Ask Jeeves Responds to Spyware Accusations
Earlier this week the Search Engine Journal published a piece about allegations by Ben Edelman that Ask Jeeves is pushing its toolbars on children and that Ask Jeeves owned toolbars and other browser add ons are using security holes to install themselves on unknowing users’ computers. Edelman explained that ““My new Ask Jeeves Toolbar Installs via Banner Ads at Kids Sites shows a misleading banner ad particularly likely to target kids. When users click on this banner, AJ neither shows nor references any license agreement. And AJ uses euphemisms like ‘accessible directly from your browser’ rather than explicitly admitting that it will install a web browser toolbar.”
Edelman also pointed out that “Over the past six months, I’ve captured a series of videos showing Ask Jeeves’ MyWay and MySearch software installed through security holes – without notice, disclosure, or consent.” In the piece Ask Jeeves toolbars were labeled as spyware or adware. Ask Jeeves mailed us this week to challenge the labeling of their toolbar software as such and Patrick Crisp, Director of Public Relations at Ask Jeeves stated the following.
“I wanted to send a quick note letting you know that we [Ask Jeeves] take industry best practices very seriously with respect to spyware, adware and consumer disclosure. Our products are not aware or spyware and do not collect any personal information, do not monitor the sites a user visits, do not monitor a user’s behavior on the Internet, do not log or track keystrokes, and do not serve or facilitate ads. And, major anti-spyware/anti-adware programs do not flag us, including those from Microsoft, AOL, Norton, McAfee, Symantec and a long list of others. In addition, Ask Jeeves does not allow nonconsensual installations of our applications and work diligently to prevent them.”
I’m expecting to speak with Ask’s SVP of Toolbar Products, John Park, this week on the matter and get his insight on why someone somewhere is using questionable techniques to place Ask Jeeves toolbars on users computers. Hopefully they will have a sound explanation and put a stop to it.
Ask Jeeves mouthpieces consistently deny their software is adware, spyware or contains any unwanted software. They deny their software hijacks Web searches. They adamantly suggest their products are not adware, spyware, malware and are not browser or search engine hijackers.
Ask Jeeves “FunWebProducts” the last time I checked, installed 13 applications when one installs any of its individual applications such as “PopSwatter” “SmileyCentral” “MyEmailStationery” etc. This is not FULLY DISCLOSED to the user. In fact it’s buried in one of their two EULAs/TOS.
I’d like to AskJeeves if they are Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, or the Tooth Fairy. They would like the public to believe their innocent and benign and totally altruistic. They’re spending hundreds of thousands of dollars (perhaps millions) on artwork and software programming (as poor as it is) and then spending millions on Internet advertising only to give away a product, that according to them, provides them with no revenue. After all they are not adware, or spyware, or malware, they don’t hijack one’s searches, they don’t hijack one’s start page..they don’t do anything but provide truly free software.
Just thinking logically, are we to believe that Ask Jeeves, a company that has revenues in the ten digit category has a genuine philanthropic side? I sincerely doubt Ask Jeeves does anything without the expectation of huge amounts of revenue. If the truth be known Ask Jeeves is making millions of dollars giving away software that – at the very least is adware and manipulates user’s search results to place advertisements in such a way as to look like genuine search results and only mimimally labeled as “paid advertisements”.
AskJeeves has criticized our criticisms of their false-advertising saying we’re “jealous” because we make a competing product “Smileycons”. The truth is Smileycons is not free and is not a competing product since it is not free. And Smileycons is only one of our products and accounts for only about 12% of our total revenue.
I’d like to ASK JEEVES for the truth. If they’re truly altruistic and philanthropic – then let me hear them say that their giving away “FunWebProducts” which requires the installation of “MyWebSearch” “MySearch” “MyTotalSearch” (or whatever their “Name Du Jour” is)as a service to the Internet community and do not make a single penny from these products. Or, if they do earn revenue from these products, exactly how much their earn and how they earn it. I am betting we’ll never get an answer to this question – or if we do it will be a well-spun answer, totally politically correct and only containing the slightest sliver of truth.
And, why don’t they totally diclose that by installing any of the FunWebProducts applications that the user will get 13 applications – all of which start with Windows and all of which use resources and all of which have the potential to cause resources problems on computers that are already overburdened with startup programs and running with mimimal RAM or resources to begin with.
AskJeeves “FunWebProducts” is not the altrustic suite of benign software products that AskJeeves claims. Many anti-spyware applications remove FunWebProducts or some of its components. The uninstaller provided with FunWebProducts does not completely remove all of the applications installed and does not remove many of the hundreds of entries it makes to the Windows registry.
One wonders why a company the size of AskJeeves and with the revenue of AskJeeves would continue offering a suite like “FunWebProducts”. It continues to tarnish their once-good reputation as a first-rate company; and pandering their software to children who obviously install it without full consent (can you imagine a 14 year old reading a thousand word-plus EULA?)puts them in very dangerous territory.
AskJeeves spends a lot time visiting various forums around the Web defending their products. A google search for “FunWebProducts+Spyware” yeilds thousands of results. And whether it is spyware or not the reputation that is is, is spreading.
Since, according to AskJeeves, FunWebProducts is completely free, contains no adware, spyware, unwanted software and does not hijack or manipulate home pages or search results – apparently it makes no revenue from FunWebProducts and therefore would cause no loss of revenue if AskJeeves, to save their reputation, stopped distributing it and stopped paying affiliates to distribute it. And, just think of the millions of dollars they could save if they stopped advertising it!
But, the truth is not something AskJeeves believes in. Their software might be free but it’s only free because they’re making millions from it by installing various software applications on computers own by trusting and unwitting users who really believe in Santa Claus and a free lunch.
Tell us how you make money from FunWebProucts. Tell us the truth.
TC
If it hijacks your browser, installs itself against your will, and is hard to get rid of, then it is adware/spywar/malware. If I didn’t personally install it or agree to install it then it is a violation of rights. They are cyber bullies. Does anyone know how to permanantly remove it from firefox?
I cant remember how many times Ive found that damn ask toolbar on my computer. I remove it and a few weeks later its back and I have to remove it again and I have no idea where it came from. Actually that last statement is not entirely true. I know that sometimes it comes in software. Sometimes I notice and choose not to install it. Sometimes I dont,thats my fault,sort of. Sometimes I tell it no,but it installs it anyway. Other times it just comes randomly from who knows where. In those cases I assume I must have gotten infected by a website using a security exploit. In any event,I dont want it,but I keep having to uninstall it. I find it on my freinds computers nad they dont even realize they were infected. In fact,many users dont even realize that their browser searches have been redirected to ask. The fact is,few people,if anyone at all actually WANT to use ask as their search engine. Most people want google. The only reason ask has any users at all is becuase of their browser hijacking campaign.
Likes so many un suspecting pepole this happend to me and i want it off
It managed to get on my computer without me knowingly installing it
It managed to get on my computer without me knowingly installing it