r1-usc1.zemanta.com
r1-usc1.zemanta.com is best understood as an advertising and tracking infrastructure hostname linked to Zemanta’s ad technology, rather than a normal website made for people to browse.
What exactly is r1-usc1.zemanta.com?
The address is a subdomain of Zemanta.com, a long-running advertising technology platform that later became known as Outbrain DSP and is now part of the wider Teads advertising business.
Independent network data also identifies r1-usc1.zemanta.com with the Outbrain advertising application and shows that its network traffic is delivered through Cloudflare infrastructure.
This explains why opening the hostname directly may produce an empty page, error, redirect, or tiny response instead of a normal home page with menus and articles.
The hostname appears designed for software-to-software requests that happen during online advertising activity, so visiting it directly tells you very little about its real purpose.
Who owns the technology behind this address?
Zemanta began as a technology company for publishers and advertisers, and Outbrain acquired Zemanta in July 2017.
The Zemanta advertising platform was later renamed Outbrain DSP, with Outbrain saying that the new name kept the same core advertising functionality under one brand.
The corporate story changed again when Outbrain completed its acquisition of Teads on February 3, 2025, after which the combined business began operating under the Teads name.
Official filings say Outbrain formally changed its corporate name to Teads Holding Co. on June 6, 2025, showing why older Zemanta and Outbrain domains can still appear even though the current company uses Teads branding.
Why might this domain appear while you browse or use an app?
Advertising systems often send browsers through several background domains to measure an ad impression, record a click, attribute a conversion, prevent fraud, or decide which advertisement should appear.
Outbrain explains that its systems can use cookies, pixels, online identifiers, IP-derived location information, browser details, visited pages, referral information, and similar data for advertising and measurement.
Its cookie documentation also describes a Zemanta UUID cookie used to recognize user activity such as visited pages, recommendation clicks, and personalized advertising.
That means r1-usc1.zemanta.com can reasonably appear in browser history, network logs, privacy reports, DNS records, or an ad-blocker report even when you never typed the address yourself.
A redirect through an ad-tech hostname can also happen after an advertisement is tapped, because advertising platforms sometimes measure the click before sending the browser to the advertiser’s final page.
Does seeing r1-usc1.zemanta.com mean your device has malware?
No single appearance of this hostname proves that a phone, tablet, or computer has malware, because current network records connect the domain with a real advertising platform rather than an unknown standalone website.
However, the fact that an advertising domain belongs to a legitimate company does not guarantee that every advertisement or destination reached through an advertising chain is safe.
A 2022 automated ANY.RUN report labeled one test involving the hostname as malicious activity, but the same report showed zero detected threats, so that old automated result should not be treated as proof that the hostname itself is malware.
This distinction matters because advertising redirects can connect several independent services, and a harmful final landing page could exist even when an intermediate tracking service is legitimate.
What should you do if this address suddenly appears?
If you only notice r1-usc1.zemanta.com in a privacy report, DNS log, browser history, or blocked-request list, there is usually no reason to interact with the hostname directly.
If an advertisement unexpectedly opens a browser, close the unwanted page rather than entering passwords, payment details, or personal information into a destination you do not recognize.
You can also use your browser’s normal privacy controls to limit third-party tracking, clear site data when needed, and review permissions given to websites or apps.
For more detail about how the advertising platform handles information, the most useful starting point is the company’s privacy information rather than the r1-usc1 hostname itself.
What is the simplest way to judge this domain?
Treat r1-usc1.zemanta.com as a technical advertising endpoint connected to the Zemanta-Outbrain-Teads ecosystem, not as a conventional website, search engine, store, or service that you need to visit manually.
Its presence is most meaningful as evidence that an advertisement or advertising measurement process was involved, while the safety of any page reached afterward should be judged separately based on that final destination.