Comments on: Yahoo Toolbar now bundled with Macromedia Flash Player

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 08:50:16 +0000

I’m going to close comments on this post now. All the information you need to remove the toolbar is in the comments above.

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 08:49:41 +0000

Shawn: Not sure where you got the Firefox version of that toolbar, but it won’t have been from the Adobe installer – it only includes the toolbar ‘offer’ if you’re using Internet Explorer.

By: shawn

shawn — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 03:48:20 +0000

Yep I installed MM, got the toolbar in firefox and I promptly went to add remove programs and removed it but as soon as I started firefox it realized that it had been removed, connected to yahoo and reinserted the toolbar and even using anti-spyware tools like Hijack-this to remove the BHO does not help, its like a very malicious spyware/malware and is only better than gator in that it is programmed better than gator but still stands as a gator type nuisance that cant be removed without reimage. I know this, next reimage, no yahoo, no macromedia, EVER! Or atleast until this is no longer an issue which might as well be forever because MM will prolly be long gone as a result of this technique. Sad really. Luckily there are so many alternatives in web programming that one is sure to rise and oust MM if they decide to continue with this strategy. This behavior wont be tolerated, ESPECIALLY by the knowledgable programming type aka the ones who can decide whether to use MM or some other solution. Dont offend the techs and programmers if you want to exist in todays IT world. Oh yeah, Yahoo sucks for allowing this as well. Of course who cares, why use yahoo anymore when there is google, hell, yahoo is nothing but an AOL portal for google anyway.

-s

By: TOM

TOM — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 03:26:43 +0000

Type your comment here.I didn’t ask for yahoo, don’t want it, how do I get it the hell off my toolbar?

By: deze

deze — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 12:31:46 +0000

I fuckin hate it. just a few days ago player8 was working fine an now it just fuck with me and my mind its good to know that there is web sites dedicated to solutions and what not. i thought it was jst me

By: nagu

nagu — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 08:52:18 +0000

Type your comment here.

By: Tim Shaw

Tim Shaw — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 14:58:51 +0000

The annoying thing for me is that one is given the option to opt out of Yahoo toolbar feature and then Flash stops downloading. Whose controlong who here…Is Congress involved?…just kidding on that…But it is frustrating…Can I download the “works” and then delete Yahoo?

By: Ray Yates

Ray Yates — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 15:20:03 +0000

Toolbars are becoming yet another plague in the cyber world. As implemented by Google and Yahoo, the toolbars are pretty benign and offer “some” limited extra functionality. However, they are really about branding. Like a sports team, if the other team gives away caps, others think they must give away caps. You the wearer, become a walking billboard.

Spy-ware companies have realized this and try to get their own toolbars integrated into your system offering rewards to affiliates who have no scruples using virus, trojans, and trickery to get installed. Some are notoriously hard to remove and provide no un-install feature (one company charges $29 for the removal program). It makes the entire class of software suspect. I spent days removing this stuff from my computer savvy wife�s system.

Most users JUST SAY NO to all add-on products and resent being duped. Toolbar luster has been tarnished; becoming classified in the mind space of users as mal-ware like spy-ware, spam, worms, trojans, and viruses. Many, many people are deciding to do without the free ball caps.

Macromedia enjoyed great reputation and product penetration by providing a secure product that works as advertised and does not back door users to get “other” products on their systems.

The questions Adobe must ask itself; how much cash is that reputation worth? How much tarnish can we take? It�s all about MIND-where. Where in the mind of users does Adobe want to sit?

Best wishes Adobe. Dump the toolbar.

P.S. The reason I found these postings is that I was disturbed by the message that a Flash Player update was available. I did not realize that the last update of Flash had installed and update checker. Exactly how many update checkers must be installed on ones system before a user decided to classify update checkers as mal-ware and a new class of product (the update checker removal tool) is born? I�ll save that rant for another time.

By: Firefox-Mozilla » Archive du blog » Google et Firefox, que c’est pass�?

Wed, 03 Jan 2007 00:20:53 +0000

[...] Google�s new age �bundling� is less threatening than Microsoft�s because changing operating systems is hard, while changing search engines is easy�so easy that every engine out there is desperately trying to stay in your face. And choosing an alternative to Microsoft�s bundled software used to be prohibitively complicated for the average person, not to mention time consuming�you had to go to a store and buy a boxed copy or spend the evening downloading it. Eventually everyone will be experienced enough to procure applications, and then word of mouth alone will bury the distribution advantages Google and Microsoft now enjoy. [...]

By: Brian Kiser

Brian Kiser — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 16:14:18 +0000

Is there an option to not install the Yahoo toolbar? That wouldn't be so bad, because then we could just not check it.

Otherwise, I consider it a "stealthware" installation and thus be very uncomfortable.