AOL Installing More Spyware/Adware

from the hello-GAIM dept

It seems that the latest strategic thinking from the folks at AOL is that, now that people are leaving the paid for service in droves, they might as well do everything possible to drive people away from their free offerings as well. How else can you explain their decision to install additional spyware/adware with the latest version of the AIM instant messenger product? As Broadband Reports points out, they apparently didn't learn anything from Real Networks latest problems. If they keep this up they'll (just like so many others) drive people to Microsoft and Yahoo (and Google, once they add their own Gimmle, or whatever Google's eventual instant messenger product will be called). The response, of course, is that AOL needs to make money somehow, and while that's true, that doesn't mean the way to make money is to piss off your user base. I'm not sure what gets into people's heads that they believe the only way for advertising to work is to piss off people. In a competitive market, that's just like handing your users over to your competitor.

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