Google has put up a sensible set of principles on how software, and the companies that put out software, should behave on the Internet. The problem is that the people who make this software don't care about their reputations, let alone the reputations of the industry. No, that is way to high-concept for these slim buckets.
This whole thing started, of course, when Limewire and Kazaa started bundling spyware with their wildly popular P2P software. These products would watch what you were looking at on the Internet and present you with ads (i.e you're on JetBlue they show you an ad for Southwest). They might set your home page to their portal, or they might hijack the default setting for when you type in a URL wrong.
Perhaps the biggest problem these things cause is not the unwanted ads. They are poorly written, are memory hogs and are highly un-installable. They eat up your computer's resources to the point at which Windows just stops working.
To solve the problem you have to just reinstall Windows every three months—that is what I do.
The market will correct this problem. Users are getting savvy and they are learning to not load P2P software. Limewire has such a horrible reputation that they just yesterday introduced a "spyware" free version of their software.
Over time—and this is highly unlikely—if Microsoft can't solve this problem people are just going to move to the Mac or Linux platforms. I know just yesterday I installed a Lindows machines next to my new rocketship from ABSComputing.com. I'm thinking about using that machine for blogging and email just to avoid all the problems with Windows.
Thanks for the concept Google, and it's not bad—it's noble in fact. However this is one problem even Google can't solve except by being the finest example of how a company should behave on the planet. You are doing a great job at that.
Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer please take note: two kids who were nobody a decade ago are now the shinning example of leadership in your industry. They are not only trying to run their business, but they are trying to help you fix your business.
I think the torch was just passed.
1. How is spyware in peer-to-peer applications Microsoft's problem?! They didn't write the software - 3rd party developers did. You think switching to Linux or Mac will solve the problem? No, it will just avoid the problem. You're effectively saying by switching to a less-popular platform, you will avoid installing the applications that promote spyware. There's another solution. Keep Windows and DON'T INSTALL APPLICATIONS THAT HAVE SPYWARE.
You also note "Over time—and this is highly unlikely—if Microsoft can’t solve this problem people are just going to move to the Mac or Linux platforms." Okay, let's run with your example. Let's say the majority of users switch to Mac or Linux. Wouldn't it stand to reason that 3rd party developers would also switch to Mac or Linux? They'd start writing applications for the now-popular Mac / Linux, and they'd put spyware in it, just like they put in Windows applications today.
There are some incredibly valid arguments for using Linux or Macintosh over a Windows platform. Dodging spyware isn't one of them.
Posted at 4:22AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Jeff