March 06, 2005

Why is the Yahoo! Toolbar offered by default?

This seems to be the biggest question out there. Just in case you haven't seen it yet, here are all the answers you all wanted. Straight from the MM FAQ:

MM FAQ on Yahoo! Toolbar

Whether they will do something about it is "to be determined by DL stats".

Thanks to the "opt-out" decision that was made, I've decided to post the link to the directions on how to uninstall the toolbar after your client has inadverdantly installed it. That info is here.

If you don't want your clients DL'ing it at all, don't send them to that page. Use the "automatic flash detection" script. Supposedly it gives you the developer all kinds of options to make the upgrade/download seemless.

It sucks that such a business decision was made, and I can GUARANTEE there are very very few people happy with this other than the people getting the coin for the advertising. But it looks like it's not going anywhere (if history is going to repeat itself), so I figure the best thing to do is be informed (whether it stays or not) and make sure to keep your clients up-to-date on what is going on and how they can avoid the issues that are sure to come up.

On a side note, I read on JD's blog that Kevin Lynch is going to post on why this is a "good decision for flash". I can't wait to see that post...

Not sure if this post itself is going to be good/new info to anybody out there, but I certainly it helps a few people out there.

By the way.. it's not "bundled software"... just so you know, you know..

Posted by Graeme at March 6, 2005 11:21 AM
　



Comments

The best term I've seen is "shovelware." I think that descibes it pretty well.

Thanks for the remove toolbar link, I'm sure I'll have to direct quite a few people there.

Posted by: darron at March 6, 2005 09:36 PM

Spot on darron! I've posted my own thoughts on the contents of the FAQ here.

Posted by: Steve Webster at March 6, 2005 09:54 PM

Thanks for the uninstall toolbar link. Maybe someone should design a button banner for this :)

MM is working on some 'alternate designs' for the page 'to reduce confusion'... I'm yet to lose hope for MM making the shovelware download 'opt-in'...

Best regards,
Burak

Posted by: Burak KALAYCI at March 6, 2005 11:53 PM

You could tell your users to turn off "Active Scripting" in IE (Try it and watch what happens: No Yahoo Option!)

Or, you can send them directly to the Flash-only install page:

http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/triggerpages_mmcom/flash.html

You could make a "Get Flash, Not Yahoo!" button for the link too! :D

Posted by: anonymous at March 7, 2005 12:55 AM