Zedo

Zedo (trademark styled as ZEDO) is a privately held company founded in 1999 by Roy de Souza, which provides several online advertising products and services to Internet publishers, advertisers, and agencies.[1] The company works with publishers who sell space on their web pages to online advertisers. Zedo's servers send advertisements to users' browsers.[2] Zedo uses an HTTP cookie to track users' browsing history resulting in targeted pop-up ad and pop-under ads. The cookie is often flagged by spyware and adware removal programs.[3] In a 2013 case study written by Amazon, Amazon described ZEDO as a company that "develops innovative technology solutions to help publishers sell and deliver Internet ads".[4]

Zedo, Inc.
TypePrivate
IndustryOnline Advertising Technology
FoundedSeptember 1999 (1999-09)
HeadquartersSan Francisco, California, USA
Key people
Roy de Souza, Co-Founder/CEO; Paul Prior, President; (the late) Joseph Jacob, CTO; Summer Koide, VP Products and Services;
ProductsZINC premium network (for Advertisers), Zedo Ad Server (for Publishers, Advertisers, Networks)
Network Optimization (for Publishers)
Behavioral Targeting (for Networks)
Websitewww.zedo.com

History

Zedo began in 1999. The company headquarters is located in the North Beach district of San Francisco, California. Zedo's development center is in India.[5] In 2001, it expanded by offering the ad-serving technology to large websites.

By 2004, the use of filters to limit pop-ups and pop-unders increased. Zedo began using intromercials—advertisements served before the requested content—as an alternate method.[6]

Zedo has also experimented with creating its own social networking sites. In 2006, it launched a social networking site where users get shopping advice from friends who own products called Zebo.com.[7]

In 2011, Zedo started to work with newspaper publishers.[8]

Criticism

Zedo uses HTTP cookies to track users' browsing and advertisement viewing history.[9] A writer for The Independent called pop-unders from Zedo and other providers "annoying" while also describing the advertisements' windows as a "seemingly endless barrage".[1] Technologist Danny Sullivan has stated that Zedo carries misleading "junk" ads linking to fake news sites.[10]

Zedo offers an option to opt out of targeted advertisements[11] and says that it has an anti-spyware policy.[12]

References
  1. Goldberg, Andy (2002-10-07). "Internet advertising: Top of the pops". The Independent. Archived from the original on 2008-04-24. Retrieved 2012-07-16.
  2. Heim, Sarah J. (2001-07-21). "Zedo Ad Serving Technology puts consumers in control". AllBusiness.com. Retrieved 2008-07-05.
  3. Kaye, Kate (September 13, 2006). "Anti-Spyware Programs Snare Ad Cookies, Google Cookies Evade All". ClickZ.com. Retrieved December 10, 2009.
  4. "AWS Case Study: ZEDO". Aws.amazon.com. Retrieved 2014-04-04.
  5. Kaiser, Nathan. "Interview with Roy de Souza, CEO of Zedo". Npost. Retrieved April 20, 2012.
  6. Olsen, Stefanie (June 4, 2004). "Revenge of the pop-ups". Cnet. Retrieved April 20, 2012.
  7. Tedeschi, Bob (April 30, 2007). "Got Roomfuls of Stuff? Now Sites Will Help Keep Track of It". The New York Times.
  8. "Zedo refocusing on newspapers". News&Tech. Retrieved 24 January 2011.
  9. Penenberg, Adam L. (2005-11-07). "Cookie Monsters". Slate. Retrieved 2008-07-05.
  10. Danny Sullivan. "Of Misleading Acai Berry Ads & Fake Editorial Sites". daggle.com. Retrieved 2011-01-29.
  11. "Opt Out". Zedo. Retrieved 2013-03-07.
  12. "Fight Spyware". Zedo. Retrieved 2013-03-07.
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