ASK

Read the journey…
Bundle Ask Toolbar and have an early retirement?
The Scoop
Sometimes, I hate the internet…
…but most of the time it rocks
A rock and a hard place

Mike Nash wrote:

Unfortunately, adding that bar would mean that our users would hate us. Vocally. Is it rational hatred? Who cares. Hate is hate, and Vocal is Vocal. We’d already noted one of the smaller players get slammed for their search bar antics.

In all of our discussions and observations, some key points kept getting repeated:

* Users do not expect a security tool to install unneeded items, even if that security tool is free.
* Default opt-in is the only way people will install due to inattention, accident or trickery of wording.
* Default opt-in is wrong.
* Users place a lot of trust in security vendors. They are trusted to do the right thing. Do not abuse that trust.
* Is it ethical to ask your users to install a product you would not install and use yourself?

Out of all of them, the last one got to me the most. I installed the bar and had a look. If this was on my computer, I would remove it.

http://onlinearmorpersonalfirewall.blogspot.com/2009/05/ask-toolbar-in-online-armor-free-nearly.html

http://certifiedbug.com/blog/tag/ask/

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