A new "minor" update to AIM 5.9 comes bundled with AOL's anti-spyware app, SpyZapper, and a full install of a new AOL browser. No, it isn't the Firefox-based AOL Browser, it's a new product based on Internet Explorer, brilliantly named AOL Explorer. From this BetaNews article:
AOL Explorer does not automatically replace the user's default browser, but can be invoked independently through the Start Menu and adopted as the primary Web browsing application. Users are not given a choice to opt out of an installation while installing AIM...
AOL's SpyZapper anti-spyware security software is also turned on by default in the beta release. After AIM is invoked, two instances of AOLHostService.exe will run to load AOL Explorer and some other peripherals, increasing AIM's footprint on system resources.
This is absolutely the most cynical, insulting marketing tactic since xXx: State of the Union was greenlighted (thanks, Sony!). Apparently adding a function like "tear-off tags" is enough to justify forcing yet another AOL-branded edition of IE into unsuspecting users' systems (how many PC's came straight from the factory with AOL-specific versions of IE5 in the last five or six years?). And once AOL Browser goes final, countless AOL and AIM users will suddenly find themselves with at least three different browsers -- AOL Explorer, AOL Browser, and IE6 -- that they did not intentionally install.
This is why browsers like Firefox and Opera are rightfully proud of their distribution numbers (maybe a bit too proud in Opera's case). This point has been hammered on before, but users had to consciously choose to go out and find, download, and install these browsers, and the same can be said for a number of other small-market-share alternative browsers like K-Meleon and Camino. If you make a quality product, people will find it.
No comments:
Post a Comment