Is Yahoo Actively Supporting Adware?

conq writes "According to BusinessWeek, a report said Yahoo was actively supporting the companies that spawn pop-up ads. In early September, Yahoo engineer Jeremy D. Zawodny sounded off on his blog: "Do I like those [software installation] practices? Hell no. It's insulting and disrespectful."" update the story submission takes Jeremy out of context which he blogs about and says mean things about us.

Comments

Yahoo has been like this for some time

[It doesn't come easy]

Yahoo has been doing something like this for quite some time. Many years ago, Yahoo was the place to go to find the best price on products you could purchase over the net. However, they evolved into a search that only showed the prices from businesses that had a relationship with Yahoo. Mind you, they still claimed to find the best price on the web but in truth they only included companies with an arrangement with Yahoo (and those companies rarely had the lowest price) It may be business, but it's not trustworthy. So for me Yahoo lost my trust years ago. Now they are just one source for information and no more trustworthy than the next source.

Jeremys post in question..

[grazzy]

http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/005121.htm l

More evil?

[BoldAC]

Yahoo in the past has bundled their toolbar with flash and other products. They charge to get inclusion into their infamous directory. Now, they are becoming more linked with spyware?

Yahoo is doing other evil stuff as well:

By accepting Yahoo's "typical" installation of YIM with Voice, it will also download Yahoo's Search Toolbar with anti-spyware and anti-pop-up software, desktop and system tray shortcuts, as well as Yahoo Extras, which will insert Yahoo links into the Internet Explorer browser. The IM client also contains "live words," which will automatically show an icon when the user highlights words online and then hyperlink to Yahoo search results, definitions or translation tools. Finally, the installation will alter the users' home page and auto-search functions to point to Yahoo by default.

To avoid these changes, users must actively choose the "custom" installation and uncheck five boxes.

Evil is yahoo becoming?

Re:More evil?

[Prophet of Nixon]

Er, this is new? I've found Yahoo to be blatantly evil since the late 90s, and I go out of my way to never visit their site. They've done nothing but hemorrhage ads, spam, and crap over the net since they began (and they've spewed plenty of ads into other media as well). I've never understood how a company that does nothing but promote misery stays afloat, much less profits.

It's True!

[tgbrittai]

Yeah, I installed the Yahoo! Toolbar the other day and ended up with the Adobe Reader on my computer.

What the?!?!?

Trust Yahoo?

[Red Flayer]

"Yahoo Chief Operating Officer Daniel L. Rosensweig insists the company has the highest standards. "Users can put their trust in us because that is what we're built on," he says."

What Rosenzweig fails to mention is that Yahoo, like most companies, will take advantage of that trust to the furthest extent they can get away with.

Trust us because we say our foundation is trust? I don't think so.

How about "Trust us because we take steps to prevent adware, not support it."

Or, "Trust us because we will never piggyback software and settings changes onto downloads from us that you choose to install."

Or, "Trust us because it's not in our financial interest to do bad things to you."

Unfortunately, none of these three possibilities are true... and until they are, I will not trust Yahoo farther than I can throw them.

Here is the real issue...LEGALLY, what is Spyware?

[PenguinBoyDave]

I work for a company that produces an Anti-Spyware product that got bitch-slapped in court some time back by Gator for calling Gator Spyware. Now...WE all know what Spyware is. They know what Spyware is, but (and please, correct me if I'm wrong, because I might be) until a court of law legally defines Spyware, it seems to me that YAHOO and everyone else can load your machine up without an ounce of legal liability.

Can I trust Yahoo? I think not.

[Futurepower(R)]

Over the years, I have learned to have zero (0) trust in Yahoo.

From the Business Week article:

"Sure, no one issue will turn off Yahoo users in droves." One issue will definitely convince a large percentage of people never to visit Yahoo.

Another quote:

"... Yahoo risks tarnishing its reputation as a trustworthy Net player." Notice that doing an internet search is called "Googling". For knowledgeable people, Yahoo has a bad reputation. For others, Yahoo has no reputation at all.

Business writers write a lot of DISGUSTING nonsense about computer technology:

"To Yahoo's credit, it is leading industrywide discussions aimed at devising new practices for the adware companies." Here's another quote: "Yahoo also insists it does business only with adware companies that adhere to best practices..."

It seems to me that Yahoo cannot compete, so it is trying every trick to stay alive.

Not real news: AOL and Yahoo and MSN will merge. The combined company will be called CyberHell.

Yahoo's Reputation

[rlp]

Yahoo risks tarnishing their reputation by turning over e-mail accounts of dissidents to the mainland Chinese government. Compared to that, adware is nothing.

Re:Yahoo's Reputation

[clifyt]

As much as I hate it, they do have to follow the law of the land.

If the US government had asked them to turn over email for accounts that originated in the US and were maintained on US servers, and the courts agreed with this decision -- they'd turn it over too...just the same way you'd roll if the gov't and the court system told you to do something.

What? You think that just because they are a US company that they don't need to follow the laws in countries they do business?

Again, I don't agree with it either...but so long as they maintain a physical business presence there, they need to follow the law like anyone else.

Actvely?

[ave19]

Are the editors actively supporting spell checkers?

I'm joking!

Re:What popups

[sqlrob]

• You can use adblock to block swf's from Yahoo,
• You cn use the extension that you have to click to get the flash.
• You can use the underdocumented config setting to turn off popups from flash.

There's no good reason to put up with those popups.

How Yahoo Funds Spyware

[bedelman]

For those who are interested, see my article that (I think it's safe to say) sparked a portion of the Business Week piece:

How Yahoo Funds Spyware

I post screenshots and packet logs showing how Yahoo ads get syndicated into notorious spyware -- Direct Revenue, eXact Advertising, 180solutions, and some smaller players too (SideFind, Slotchbar, etc.).