[Appleman]

Hm,never saw it before, heard about it but thought it wouldn't hurt me, as "I'm on a Mac".
Opening www.appleinsider.com tonight, and after loading the page, it goes to
www.systemdoctor.com

Is this adware, does it happen to you as well, what is it, waht should I do?

Thanks.

[dark3lf]

Adware is:
a) pc software that subsidized profits by placing banner-type ads directly into the application.
b) any software package which automatically plays, displays, or downloads advertising material to a computer after the software is installed on it or while the application is being used.

[shifuimam]

Adware could also be defined as software that hijacks other software to display ads.

Appleman what browser are you using? Have you downloaded any new free software recently? Accidentally visited any sites you didn't mean to (not necessarily porn; a lot of gaming sites have stuff on them)?

Also, are you sure you typed www.Appleinsider.com? If you misspelled the URL, switched letters around, etc, it's very likely you would have been redirected to an ad site. Ad companies frequently purchase URLs similar to popular sites in order to fill those URLs with ads. Even MacNN is victim - mcnn.com and www.mcann.com both direct to ad sites.

[davidflas]

I ran into this issue too, but in a slightly different way, I used a bookmark that I'd used many times before to go to a website. At first I thought Firefox had crashed because the window closed and a dialog opened. After reading it I realized it was an ad. there was no way to close the window so I clicked cancel. Of course that took me to systemdoctor's website. closing that window opened another, so I finally had to quit Firefox, should I be worried about my Mac? Below is a screen shot of to the dialog box:

[Rumor]

No, that is a Windows only program it was trying to install.

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by davidflas 

I ran into this issue too, but in a slightly different way, I used a bookmark that I'd used many times before to go to a website. At first I thought Firefox had crashed because the window closed and a dialog opened. After reading it I realized it was an ad. there was no way to close the window so I clicked cancel. Of course that took me to systemdoctor's website. closing that window opened another, so I finally had to quit Firefox, should I be worried about my Mac?

No, that looks like a standard annoying JavaScript-enabled ad on whatever Web site you were visiting.

[Sherman Homan]

Chuckit is right, it is a Java script ad. If you didn't deliberately go to a site that suddenly appears, then it is some type of malware. Many times it is best to dismiss the pop up with a keyboard command. Some pop ups are designed to take you to their site even if you click on the Cancel button.