Conduit
Israeli toolbar maker that earned search-ad money by changing users' default search; merged into Perion in 2014.
Ness Ziona, Israel · founded 2005 · conduit.com
What Conduit does
Conduit, founded in 2005, let any website build its own browser toolbar. The toolbars set the user's search box and often the home page to a Conduit search page, and Conduit shared the resulting search-ad revenue with the site that distributed the toolbar.
It was a huge business and a controversial one. The toolbar frequently arrived bundled with other software, changed browser settings, and was hard to remove. Security products commonly flagged it as a potentially unwanted program. This is the practice now described as search hijacking.
In September 2013 Conduit agreed to spin off the toolbar division, ClientConnect, and merge it with Perion in an all-stock deal that completed on 2 January 2014 and left Conduit's shareholders owning most of Perion. Conduit itself moved on to other products.
How it makes money
Historically, a share of search-ad revenue from searches made through its toolbars.
Where it meets invalid traffic
The clicks were made by real people, but many had not chosen their search provider. Search engines later tightened their rules on bundled software and extensions.
Products
- Conduit toolbar platform
- ClientConnect (merged into Perion)