Google\Alexa Toolbar?

Hey All, Has anyone tried the Google\Alexa Toolbar? Its suppose to be a pop-up blocker as well as search engine. Just wondered if it was spyware?

Regards, Balrog

I think there is spyware in the Google\Alexa Toolbar
Alexa is spyware that I know for sure.

Yeah I knew about Alexa but I read a post that said its not the same Alexa, sounded fishy to me, thanks for info, I'll look around some more.

Regards, Balrog

http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum80/479.htm

That should clear some things up for you.

Link doesn't work for me Lanman, I get a log-in page and it tells me I need to be a member to view it.

Regards, Balrog

fyi: I use netscape now cause it has builtin ad/popup blocker

How long have you been using Netscape M101? I thought that had a lot of compatabilty issues with many web sites. I really don't know much about it however.

Regards, Balrog

Balrog said:

How long have you been using Netscape M101? I thought that had a lot of compatabilty issues with many web sites. I really don't know much about it however.

Regards, Balrog

Click to expand...

been using it since 7.1 came out, yeah sure there is the once in a while I have to use IE for a page that wont work, but thats less and less of a problem over tha last few months, all I can say is try it and see if you like it.

I didnt care for 7.0 or any of the 6.x versions.

Cool! Do I have to uninstall IE in order for Netscape to run properly?

Regards, Balrog

This should be posted in the internet area, not the shuttle motherboards section

from spywareinfo.com

Is The Google Toolbar Spyware?
From time to time, someone asks why the Google search bar is not targeted as spyware. It works similarly to other toolbars which are targeted as spyware (Comet Cursor, Search-Explorer, Alexa, etc) by Ad-aware, Spybot, Aluria, and other spyware removal tools. Jamie Rosen, founder of Cometsystems (Comet Cursor) had this to say about it while trying to make the case that Comet Cursor should no longer be targeted by Ad-aware:

Google has a feature in its toolbar called page rank that ranks pages as you visit them. Not surprisingly, it requires the software to send every url you visit to google. That sounds alarming. But so long as you can turn it off and so long as the company makes it clear that it's not saving this information to profile you, it isn't necessarily an insidious thing. Some users want these so-called connected services -- they can be quite cool and useful.

Let me explain what is different about the Google toolbar that keeps it from being targeted as spyware like many other third party toolbars. Google uses its page rank system to make its search engine more useful, as opposed to using it to gather information about you to sell you tailored advertisements. You are not a source of income to Google.com, except as a site visitor looking at the same ads everyone else sees, toolbar or no toolbar.

Google goes to great lengths to explain that, in their own words, there may be privacy issues with some of the features, and provides an alternate download where those features are disabled. You have to go out of your way to find and activate those features. Contrast this behavior to some other toolbar makers who use activex to spread like trojans, gather statistical data on the user to present them with "more relevent special offers", forcibly reset browser settings, and make it damned hard to remove.

Google does make money on it in a roundabout way, because these features make their search engine more accurate and useful, which makes more people likely to use it and click the ads they sell on the site. The ads, by the way, are determined by the keywords you search for, NOT where you've been surfing, unlike many of the other toolbars. You'd see the same ads with or without the toolbar installed.

So, is the Google toolbar spyware? No, it is not.

Thanks for the info Lanman I'll check it out, are you using it?

Regards, Balrog

I don't use the google toolbar, but i do have google as my home page