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In 1977, Diane Keaton starred in a movie called Looking For Mr. Goodbar.
In the movie, described by one critic as "a not-too-subtle cautionary tale", Ms
Keaton comes to a bad end at the hands of stranger. This column is a
not-subtle-at-all cautionary tale about using "free" toolbars.
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The ISP giant AOL originated the idea of a time saving toolbar with the
invention of the keyword search. Type a keyword into the AOL search bar and
rather than having to wade through a morass of possibly useful websites, you
will be whisked instantly to a single, relevant site. The Google search engine
also supports this approach on their website with the "I'm feeling lucky"
button. This sure sounds like a good thing, given that not even the nerdiest
nerd has the time to check out every website that most searches discover.
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for big bucks. AOL customers aren't being directed to a website selected by
some complicated algorithm that took a thousand nerd-years to develop, they're
being sent to the highest bidder. Now you know how they can afford to give
away all those CDs. Visit
www.nomoreaolcds.com
to see just how many they give
away.
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Like most really profitable ideas, someone finally got around to stealing the
keyword. But they had a big problem. Who would want to buy keywords if no
one has a toolbar that finds them. The solution was deceptively simple. Get
people to download the toolbars. The creators of these copycat toolbars had
one wickedly original idea, the new toolbars gave them the perfect opportunity
to gather information about the browsing habits of their users. In plain
nerd-speak, these toolbars are spyware.
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Why would anyone consent to having such a useless toolbar added to their web
browser? Many promise what AOL has always promised, easier searches. Others
actually promise to pay a small amount of cash every time they are used. Some
have given up all pretence of usefulness and concentrate on tricking the unwary
user into installing them.
You can see copies of marketing offers from a company called NetDirectWords by
clicking:
NetDirectWords Letter to Potential Clients
NetDirectWords Letter to Investors
The letters are in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF)
If you need it, you can download
Acrobat Reader
from
Adobe
A tip of the hat to Sandra
Gies at the
Red Deer Lodge
in Madawaska for forwarding the letters.
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You can remove most toolbars, and other spyware with
Spybot Search and Destroy
or
Ad Aware.
Both are freeware, both detect and remove spyware. The
professional version of Ad Aware also blocks known spyware from getting on the
system in the first place.
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Barring all else, the best thing you can do is learn the lesson that Diane
Keaton's character seems to have missed: Just because someone is attractive and
makes a lot of great promises doesn't mean you should invite them into your
home, or onto your computer.
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