ZEDO is an online American company that creates digital advertisements and offers web servers and web domains for those who need them. Some things that ZEDO specializes in is ad network optimization, innovative rich media formats for publishers'
direct sales teams, full featured ad serving, behavioral targeting data
built into the ad server, an exchange-like platform for publishers to
sell behavioral and DMA targeted inventory at high CPMs,
a self service platform to allow advertisers to buy directly from a
publisher, outsourced ad ops and much, much more.
ZEDO was founded in 1999 by Chief Executive Officer
and Co-founder Roy de Souza, and has grown a lot over the years. In 2001, the company first expanded by offering their advertising technology to large and popular websites. In 2004, the company gained a name for itself, and increased the usage of pop-up ads and pop-under ads, and started to us intromercials. In 2006, ZEDO launched it's very own social networking website to gain more popularity and spread shopping advice from friends who own products (the site is called Zebo.com)
The HQ for ZEDO is located in San Francisco,
California, North Beach District.
How ZEDO works is that Zedo's servers send advertisements to users' browsers, and they work with online publishers who sell space on their web pages to advertise with online advertisers. Zedo uses a specific type of HTTP cookie to track the users browsing history,
resulting in targeting specific pop-up ads. However, the cookie is often
flagged by spyware and adware
removal programs (such as AVG). A report from independent spyware researcher Ben Edelman found that "Zedo's ad platform cookies were detected by seven" of
11 tested and trusted anti-spyware programs. Also, Technologist Danny Sullivan stated that
"Zedo carries misleading 'junk' ads linking to fake news sites".
ZEDO has been in the internet advertising industry for over 10 years, and claims to be "the most successful independent ad server in the US", while also "provides innovative solutions that boost revenues for Internet
publishers", although many can say otherwise.