Yahoo! mends its way with its anti-spyware toolbar
Yahoo! was literally blasted when it released its beta version of its spyware detecting toolbar sometime back. Reason being it did not select the option to scan adware by default. Some critics labeled it as double standards from Yahoo! because of Yahoo’s involvement with some adware companies.
Yahoo! also released the final version of the toolbar with this update. The final version now treats adware the same as other nefarious software. The toolbar also in addition to act as a spyware detector, includes a box for conducting a Web Search through Yahoo, a pop-up window blocker and shortcuts to services such as Yahoo! Mail and Favorites.
By definition, spyware is typically defined as software downloaded without consent that tracks users’ behavior and keystrokes, while adware is often bundled with other software and delivers advertising through pop-up ads and other forms. But adware companies normally go beyond the advertisement delivery and hide malicious codes in them.
Browser toolbar market has become a field of interest of all the major players in the market in the recent times considering the traffic they can bring to the services offered by the company through the toolbar. Yahoo!, MSN and Google all compete head to head in providing these services.
Sushubh Mittal is the Tech Columnist at Search Engine Journal and also the publisher of Software Journal.
