This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Java Buzz by Elliotte Rusty Harold. Original Post: The Pirate Bay Goes Mainstream Feed Title: Mokka mit Schlag Feed URL: http://www.elharo.com/blog/feed/atom/? Feed Description: Ranting and Raving Latest Java Buzz Posts Latest Java Buzz Posts by Elliotte Rusty Harold Latest Posts From Mokka mit Schlag

Used to be the Pirate Bay posted ads for gambling, borderline porn, and questionable dating sites; the real bottom feeders of Internet businesses. Then I started using Adblock Plus; and didn’t see ads at all. :-)

However I just happened to be using Safari for a few minutes while Firefox downloaded an extension update, and followed a link that happened to point into the Pirate Bay, and I was quite surprised to see this:

OK, Web Media Player and LowerMyBills.com aren’t Nordstroms, but they aren’t the bottom of the barrel either. American Apparel and AT&T are major name brands. The ads seem to be served by a couple of different ad networks:

• Burst Media
• Interclick
• Doubleclick (now part of Google)
• ad{net}

I wonder if the advertisers know where their ads are playing? Or if they care?

Possibly the subject you’re searching for matters too. The Pirate Bay seems to be embedding the URL of the main page in the URLs that one clicks through to the ads. I just checked and the pages for subjects like “Top 100 TV Shows” still have the “dating” site ads and flashing “If this ad is flashing, you’re a winner” ads. Maybe they only use legitimate ads on the individual search result pages?

I experimented by searching for a popular porn star’s name, and up came a page with two “dating” ads, one completely deceptive ad from the Online Reward Center, complete with pop-ups, and one ad from the Mormons asking “Does God really care?” (Hmm, I wonder what the answer is? I better click it to find out.) So at least some pages still have 100% scammy advertising.

I tried a slightly less loaded search term (Harry Potter) and this time I got back an ad for American Apparel again, and one flashing “Congratulations! You are the 999,999th visitor!”

So there are still plenty of scams to go around, but at least some advertisers are starting to take the Pirate Bay seriously.