Adware
Adware is a suitcase word from English. ad vertisement (German: “Reklame”, “Werbung”) and software . It refers to software that shows the user advertising in addition to the actual function or installs additional software that displays advertising. Adware is usually free and functionally unrestricted. Often it is also embedded in free software (“ freeware ”) or auxiliary programs and is therefore difficult to recognize. Marketing the advertising space covers development costs or makes a profit. Often there is also an option to receive an ad-free full version for a fee.
Even malware that serves advertising purposes is known as adware.
Brand name
There is a range of software from Frevel & Fey , which has been developing and selling its software for publishers and media companies under the brand name adware since the early 1990s , even before the term “adware” was used for adware. Because of the negative associations that the term has now triggered , the company has renamed its publishing software to mediaSuite .
