Is Yahoo Employing Dirty Tricks In The Search Wars?
from the bait-and-switch dept
As the search engine wars have heated up, the browser's search box has become some valuable real estate. Last spring, Google threatened Microsoft with anti-trust complaints due to Microsoft's making its own search engine the default of IE7's search box. And of course, Google has sewn up deals with Firefox and Opera to be the default on those browsers. The battle over the search boxes appears to have hit a low, as there are claims that Yahoo is surreptitiously changing the default search engine to its own, in IE7, when users download an update to their Yahoo IM software. According to the people making the claim, Yahoo lets users check an "auto update" box, which then makes several changes to a user's defaults. It's not clear yet whether this was an isolated incident, or whether Yahoo has some sort of legitimate explanation, but if it has no defense, then it's a pretty bad and invasive tactic for a company of its stature to be using.
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It's true.
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The good old days....
Now, everything you download appears to be "bundled" with a bunch of ads masquerading as actual applications. I think it's time to start thinning out the development company herds a bit.
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One word ...
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meta search is better search
Use this instead:
http://clusty.com/
It seems kosher enough to me. It's a couple of hundered milliseconds slower on results but it actually spiders all the other search engines and is therefore technically superior to Google or Yahoo alone.
That said, the default search bar engine is hardly something that is cast in stone. It's a simple matter for any user to set this in obvious preferences option. To say Firefox (IceWeasel please :) has a default is a little misleading too. Depending on where you download your copy from you have many choices of rpm, apt or other packages that offer no default, or a latching (the one you choose stays) list of many choices.
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Re: The good old days....
Now is the new good old days :) Whenever I want a new piece of software Tyshaun I just type:
apt-get install newsoftware
Done. Then I click the new icon on my desktop or applications manager. It's that simple. No bundled spyware or aps I didn't ask for. That's the system I've been using for the last 7 years.
You're probably using some obsolete operating system and need to update that's all. ;)
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Re: Re: The good old days....
*looks for the "yes, I agree" box*
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Re: The good old days....
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Re: Re: Re: The good old days....
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Re: Adobe Reader
Instead, try Foxit, a free PDF reader from Foxitsoftware.com. You can even install the Foxit PDF creator for free, but it will imprint an "evaluation" message on documents. But, it also installs a PDF printer driver which allows you to save web pages or any document as a PDF. Very cool.
Disclosure: I do NOT work for Foxit, nor does my brother, mother, sister, father, wife, mistress or anyone else I know. I'm just a satisified user.
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Booble & Java Bungware...
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There's a deeper problem here
that just about every credible (that is: not funded by Microsoft)
security researcher out there has spent the last several years
shouting "DO NOT USE IE" from the rooftop.
IE is not a web browser any more than Outlook is a mail client.
Both are malware download-and-installation engines that seem
to accidentally have had a few add-ons of marginal use thrown
in to get people to run them. Just perusing the archives of
bugtraq or full-disclosure or others lists reveals an ongoing
parade of security holes in them -- many of which are (a) remotely
exploitable and (b) pathways to total system compromise.
Yes, other browsers and other mail clients have their issues,
but none of them come even remotely close to having a record
like THIS. It's hideous. (And how appalling is it that the
richest, most powerful software company on the planet can't
even write a friggin' *mail client* that's safe to use? Sheesh.)
[ This is why, by the way, I tell people that there is -- to a very
good first approximation -- no such thing as an "email virus".
There are (nearly) only "Outlook viruses", because other mail
clients are usually not insane enough to repurpose message
content as executable code. ]
I strongly discourage friends/clients/colleagues from using any
M$ products, but I tell them that if they're stuck doing so, then
the single best thing that they can do to protect themselves --
before worrying about things like firewalls and AV software --
is to dump IE and Outlook. Those two steps remove two of
the primary infection vectors, at which point it's actually worth
putting effort into other measures.
So...if someone does some nasty via IE, nobody should be in the
least bit surprised. It's not remarkable: it's normal.
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The future
Sound's crappy, isn't it but I am sure there are dozens of geeks working on such stuff to make your life easy or hell, depends on how you see it.
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Back to the point of bundled software and dirty tricks.
Forget Adobe, use CutePDF for creating PDF files. They have a free version that does not watermark the result.
I don't need another Toolbar in my Browser! Every app out there that wants to keep me as a loyal customer had better stop trying to bundle something else. I am already making a list of what programs do this, and am looking for alternatives to every one of them.
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Yahoo Search Engine
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virus
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It produces PDFs with searchable text and small file sizes.
It installs fast with no unpleasant surprises.
They also have CutePDF Professional (not free) and many other useful products, all reasonably priced, and useful.
btw, I'm just a user, not their employee. :))
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A company of its stature?
I have never thought highly of Yahoo!, and tactics like this don't suprise me in the slightest bit.
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Dirty Tricks 9.0
YAHOO SUCKS.
Wasn't anyone paying attention when Yahoo joined forces with AOL to support Goodmail Systems' "Certified Email"??????
Goodmail's angle: http://www.goodmailsystems.com/senders/
EFF's angle: http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004398.php
Again, for anyone not inclined to visit the links, here's the executive summary:
YAHOO SUCKS.
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