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(Although some of them were rather silly, a cached programs popup? Like I need more popups on my toolbar. If users are smart enough to know how much page file Vista is using, they're smart enough to know why).

As a systems admin, what I'd really like in addition to the modular OS is a much advanced installer. I would like a full set of options on what to install and what not to install. (Lets go ahead an uncheck WMP DRM, Alexa, Windows Messenger, and a whole other host of unnecessary crap). Maybe even a "quick minimal" installation of only the required components to get Windows to run. You'll notice even Vista runs fairly nicely once add SP1 and chop it up with a tool like vLite.

given that this means DC and google will merge their databases and hence link your DC ID/cookie/tracking history to your google ID (including gmail, g checkout, g analytics), might be a good time to clear your google cookie and start anew. If it's not too late already.

I wouldn't say never, there is the issue of the Alexa registry key:

http://www.imilly.com/alexa.htm

Interesting stuff, even if it's not initially active...

http://www.archive.org/about/faqs.php

Alexa Internet has been crawling the web since 1996, which has resulted in a massive archive
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexa_Internet

Alexa Internet is a California-based subsidiary company of Amazon.com, that is best known for operating a website (www.alexa.com) that provides information on the web traffic to other websites. Alexa collects information from users who have installed an Alexa Toolbar, allowing them to provide statistics on web site traffic, as well as lists of related links.

http://www.imilly.com/alexa.htm
Is Alexa spyware?
Well, no ... probably not. At least not if you haven't deliberately installed some of their software.

But Lavasoft's Ad-Aware identifies a standard registry key included with Internet Explorer as "Data Miner" spyware, with little or no further explanation, and offers to delete it. I hope this page offers a better explanation, and other alternatives to deletion. Spybot identifies it too, with more explanation, and they have a smarter strategy to deal with it (more below).
The issue is the 'Related Links' feature of IE (pre-XP SP2) which appears as the 'Tools'/'Show Related Links' menu item (and a corresponding toolbar button if you added it from the 'Customize...' link on the toolbar). If you use that feature, IE will contact the Alexa servers, via MSN, to obtain information about other web pages which seem to be related, open an Explorer Bar, and display those (plus adverts and whatnot). Go check the Alexa web site to see if you think that is a good idea (and, just to be clear, I think it's a very sucky idea), or just to double-check that you haven't deliberately or unintentionally or absent-mindedly installed some of their software.

Essentially it a two edged sword.
you have the positive in the internet archive which is kind of a byproduct from alexas data mining activitys

It didnt have to be created at all but Alexas authors figured we wouldnt mind if they tracked our visits to different sites if they gave something useful back (The Internet Archive). ..

I remember doing a spyware search and removing Alexa since it was deemed spyware.

You can read this page to figure out how to configure it, or if you can just remove it altogether which was much easier to do.

As per the article, there are restrictions on how many lines of text you can see in a single search, as well as how much (20%) of the book you can achieve by multiple searches. Presumably, the latter is being checked by the Google cookie. I too am curious as to how it will bear out. I'm sure that some dedicated person (possibly under **AA pay) will figure out a way to game the system and it will be declared illegal.

why zero out the google cookie? http://www.imilly.com/google-cookie.htm

You are still in control.

Turn off cookies, or something of the likes.

If you don't trust them, don't use GMail.

It looks like this is only a potential problem and has been corrected/removed from Windows XP SP2. I did a quick search on Alexa and found this site that explains it in quite nice detail. http://www.imilly.com/alexa.htm

Time to clean up your cookies between searching and using other Google services...

http://www.imilly.com/google-cookie.htm

Using this "your Google GUID will be reset to all zeroes, making you effectively anonymous to Google - all the while automatically keeping your saved preferences (such as language, filtering, number of results, etc)."

Time to clean up your cookies between searching and using other Google services...

http://www.imilly.com/google-cookie.htm

Using this "your Google GUID will be reset to all zeroes, making you effectively anonymous to Google - all the while automatically keeping your saved preferences (such as language, filtering, number of results, etc)."

Time to clean up your cookies between searching and using other Google services...

http://www.imilly.com/google-cookie.htm

Using this "your Google GUID will be reset to all zeroes, making you effectively anonymous to Google - all the while automatically keeping your saved preferences (such as language, filtering, number of results, etc)."

Time to clean up your cookies between searching and using other Google services...

http://www.imilly.com/google-cookie.htm

Using this "your Google GUID will be reset to all zeroes, making you effectively anonymous to Google - all the while automatically keeping your saved preferences (such as language, filtering, number of results, etc)."

Instead of flushing my cookie all the time, I've been using GoogleAnon

Internet Explorer and thus Windows comes with spyware out of the box. It's kind of a stretch, but I still think Alexa counts.

A CSS file can be used in Firefox to block Google's ads.

The same user style sheet can be used in any browser that supports CSS2 and CSS3 selectors and supports user style sheets. IE has better UI for user style sheets than Firefox, but it does not support the selectors (IIRC).

Google approves if you do this. After all, their toolbar blocks pop-ups.

That's a huge leap. Pop-ups demand users' attention, force users to respond, remain if you close the window that created them, and can disguise their origin using the "pop-under" technique. Animated banner ads, which Google's toolbar does not block, only do one of those things (demand users' attention). Google's text ads don't do any of those things.

If you don't want to block Google's cookie because you use Gmail or other services that require it, you can turn that 2038 cookie into a session cookie.

A better way to prevent Google from using its cookies to track you is to change the ID part of the cookie to a string of zeros. That lets you keep your Google preferences, such as the number of results per page.

So in a sense it's harmless; it's just a built-in web search. But it's generally considered to be spyware because of Alexa's reputation.

It probably got installed when you did the Internet Explorer update. I think you get it out-of-the-box when you install XP.

More information here: http://www.imilly.com/alexa.htm

Though I do agree, spyware should be illegal, most of the spyware is mentioned in the EULA. Check out: Is kazaa spyware?
where they quote the EULA agreement stating:
We may add, delete or change some or all of the Software's functionality provided in connection with KaZaA at any time. This may include download of necessary software modules. Any new features that augment or enhance
Like the web page suggests, thats "pretty open-ended."
Fact is, most people (>99% imho) DONT read the EULA!

Yeah, that seems logical... but remember, there's the tracking cookie. That could make statistics a lot more reliable for those who maintain their cookies. Linux users (and maybe Mac too) have a greater proportion of geeks and others aware of security and privacy concerns, agree? And here lies the people who may have anonymized their cookies or even blocked cookies. These people will be counted more than once, unlike those who keep their cookies. So there, I just showed how the opposite scenario could happen.

The Google cookie stores your preferences and your ID separately. If you modify your cookie by changing your ID to a string of all 0's, your preferences continue working.

When Google was testing its new look a few months ago, it used the ID to allow a small percent of visitors to see the new look. I don't know what else Google uses the ID for.

No, but you can anonymize your cookie to prevent them from tracking you in the future. Anonymizing your cookie using that bookmarklet doesn't screw up your basic preferences (language, number of results per page, etc) since those are stored separately from the ID in the cookie.

It says that if you are running Windows then you should probabably check your hosts file for an entry that redirects Google to another IP. If said file does contain such an entry then it *also* says you need to patch your system because you've been trojaned.

I'm hearing this 'virus' placed entries in the windows hosts file so that Google points to something else.
For XP the host file can be found here:
\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts
for 2000 and NT:
\Winnt\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts
and for the other Windows systems:
\Windows\hosts

Check out the entries in the hosts file and make sure there's nothing strange in it

Google is not dead.

It's a result of a malicious program "Trojan.Qhosts", which exploits a bug in internet explorer to get access to your pc. Then it alters your hosts file to stop your pc from accessing google.com.

Search google for that "Trojan.Qhosts". Ow, you can't. Okay, then try this link

"About 3rd Party Applications Two applications are integrated inside the KMD. Cydoor provide the advertising technology in the bottom left hand corner of the KMD. Brilliant Digital make the engine for the incredible 3d ads you will start to see."