Blinkx contests Harvard professor’s concerns about its business model

The video website Blinkx is contesting a Harvard professor’s analysis that accuses the company of charging advertisers for video ads that users rarely see. Ben Edelman, an associate professor at Harvard Business School, published a technical analysis of the company’s services earlier this week that claims to have found suspicious advertising software wrapped into Blinkx applications. “Few users would affirmatively request adware that shows extra pop-ups, so Blinkx uses deceptive tactics to sneak adware onto users’ computers,” Edelman wrote in the paper.