Software maker NetJumper.com is gearing up to launch KashLinks, an application that allows advertisements to be embedded in an Internet user’s favorites or bookmarks section in the Web browser.
The product targets online stores, magazines and Internet advertisers who want to integrate their advertising and catalogs more closely with consumers. Online consumers can click on a KashLink banner or button on a Web site that uses the technology, after which the KashLink is injected into the browser’s favorites or bookmarks section.
“Consumers will click on the links because they’ll want to see how they can use the KashLinks shopping directory or KashLinks-enabled catalog or are otherwise interested in the links associated with content,” said Gilbert Borman, CEO of NetJumper, Detroit.
Once placed in the browser’s bookmark file, the ads can be viewed and clicked at any time. These downloads won’t be tampered or altered, Borman stressed, allaying fears that the user’s privacy would be invaded.
Borman isn’t worried that KashLinks is invasive and may rile online users who resent the increasing encroachment of ads onto their space. “All KashLinks are inserted on a voluntary informed basis,” Borman said, adding that it is the consumer who chooses to download KashLinks.
KashLinks can be used as a digital method for sharing links from Web-based and print providers, the company said. More importantly, it can be used as a digital catalog, offering one-click access to departments in an online retail store or as a free shopping guide that generates ad revenue for content providers.
NetJumper will get paid for the insertion of ads and catalogs into the browser or by sharing revenue with magazines selling ads in their content links, Borman said.
Online stores pay 50 cents per catalog inserted. Advertisers pay 25 cents for each link and magazines and content providers pay one-third of ad revenue sold to third parties. The company has yet to sign up any clients, though it claims to be in serious negotiations.
