Get ready for advertisers to take over your Web browser

Beware, Web surfers. Soon not even that dull, gray toolbar at the top of your Internet browser will be safe from advertisers.

A New York online ad technology firm, United Virtualities, is preparing to introduce a product that will allow advertisers to automatically change the appearance of Web browsers, usurping some of the functions built into popular browsers designed by Microsoft Corp. and Netscape Communications, a unit of AOL Time Warner Inc.

Weather.com, a unit of Atlanta-based Weather Channel Enterprises, is considering using the new technology on its Web site within the next month, said Paul Iaffaldano, chief revenue officer. The Web site is testing the new product but hasn't yet committed to using it, he added.

In a demo version of a Weather.com-themed browser prepared by United Virtualities, visitors can see their gray browser toolbars transformed into an image of a setting sun, with the Weather.com logo appearing behind the toolbar icons.

Even the toolbar options would change. The ''home'' icon on Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser, for instance, would become a ''Weather Channel'' icon, steering users back to Weather.com's main page when they click on it. Sponsored links to other Web sites would replace Internet Explorer tools like ''edit'' and a link to RealNetworks Inc.'s Real.com Web site. Users don't have to download any software to set the process in motion.

The commandeering of the Web browser would be the latest in a series of intrusive tactics employed by online advertisers in the last year, often to the annoyance of Web surfers. From pop-up ads to pop-under ads, advertisers have gotten bolder in their quests for attention. United Virtualities' new product would be one of the boldest attempts yet to expand advertising beyond the browser content window.

While advertisers might drool over the prospect of displaying their brands on a browser toolbar, Internet users might not be so receptive.

News source: SiliconValley.com