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By Steve Ragan Jan 17, 2007, 19:05 GMT
Is Yahoo hijacking browsers?
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Older Talkback
I think its difficult times for yahoo...kinda do or die situation. But putting mal-ware on people's computer is no option for a company like yahoo. Shame on them.
But recently google has been doing the same, pop-ups to change default page and software like irfanview trying to download google products.
Do the Yahoo servers have this software installed on them? Answer: No, it would slow down the servers speed of putting this garbage on your PC.
Who's next?
Apples Quicktime with auto iTunes installer? or How bout RealPlayer with it's annoying extras?
Point in case: You must watch the actual install program and look for the inclusion of extra software in the UEL agreement. As we all know, we dont read them, we just wanna use the stuff.
Yahoo is guilty of this, installed Yahoo Instant Messenger and it changed my homepage, erased many (website) favorites and installed features & additions (yahoo toolbar) originally deselected. Add security vulnerabilities introduced (known beforehand) and Yahoo's badly (flawed) redesigned homepage; no longer have any desire or reason to interact with Yahoo again.
why install any IM when you can go to www.meebo.com and login.. it's a browser IM... i love this product..
thanks
It seems that Yahoo is deliberately forcing you to upgrade and so create for them the opportunity to unload all the unasked for 'features'.
I only use their IM part, and am now paring down my contact list by switching them over to MSN.
I agree with other commentators that this smacks of the same tactics used by AOL and will likely result in the same decline in the number of users.
I wonder if the yahoos up at Yahoo read all the reponses posted here..;)
User choice need to be respected. That is why I havent updated Yahoo IM.
Yahoo's features have not worked correctly
No doubt that these 'bundling' techniques are the best way to loose customers. The worst offenders are not just Yahoo but include apple and the itunes and quicktime takeover. Customers hate it.....
I've stopped using Yahoo, because every time i use the site, i get these very anoying animated adverts that pop up on the screen when you may be reading or even about to click on a link when all of a sudden BANG this advert pops up on the screen. Yahoo you are one big pop up and every pop up manager should block Yahoo's site.
I use Yahoo as a home page on my Firefox browser but I don't get all the rest of the crap they are talking about. Maybe it's because I use Mandriva Linux 2007 (http://www.mandriva.com/) as an Operating System. Remember: Friends don't let friends use M$ Windoze!
One more company that uses shady practices to gain market share, oh well....
It goes to show you that this was not really an ethical decision, just financial. They figure that by doing this, they will gain a greater amount of customers (who don't really care) then they would lose...
i will make sure to tell people i know about this, and i'll even try to tell it to over my usual average of 10 people
Yes! Thank you for addressing this issue! Yahoo and Hotbar dumped a bunch of software and spyware on my computer one afternoon when I was simply trying to upgrade my flash player. Suddenly my email and browser moved at a snails pace, even though I have high speed internet. It took my entire afternoon and into the evening - valuable work time for me - to to learn how to eradicte the stuff without doing damage to my operating system, and get it removed. I figure the whole episode cost me several thousand dollars. I might just file a lawsuit just for the principle of it.
DON'T INVADE MY COMPUTER SYSTEM AND INTERFERE WITH MY ABILITY TO CONDUCT BUSINESS!
I work maintaining and repairing computers. The deceitful nature of some of the big names in IT is worrying. Not only do I have to worry about the criminals destroying my clients computers I now have to worry about keeping out a herd of Toolbars, Sidebars, ISP's 'browsers' and other 'fine print bandits' from supposedly legitimate companies.
I wont sing the praises of Windows because it has a host of security holes and crashes without assistance if it wants to. However the truth is: it works reliably and well IF you do not fill it up with unecessary software doing things in the background you did not ask them to.
There is nothing in Business that is free. Most free software is either paid for by Advertising or seeks to build a profile of your browsing habits to sell to an advertiser. The only exceptions are the 'loss leader' items: a software house gives you a free product so you will learn its Brand Name and buy its professional program instead of a current market leader in the future.
In short lean, mean and clean. DO NOT INSTALL any Toolbar, Screensaver, Messenger and your PC just might run faster, without crashing as often.
Remember: If it is free its probably worth what you paid for it!
Read one of googles privace policies. Yahoo won't seem so bad.
'Google Desktop may send information about the websites that you visit'
'Google will securely transmit copies of your indexed files to Google servers'
The information google is getting from its users will eventually let them, if they choose, to do some serious stuff.
Already I can type in someones phone number and get a map to their house along with an satellite picture.
Fear not your govt. Fear Google.
Scans your emails.
Knows your phone number.
Where you live.
Has a picture of your house.
Copies of the files you have on your computer.
Lists of the web sites you have been visiting.
What you have been searching for on the internet.
AOL just did this to me . It became my home page after checking out their deal and deciding to opt out. I can't get rid of it. I cannnot even get my favorite home page to trump AOL. I'm pissed
isn't the outrage about this about 5 years too late? Everyone has been doing this for years.
When you instal a google service they do the _exact same thing_! People have been hiding little self-interested tweaks in downloads since there have been downloads.
AOL is the worst offender when it comes to hijacking a computer. And yes. Yahoo! Messenger is full of unnecessary add-ons. Despite many disliking Microsoft, I use Live.com search.
yeah its true
some times when u install the yahoo messanger and select the option not to install the yahoo tool bar ........... it just get installed ...... its fucken stubid
plus sometimes I get my IE7 default is yahoo and I never did that
plus its messanger has become disgusting lately ....... it always hangs up and swallow alot of memory ......... if you have yahoo messanger and your PC get slow then check your memory you will find some time that yahoo messanger is taking 200-400 MB
I dont know what its fucken doing with all this memory
and by the way I always install the latest version of yahoo messanger in hope I will get rid of its problems ....... but no hope
Its so wierd why a muli-billion company fails to creat neat messanger that is so vital to its buisness
I hope one of them will read these notes
It reminds me of something that happened to me yesterday. I was installing Halo CE on my computer and it asked me if I wanted to install GameSpy Arcade. I unclicked the checkbox, but it installed anyway.
I hate Yahoo! it installed messenger as a drive-by download and it took AGES to remove it.
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