| Spyware and Search Engines |
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| Friday, 05 January 2007 | |
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One dilemma I regularly face is answering the question about which anti-spyware or anti-virus solution I use. This is one area where I think what works for me, may not work for you. In fact, I don’t run the same combination on any of my computers. My reluctance to answer may be creating a bigger problem because of the trust we place in names and search engines.
When people have asked me my recommendations, I’ve declined to say “get product x”. I know from experience product x may work well on one computer and fail on another. This week, I read a post in Dozleng.com that got me thinking about my behavior. By not giving specifics, people may seek it from search engines. I think search engines are great, but they may not be the best solution in this case. As Donna Buenaventura states in her post, “There are companies that exploit the name or domain name of a popular tool or application.” While I’ve not seen any phishing incidents with security programs, there are companies who like to capitalize on similarly sounding products. Sometimes this is just enough for a user to think they have the correct product. Part of the problem is search engines can’t make product evaluations. That’s not their job. They do a great job of indexing material and making it searchable. They may have some variables in their algorithms that filter out some of the egregious players based on trust factors. The bottom line is you need to do some supplemental research. Supplemental ResourcesI think there are two good resources to steer you away from these undesirable vendors. SiteAdvisor toolbar and web site – Since we first wrote about this company, McAfee purchased them. They’ve kept a free version and you can still use the site at http://www.siteadvisor.com/. The service isn’t perfect as there are some sites they flag. Ironically, some of these people are ones who test security products. Overall, I still give them high marks. Spyware Warrior List – This site is done by Eric Howes. His name may ring a bell as we linked to one of his test pages in our Site We Like section some time back. Since then, Eric has joined Sunbelt Software as the Director of Malware Research. This page is a wonderful resource for anyone who wants to stay clear of dubious spyware apps. It lists hundreds of bad programs, but also has content about how these companies advertise with the search engines. In addition, for those people that want to cut to the chase, he even offers a section called Trustworthy AntiSpyware products. Now, what more could you ask for? Related Article |
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| Last Updated ( Friday, 05 January 2007 ) |
