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Google Follows Yahoo In Questionable Bundling Deal With Adobe
from the please-explain-why dept
About a year ago, a lot of people were questioning why Macromedia made a deal to bundle Yahoo's toolbar with Flash downloads by default -- a practice many pointed out was quite similar to the way spyware was included with other apps. In fact, many seemed to feel it was sneaky and untrustworthy. Since then, Macromedia merged with Adobe, who apparently didn't have a problem with these types of deals, because they've now done a similar deal with Google for their toolbar to be included on Shockwave Player downloads. It's not clear if the Yahoo/Flash deal is replaced by this one, or if you just get competing toolbars based on which Adobe tool you download. Either way, bundling totally unrelated products as a default setting -- especially after the widespread controversy over Yahoo doing the same thing last year -- has to make some wonder how this fits into Google's "sliding scale" of evil.
Reader Comments
(Flattened / Threaded)
....Common Sense
Just unclick the box for the download of the toolbars.
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Shame on you Google
Shame on you Google! *shakes finger*
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Toolbars
I agree with common sense - it is an optional install.
Just like installing any IM appz - u can choose whether or not to use defualt settings (homepage, etc.)
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Toolbars
I agree with common sense - it is an optional install.
Just like installing any IM appz - u can choose whether or not to use defualt settings (homepage, etc.)
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Nooooooo google nooooooo! Come back to us! We loved you :'(
In my book, it makes both their products look unprofessional and sloppy.
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Agreed
I agree with common sense, if you arent smart enough to read through everything when installing something on your computer and to unclick so it doesn't install, dont blame macromedia or google.
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Google!!! What have you done?
Why do people bother with toolbars to begin with? They are annoying and get in the way.
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who cares
Google toolbar is very usfull, I dont mind a bit.
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Re: who cares
Who cares if it's useful? If I want useful software other than what I just downloaded from Macromedia, I'll bloody well download it seperately.
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Sadly
Sadly the average user lacks common sense. Know why spyware was bunlded in? Even if it did have an option to 'de-check' it, most didnt because they didnt know, didnt read or somesuch. I am a fan of google, but don't like this at all :/
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Ahem
Yahoo thingy is stuck in my Acrobat reader for years ...
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it's about money
There's abiout a dollar per toolbar install for you if you can get someone to agree. That's a lot of money if people are installing your acrobat software or flash player as a requirement to view media online.
Somebody outbid the other... and this is competitive space. Get used to it, there's nothing evil about it considering the convenience.
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Toolbars
Should we really be that surprised? They are all Tools.
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Flash and Yahoo
I had to install flash yesterday and they do in fact still bundle the 'Yahoo! toolbar' with it. I wish I took a screen shot because you have to uncheck this tiny box in the bottom left on the installer or suddenly you have Yahoo! spyware. Seems kind of sneaky to me.
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It's business & good for U
This deals that people complain about allow the google's and yahoo of the world to give all use cheap ass users free software to use. Granted advertising helps but gee whiz, we complain about that as well. It's not mandatory, it's no cost, pays for other free tools that I might enjoy. Win-win-win.
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re: Sadly
I agree, and as a support tech this kind of thing makes me clench my teeth. These bundled toolbars break any number of web based apps I then have to fix, and I know d*mn well 90+% of my users will never even think to uncheck an tiny optional "don't install" box.
"if you arent smart enough to read through everything when installing something on your computer"
You don't do tech support for a living, do you?
And we have links to both Yahoo and Google on $Company_Website.
/me weeps
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Even Sadder
Tech Support should create silent installations so that if they actually do allow a user to install something, it can be to the liking of the IT staff.
And SRNissen, if you were in fact advanced enough to download google toolbar on your own, a single click would not bother you on the installation of this file, seeing as that you probably also select "Custom" when going through your install to tweak it to your liking.
Google toolbar is a blessing to any non-advanced user who downloads it. Is it a sneaky tactic? Yes. But so is your credit card sending you a letter to sign up for a partner companies service, or a magazine including those slip cards for extra subscriptions to sister magazines.
Stop being so negative people, money happens.
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Alot of evil starts with the best of intentions....
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It is illegal to pre check a box for software the user never asked for. That`s why it is a backdoor, unauthrorized software install. A-la-spyware.
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