On Monday, Jason Calacanis wrote about Vibrant Media, the San Francisco-based company who created IntelliTXT technology. If it sounds like something familiar to you, that's because it's the name of the advertising product currently featured at Forbes.com, among other places. IntelliTXT technology places double-underlines on certain words that advertisers have chosen as "key terms" for their ads to show up under, within the body of articles and weblog posts. More details are available in a New York Times article from August 3, with Nat Ives saying that the technology was "raising new questions about the separation of journalism from the advertising that supports it." Jeremy Wagstaff over at LOOSE wire points out some additional flaws the system could have, and doesn't like the tone that having the paid links within content creates. Though his argument, "As a journalist, to find one's words mined for possible commercial links would smack of cheapness," kind of counters the Google ads which Wagstaff seems to like.

Contextual advertising is obviously something that people are willing to pay for - and have on their own sites. Google made high marks with its AdSense program in recent times, as both advertisers and website owners are pleased with its results. It's seemingly unobtrusive, easy to set up, and can be made to look somewhat like your site while still clearly being an advertisement. The key is the relevance factor.

That said, the "grey area" between content and advertising is something that has been blurred at such a rapid pace on the Internet - but it shouldn't be astounding, considering how the 'net works. Website readers are used to seeing ads in certain places on a page - which may or may not let them "ignore" the spots - but they know the ads are present. Weblogs and other sites with continuously updated content have even been able to slip advertisements into the high-value portion of the page - where the posts/articles are. Both Calacanis' Weblogs, Inc. and sites on Nick Denton's Gawker Media network such as Wonkette have "third post" advertising - where an ad fills space just after the third post on any index page. I've even implemented this on The Media Drop, and it's been fairly successful from what I can tell. Sure, a lot of it is based on the content created on these pages, but it's not in the content.

Many critics of IntelliTXT believe that it will move journalists - or others who edit sites - to place words in their content that are more likely to be picked up by the advertising service. I don't believe that many journalists would stoop to this, especially those who typically write for print media - and only have their work re-printed online. But I can see this being the case for smaller-scale website owners and others working to maximize advertising revenue quickly for their customers. Take a glance at this thread on the Search Engine Marketing Forums if you don't think people will use it.

The reason myself and others take issue with this technology is the way it is done. Sure, it's got two underlines - but I could make all my URLs have two underlines through CSS if I wanted to. Vibrant Media says that "Advertising messages appear only when user expresses interest; as a result advertisements are a utility rather than a diversion." I don't believe this is the case. I think these ads are a diversion, and are in no way related to "following" the content you're reading. Blogging as a method of communication is built on linking - but you link to things that are related to the story to build out what you're opining on, or just trying to direct people to. Links for advertisers within your content show that you're trying to send people somewhere else in order for revenue to make its way to your site. You're not building a story there, you're utilizing space within content - or actually the content itself - in order to grow revenues.

Disagreeing with IntelliTXT doesn't mean you have a lack of support for the site you're reading. I'm sure most people agree that there isn't a way that content can be provided for free, for everyone to read. Newspapers, magazines, and other media outlets with online presences need to pay the bills - sans subscription fees, of course.

But that doesn't mean you can't do anything to show your displeasure. Feel strongly about IntelliTXT stepping over a boundary? Contact site owners that are running the technology, like Forbes, here. Be polite - tell them that you feel this advertising medium hurts the value of their news reporting.

You can also "vote" with your browser - since we're all election-focused these days, why not download Mozilla if you're running a Windows-based machine? It doesn't permit the IntelliTXT ads to enter your browser. Don't want to change browsers? Well, there's one last method that's a little tricky but seems to work - details as follows:

If you're using Windows 9x or ME, the file you want to edit is located at "C:\Windows\hosts"

If you're using NT, Win2K or XP go to "C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts" or "C:\winnt\system32\drivers\etc\hosts"

Edit the file with a text editor like Notepad. At the bottom of the file, you should see something like "127.0.0.1 localhost".

Hit Enter, and paste in the following lines:

127.0.0.1 itxt.vibrantmedia.com
127.0.0.1 forbes.us.intellitxt.com

Save the file in the exact location it was previously in, restart your Internet Explorer browser, and you *should* be good to go. Be very careful with editing files like this on your computer - if you're worried about causing problems, then make a backup copy for yourself and move it back later. This is not to be seen as technical advice you should be suing me for if you screw up your Windows OS.

The first addition might do the blocking, but it didn't work for me. The second line will specifically block the advertising on the Forbes.com website. Before you ask, this is a way to screw up other methods of advertising - I'll admit that - but blocking other ads leaves unsightly "page not found" marks where ads are supposed to be, and surfing that way isn't pretty. This effect doesn't happen with these contextual ads. Plus, we're trying to have some civil disobedience here, not outright anarchy.

Like Rafat Ali wrote on August 4, "the backlash is growing."