself, the other members of the site and Beyond3D in general.

:?

 

[digitalwanderer]

Boy, I bet I sure fuck up their bell curve royally. 8)

 

[nelg]

Ah Ha.
Chalnoth has been pimped by nV and Vince by Sony.

By either directly enlisting or indirectly marketing to the opinion leaders, a firm can have a direct targeted effect on a closely identified demographic. Additionally, once the peer groups have been identified, they can be monitored before and after contacting the opinion leaders to determine the effectiveness of the campaign.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

AllResearch, Inc. was founded in 1998 to provide research, media analysis, and strategic intelligence services for a variety of different markets.

We offer a broad range of products and services to assist various entities with gathering relevant intelligence from the online world. Utilizing cutting-edge proprietary technology, we are able to view and understand the online world in ways never before possible. Our clients range from small, independent users to the largest public relations firms and Fortune 500 companies. In addition to our standard services, we have created a number of custom solutions for clients.

Feel free to explore our website and do not hesitate to contact us.

Oii!! You didn't tell us you a Fortune500 Company!!

Sorry .. had to get that one off.

Maybe e-mail them and ask them to remove the offending bot?

US

 

[sytaylor]

Video card companies have a huge advantage over other product vendors, in that the "buzz" they create, and customer reaction is mainly communicated in black and white on the web. Analysing and monitoring that would clear be advantageous to any of the large players in the market.

 

[bloodbob]

LOL I wonder how much money they have made from B3D maybe you should ask for a donation?

 

[Dave Baumann]

Well, actually I've sent them a mail asking to see what infomration they hold about us. Anyone know the details of the equivelent of the "Data Protection Act" in the US?

 

[sytaylor]

IIRC there is a freedom of information act, or something to that effect. Not sure though, wait til the yanks wake up

 

[Druga Runda]

pfft...

I bet nothing meaningfull will come back.

and a little googling yields this

http://troyandgay.com/index.php?p=2906

It is a violation of our Terms of Service and they would have known that had they bothered to read it. The damage is that they are effectively blocking legitimate use of the site by real people, they are placing an unnecessary burden on our servers and costing us money in bandwidth. And what are they doing with the data they retrieve? They are reselling it on their WebClipping.com business. This is simply theft. If they want our content, they can do what every other bot we allow does: tell us the truth. The content is free, just be honest about it and everyone’s happy.

I called the company to ask them why their bot lies. I talked to one guy who sounded like he’s heard this before (“Uhh.. hold on…â€) and was immediately passed on to someone else. I asked this guy the same question and his answer was that if they are honest about their user-agent string, sites won’t serve them content. Shocking! Maybe they don’t want you stealing their content! Did he ever think of that? Apparently not, he just answered “You can call it stealing if you want, we consider it a valuable service to our customersâ€. I love how people rationalize their actions when they know they’re wrong. And he fully admits that he’s taking content to provide it to others. I wonder if their customers know they are paying for stolen content.

Google does a fine job being honest about their user-agent. If it’s good enough for Google, isn’t it good enough for AllResearch? It is unless AllResearch doesn’t want anyone to know they’re crawling sites. Why wouldn’t they want anyone to know? Honest people don’t need to cover their tracks.

When I insisted that they be honest in their user-agent string, he answered “Don’t you have anything better to do on a Friday afternoon than complain about our bot?â€. In other words, he wants me to stop complaining and get back to work creating content for AllResearch to steal.

So just like this person did when they discovered AllResearch’s bot, we now block their IP address. This will work until everyone does this to them and they change their IP address.

and this

http://www.businesswire.com/webbox/bw.033001/210892012.htm

Company description: As the pioneer and leader in the online intelligence gathering and information management sector, WebClipping.com provides services and tools that facilitate information tracking on and throughout the WorldWideWeb. Sophisticated technology assists public relations, investor relations and trademark practictioners manage the daunting task of keeping abreast of locating, consolidating and sharing online mentions and articles.
WebClipping.com, the key player in the field of online market intelligence monitors more sources than any other company - timely and actionable knowledge culled from more than 22,000 content-filled, web-based publications, the most extensive list of online newspapers, magazines & webzines, and newswires available. In addition, WebClipping.com monitors over 63,000 UseNet groups and performs extensive "meta-searches" of all the major search engines.
Using advanced proprietary technology to search and verify its results, WebClipping.com helps its clients stay ahead in marketplace by:

--Tracking public opinion & Identifying misinformation

--Protecting corporate reputations

--Gathering market intelligence & Staying alert to competitive
developments and innovative new uses for their product,

--Policing copyright and trademark abuse, false or misleading
product claims & Protecting brand, patent and intellectual
property,

--Guarding against the unauthorized use of products and services,

--Improving customer service and consumer relations.

Superior electronic information management systems run exhaustive searches of the Web for the most recent news including use, abuse, piracy, counterfeiting and violations that affect business practices: trademark registrations, pending trademark applications, corporate names, domain names, and foreign registrations.

--30--aw/ny*

CONTACT: AllResearch, Inc., New York

KEYWORD: NEW YORK
INDUSTRY KEYWORD: COMPUTERS/ELECTRONICS E-COMMERCE INTERNET
PUBLISHING
PROFILE: YES

who knows maybe ATI or Nvidia pay them to crawl us.

and this is the front end
http://www.webclipping.com/

 

[Druga Runda]

there is a "why monitor? " section too

just the interesting part -

Spread of rumors
The Internet has grown to become the largest and most easily accessible public forum in the world. Literally anybody can publicly express their opinion on any topic they wish. Problems arise from the fact that there is no control of any kind on what is published online. The Internet is literally “free speech†in the purest form. Because of this, the Internet has evolved into the world’s largest rumor mill. Rumors, gossip, malicious information, and hoaxes quickly spread without restriction.

Some of the more famous false rumors found online:
- On the Oprah Winfrey Show, Tommy Hilfiger stated he didn't want African-Americans wearing his clothes.
- Hillary Clinton, while a student at Yale, organized demonstrations defending the Black Panthers.
- Heinz Ketchup contains a secret ingredient - cow's blood.
- A person can get high by injecting Pantene Shampoo.
- Many brands of women's tampons, are life-threatening because they contain asbestos or dioxin.
- Pfizer heartworm medicine may be deadly to dogs.
- Mrs. Fields Cookies planned to host a party for the jury that acquitted O.J. Simpson.
- Corona beer contains urine.
- That you can get a free Nokia cellular telephone by forwarding an e-mail.
- That George W. Bush refused to sell his house to African-Americans.

Misuse of products
Stemming from the above mentioned “rumor mill†nature of the Internet arises the problem of misused products. Frequently, rumors will start about an unknown, beneficial, or “secret†use of a product for something other than its intended function. This can frequently be dangerous and in the case of pharmaceuticals, life threatening. For example, there is a thread in the discussion boards about using Celbrex as a mood stabilizer. Celebrex is approved for use to relive the pain of arthritis. There is no approval or intention by the manufacturer to use Celebrex for any other purpose. Clearly an individual following the “advice†from this false rumor would be misusing a prescription drug, the results of which could be dangerously unpredictable. There are numerous other examples of misinformation about product uses from the benign to the downright dangerous (See the Pantene example mentioned above.).

Competitive activities
Over the past decade we have witnessed a constant acceleration of product development cycles, marketing campaigns, and general business cycles. The need to track the activities of a competitor are more important than ever before. As the Internet grows, there is more and more information available about a company’s competitors available online. Frequently information from unexpected sources, rumors, and unexpected websites can provide valuable and needed information that was previously unavailable. Key competitive information found online can provide companies with information crucial to staying ahead in today’s marketplace.

Feedback mechanism for PR
The modern public relations strategist relies on a feedback centric model. The public is studied, a campaign is started and then the public is constantly watched for response. The campaign is constantly adjusted to maximize the desired response from the public. With the Internet being the fastest and most dynamic informational exchange in history, it has become an extremely effective tool for monitoring public opinion.

there you go...

In reality NV40 just uses partial precision giving inferior quality, their products are just half baked garbage that blows up PSU's and their drivers are full of bugs

OK... my bet is on them, now it might be both of them.

and the last bit

Internet Home
Page Address
(URL) www.webclipping.com

Chief Executive
Officer: Mr. Noah Silverman

Chief Financial
Officer: Mr. Noah Silverman

Investor Relations
Contact: Mr. Noah Silverman
Business number: 212/965-1900
E-mail address: noah@webclipping.com

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Noah+Silverman

1. Noah Silverman

Reference to a friend that is very stinky and has a tendency to break stuff by accident. Usually used in the context of an insult. Also can refer to someone who is cheap and is always borrowing money.

Person 1: "Opps! My bad I accidently broke your Television set"
Person 2: "You moron! You pulled a Noah!"