Google Bundles Toolbar With Adobe Apps 157
grammar fascist writes "Sci-Tech Today reports that Google is paying a 'significant amount' to bundle Google Toolbar with certain Adobe downloads. From the article: 'The initial venue for the Google mini-app will be downloads of the popular and free Shockwave multimedia player. The move is seen by some observers as an effort to outflank Microsoft, especially as Internet Explorer 7 nears its formal launch this summer [...] Interestingly, Google's search toolbar will be available only when Shockwave is downloaded for use with Internet Explorer on Windows.'"
Re:Google crazyness.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Google crazyness.. (Score:5, Interesting)
I use Google for searches and for unimportant email, but I know the company is not my friend, as they would like me to believe. But I won't use other Google software that has to much access to my computer without necessarily telling me everything it is doing. And I won't run IE except in very rare circumstance when Firefox or Opera can't load a page I really ned to get to. I suspect Google will sell-out a lot of security or usability for ad revenue.
of course targets only IE (Score:4, Interesting)
Of course it targets only IE. If somebody is smart enough to not use IE, then surely he is smart enough to not use msn search or any other crap. He might even conciously choose to not use google, but others!
as an example my search toolbar includes:
http://www.google.com/search?s [google.com]
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=s&meta=site3Dgr
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=s [google.com]
http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&c2
http://packages.debian.org/ [debian.org]
http://ask.com/ [ask.com]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?searc
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/search/index.cgi?q=s [wolfram.com]
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=s [m-w.com]
http://freshmeat.net/search?q=s [freshmeat.net]
Already happening, really (Score:4, Interesting)
web -1.0 (Score:4, Interesting)
Now we have a new kind of WWW applications. It's applications that use the web browser as their GUI platform and run in the web browser. Such applications are, advanced word processors, spreadsheets, e-mail readers and eventually the Browser In The Browser secret project google's been working on. These applications have NOTHING to do with the concept of the WEB.
It is "scripts" for the IE/Mozilla program, like java programs for the JVM, C# programs for
But for the users, the IE/Mozilla platform is the most insecure way to run their applications. Their application is constantly connected to the internet. Both browsers have numerous vunerabilities and new ones are discovered every day. The application downloads and "runs" new data, very often without the user knowing about it (through hidden javascript links and the flash player). The user cannot trace, debug or even study the AJAX code that runs on their IE/Mozilla platform. Through asynchronous javascript and flash, binary proprietary code runs on their PC with full priviledges. And to all these add that javascript is a terrible programming language and that the GUI in the browser was designed for forms and was never good for things like an interactive text shell. \paragraph
The result is that you get poor applications, that are slow, very insecure, do things without the user's control and it's a Mozilla/IE lockin.
That is Web -1.0
I'm holding my breath... (Score:3, Interesting)
Business necesity (Score:4, Interesting)
Is it (Score:5, Interesting)
We already have a *pretty* good free OS in the form of Linux, we already have *pretty* good apps for it. Why settle for Google or MSN Search or Yahoo search or whatever? I should think that a massively distributed OS search engine should do pretty well.
Forgive the semantics, focus on the idea.
Use a bit torrent style method of sharing bandwidth. Say one lonely PC can store 100mb of data, 15mb of which can be shared on the internet per day to save end-user costs x the number of Linux installs, prolly not a bad use for distributed computing and bandwidth sharing if I have ever heard of one.
Open Source Search Engine.
The time is now.
Re:Obnoxious (Score:3, Interesting)
I have to agree, this is a step too far as far as bundling goes- the Shockwave player is supposed to be as small a download as possible in order to lower the barrier to installation. Someone with a DSL connection may not mind the extra few seconds of download time, but someone with a shockwave download they're waiting on so they can use a site on their modem may get pissed off and not view the site at all.
Basically it adds to the payload of the plugin and makes it harder to use shockwave on your website.
Re:Correct me if i'm wrong... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Obnoxious (Score:3, Interesting)
Competition (Score:5, Interesting)
Hmmmm, This is either simply Google bidding the most for their tool bar to be bundled with some very widely used software, or the battle lines within the IT sector are getting a little more defined.
Personally I would prefer to be able to download and install an application that does whatever the job is I want doing; without installing any other "useful" application's - regardless of which "well selected" partner it comes from. However from a non technical perspective this may well become interesting.
Now to me it is starting to look as though Microsoft are feeling less in control of their ability to "lock" users to their software. This appears to be the reason for the plethora of new proprietary file formats that they can force into the main stream with Vista. It will be interesting to see if there is any fight against the formats or if the rest of the software industry will carry out its own embrace and extend exercise... After all this time round they are not providing "new" functionality but rather revamping existing standards and encroaching on other companies areas of expertise.
Google should add a decent dedicated document search feature that is purely an index of ODF, PDF, Rich/Plain Text etc.. and exclude XPS until it sees mainstream use at least, and offer links to - the original document - html version - adobe acrobat / open office. Im not certain if Adobe will or even should, but I would also like to see adobe and open office support the XPS standard for reading, if not necessarily for export.
Re:Is it (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Alternatives (Score:3, Interesting)
Does FoxIt have a search feature that'll go through entire folders and search those documents at the same time? I use this frequently...
Claim dial-up (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Standalone Installer (Score:2, Interesting)
as opposed to the download manager one.
*does a little test*
Aha! Javascript is the culprit.
If you enter adobe's site with javascript disabled enabled,
they give you access to the standalone installer.
I used NoScript in Firefox 1.5.
current link in case you cannot replicate this:
http://ardownload.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/win/
Since I already had this version installed I had to
uninstall acrobat reader to test whether or not it
is really standalone (without toolbar/extras).
After re-installing using this file (no dialog boxes
existed for toolbars/extras) I did not notice any
extras installed without permission.
In regards to the JavaScript issue in acrobat reader
itself: I renamed the directory as a test, and the
directory came back next run (empty).
Then I tried explicitly denying 'execute file/traverse folder'
permissions on the JavaScripts folder under the reader directory.
It can no longer access anything in there and it doesn't seem
to complain. I might simply be using the wrong pdf files, but
perhaps this will work for you.
Other software already doing this (Score:2, Interesting)
But wait! Lo and behold, Google Toolbar for Firefox was installed. And Google Desktop Search. Yeah, just start indexing my entire drive without asking, thanks! I should've known something was up with a download size of 14 megs.
And yes, I know about ffdshow and all those super-mega-happy "codec packs". I can never get them set up to just play the damn videos.
Downside(s) to Google Toolbar? (Score:2, Interesting)
I'm serious. I've been an avid user of Google since early 1999 or so, and Gmail since a few months after it came out. Like many technologists, I am somewhat of a Google evangelist.
What worries me is that Google records one's clickstream as one searchs and I can only presume that Google Toolbar could easily be modified to "phone home" about anything of interest to Google (or the NSA), particularly about what it finds on your local hard drives if you use Google Desktop.
From the Google Toolbar Features Page:
[....]
Auto Update
There's no need to check for new versions of Google Toolbar; updates are installed automatically, so you'll always have the latest and greatest version.
Your Privacy Google respects and protects our users' privacy. Periodically, the Google Toolbar's auto-update feature will contact our servers to see if you're running the most current version. In addition, Google may collect information about web pages that you view when you use advanced features such as PageRank, SpellCheck, AutoLink, and WordTranslator. However, these advanced features can be easily disabled or re-enabled at any time by selecting "Privacy Information" under "Help" in the Toolbar's "Google" menu. To learn more, please read the Toolbar privacy policy
From the Google Toolbar Privacy Statement:
Your copy of Google Toolbar includes a unique application number. When you install Google Toolbar, this number and a message indicating whether the installation succeeded are sent back to Google. Also, when Google Toolbar automatically checks to see if a new version is available, the current version number and the unique application number are sent to Google. The unique application number is required for Google Toolbar to work and cannot be disabled.
(emphasis added)
How likely is it that some "new version" that users casually allow to be installed might become increasingly snoopy?
Given that I already trust Google to handle my email, I might just be being paranoid. If that is the case, then my thought is, "It's a tough, thankless job, but somebody's gotta do it!"
I worry that the vast majority of people will cheerfully ignore invasions of their privacy and monitoring of their activities if you offer them something helpful, convenient, and very shiny.
Adobe assault (Score:2, Interesting)