WeatherBug
WeatherBug is a downloadable software for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X which displays the current temperature and alerts users to any severe weather warnings issued by the National Weather Service. The program also offers radar images, forecasting, and seasonal features such as coverage of hurricanes and winter storms. WeatherBug has also launched a mobile version of its product for cell phones across many North American wireless carriers.
WeatherBug, in its current form, was created by AWS Convergence Technologies, Inc. (formerly Automated Weather Source) in 2000. The company had been distributing weather data since 1992.
Popularity
WeatherBug is the most popular real-time source for online weather information on the Internet, with an average of 21 million unique monthly users. This data is based on a report generated for the WeatherBug corporation by the online marketing consultancy firm comScore in March 2005.
Weatherbug is the fifth most engaging [Visits per Visitor] web site [comScore] in March 2007.
Top 10 Properties by Unique Top 10 Properties by Average
Visitors (000) Visits per Visitor
February 2007 February 2007
Total U.S.-- Home, Work and Total U.S.-- Home, Work and
University Locations University Locations
Source: comScore Media Metrix Source: comScore Media Metrix
Rank Property Unique Visitors Rank Property Average
(000) Visits/Visitor
Total Internet Total Internet
Users 175,653 Visits 64.2
1 Yahoo! Sites 128,559 1 Yahoo! Sites 28.6
2 Time Warner Network 117,942 2 Facebook.com 23.6
3 Google Sites 114,694 3 Microsoft Sites 21.8
4 Microsoft Sites 114,155 4 Time Warner Network 19.4
5 eBay 79,559 5 Weatherbug Property 17.7
6 Fox Interactive
Media 77,969 6 Google Sites 17.7
7 Amazon Sites 48,905 7 Fox Interactive
Media 16.9
8 Ask Network 48,722 8 Comcast Corporation 16.9
9 Wikipedia Sites 43,656 9 EA Online 13.6
10 New York Times Digital 39,769 10 Earthlink 12.1
According to Alexa, a website traffic clearinghouse, in September 2006 Weatherbug.com ranked 5,604 in traffic among all websites. [1] In comparison, Weather.com, the website of The Weather Channel ranked 112, [2] Noaa.gov, the website of the U.S. government agency NOAA ranks 378 [3] and Accuweather.com ranks 610 [4]. Until recently, WeatherBug's main consumer product offering, however, has been via the desktop application that must be downloaded, not a webpage.
Spyware, adware, and other concerns
Symantec AntiSpywre, Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware, Lavasot-Adaware and Spybot SDE which are the most popular AntiSpyware programs do not flag Weatherbug as spyware or adware.
One spyware/adware detector, CtrSpy, lists WeatherBug as "High risk adware", [5]. Spywareguide.com further clarifies the situation by calling WeatherBug "ad-supported software" and that while it generates "pop-ups," it does "display advertising in its own window." [6]
McAfee VirusScan says that a 'potentially dangerous program is in the Temporary Internet Files (or Cache) at the download page of WeatherBug. McAfee SiteAdvisor also considered WeatherBug to have spyware and/or adware.
WeatherBug has also drawn ire from IT support technicians that it, and software included with it, resists uninstallation. Of further concern to IT departments is the significant amount of network traffic generated by WeatherBug. Though this is not due to malicious intent, in fact it is a by-product of the constant weather data updates, it does consume network resources for a purpose which is generally not work related. [7]
In response to spyware concerns, the company published a webpage in which WeatherBug makes a claim that their software is neither spyware nor adware, on the contention that there is a "lack of a standard definition" and that the ads in the free version are not served based on surfing habits. The page goes on to state that adware, per se, is software which gathers "customer data" and transmits that back to a server. [8]
The free program is only for U.S. cities, while other versions of the software offer international locations. WeatherBug offers a "plus" version at a cost of $19.95US per year which contains no advertisements, and is still dangerous.
WeatherBug Network
The WeatherBug Network (which actually predates the WeatherBug desktop application by seven years) is a series of mesonets totaling approximately 8,000 weather stations, located in regions across the United States. Most of these stations are operated by schools and governed by a local television station, who gains exclusive rights for the region to use the network data. These weather stations return data when a WeatherBug or TV station queries the weather station, which makes the Weatherbug data more of a real-time reading than National Weather Service observations, which have to report the data in the form of METAR observations. The WeatherBug network's observations, however, are generally recognized to be somewhat less accurate than official METAR observations. This is because, unlike government-operated observation sites, WeatherBug sites are not standardized to the same high level of calibration and the standards for location of Weatherbug sites are not as stringent.
The WeatherBug Network is most heavily concentrated along the Eastern Seaboard megalopolis, as well as around major cities in the United States. (A high concentration can be found around Washington, DC and Buffalo, New York, for example.)
Weatherbug is compatible with both its own network of 8000 stations and the roughly 1000 National Weather Service stations.
Homeland Security cooperation
In 2004, AWS Convergence Technologies, Inc., the National Weather Service and the Department of Homeland Security entered into a public-private agreement so that the Weatherbug stations could be used by Homeland Security to assess weather conditions in the event of a disaster. The relationship was sought because of the much higher resolution of the WeatherBug network in many highly populated areas (WeatherBug stations are often located within a few miles of each other, while NWS stations usually have about 30 to 50 miles between each other). Thus, the combined network of National Weather Service and WeatherBug networks is often referred to as the "Homeland Security WeatherBug Network" (HSWN). [9] The agreement was renewed and expanded in January 2007.
Content
The Weatherbug Network data is distributed two ways: via the downloaded program and via a recently developed Web service [10]. Both provide similar products:
- Live conditions from stations in the weather network (temperature, dew point/relative humidity, wind velocity, precipitation and barometer pressure). In older versions of the AWS Web site, sunlight measurement is also available.
- Radar, satellite, and temperature maps
- Forecasts from the National Weather Service
Differences between the downloadable program and the Web service:
- The program can sound an audible alert when the National Weather Service issues a watch, warning or advisory.
- The Web service has its data available in RSS, which allows users to read forecasts from an RSS reader or to integrate the data into a Web site.
- The Web service, through its affiliates, offer interactive data maps using Java applets. An example is this national map, which is no longer linked on the AWS site but has not been purged from the server.