Paid Search Results Rife With Spyware
from the how-do-I-get-rid-of-this dept
Click fraud is a growing problem for paid-search providers, but they're also faced with growing consumer resentment over the number of listings that lead to malware. While companies like Google and Microsoft are vocal in their distaste for spyware, some people feel they're paying little more than lip service. The original article points out that Microsoft even went so far as to sue one alleged spyware maker over its business practices, but continued to return its advertisements on the MSN web site. It also reports that users in the Google Group for the anti-"badware" initiative it's supporting are raising questions about some of the contextual ads on the group's pages. Like advertisers suing Google for click fraud, critics allege the company has no motivation to stop the practice, since it profits from it. On their own, these issues may not be huge. But when they're taken into account alongside other bouts of bad publicity, they could become a tipping point for the likes of Google.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Some related work & examples
Some representative recent examples:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Some related work & examples
[ link to this | view in thread ]
A registration-free link to the InfoWorld article
[ link to this | view in thread ]
google
[ link to this | view in thread ]
No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: google
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Never have, never will.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Never have, never will.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Never have, never will.
If you want free reliable software with no spyware or ads in it, try Nonags http://www.ded.com/nonags/menu.html. I have used them for at least 8 years and never got any spyware or adware and I have downloaded hundreds of programs there.
[ link to this | view in thread ]