![]() ![]() A user familiar with Google would expect ads to have a distinctive background color and would know that ads typically stop after at most one screen … the user might well conclude that these are algorithmic listings rather than paid advertisements.” Furthermore, IAC's voluminous ads fill the entirety of the first screen of results for many searches. Unlike a Google search page, ads at IAC Mywebsearch lack “distinctive background color to help users distinguish ads from algorithmic results.If you use the toolbar’s search box, you’re sent to “an IAC Mywebsearch results page with advertisements and search results syndicated from Google listings that are intentionally less useful - focused primarily on IAC's business interest in encouraging the user to click extra advertisements.”.The Ask toolbar “takes over default search, address bar search, and error handling.” As Edelman notes, “That's an intrusive set of changes, and particularly undesirable in light of the poor quality of IAC's search results.”.In a new post, Edelman thoroughly analyzes the Ask toolbar and breaks down the deceptive behavior that the toolbar itself is associated with: A check of the Windows event logs shows that the installer completed its activity exactly 10 minutes after the Java installer finished, and the two Ask modules show up in the list of installed programs. The only indication that this installer is running is a brief flash of the mouse pointer. The Ask installer is still running, and after waiting 10 minutes, it drops two programs on the target system. ![]() You might conclude that you dodged a bullet and that the unwanted software wasn’t installed.īut you would be wrong. ![]() You might also check your browser settings to confirm that no changes have been made to your settings. When you do, you will see that only the Java update has been installed. If you are a sophisticated Windows user and you missed the initial checkbox, your natural instinct at this point would be to open Control Panel and check Programs and Features. In the background, the Ask toolbar installer continues to run, but it delays execution for 10 minutes. That dialog box is not telling the truth. I’ve spent the past weekend installing and updating Java on an assortment of physical and virtual test PCs to see exactly how the Java updater works. The Ask.com search page delivers inferior search results and uses misleading and possibly illegal techniques to deceive visitors into clicking paid ads instead of organic search results.These techniques include social engineering that appears to be aimed at both novices and experienced computer users, behavior that may well be illegal in some jurisdictions. IAC, which partners with Oracle to deliver the Ask toolbar, uses deceptive techniques to install its software.If you are busy or distracted or naïve enough to trust Java’s “recommendation,” you end up with unwanted software on your PC. With every Java update, you must specifically opt out of the additional software installations.The two additional packages delivered to users are the Ask Toolbar and McAfee Security Scanner. When you use Java’s automatic updater to install crucial security updates for Windows, third-party software is always included. ![]() The evidence against Oracle is overwhelming. In coordination with Ben Edelman, an expert on deceptive advertising, spyware and adware, I've been looking at how Oracle delivers Java to its customers and who it has chosen to partner with. And it earned that place with a combination of software update practices that are among the most user-hostile and cynical in the industry. ![]()
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