Avenue A?!?!

I've noticed that recently I've been getting bogged down with pop-up and pop-under ads, so to remedy my problem I tried Spybot Search and Destroy (security.kolla.de ) It worked wonders, for any of you who are in the same boat that I was.

As part of this program, it offers the ability to stop "drive-by downloading" of adware/spyware. Now, with that working, it repeatedly says that Avenue A inc. is trying to download itself. I went to their website and got a load of marketing mumbo-jumbo and little of any value as to a description of what this program does (other that increasing web hits by 600% and being super awesome etc...) I was just wondering if anyone else knew exactly what it does, and why it is necessary on AO.

this is where you lose me:

"...and why it is necessary on AO."

Everyonce in a while, when surfing the forums here, I get a warning that Avenue A is trying to download itself... I was wondering why: is it part of what pays for AO's costs, does it change the way we see the site etc.