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Nice blog post on the parasitic software hosting sites bundling junkware

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mouser:
Why are cnet and then Softonic hits 1 and 2 on google for e.g. "smart defrag download", and for myriads of similar searches? Why doesn't google relegate such smock sites to page 3? What's the interest of google (or the nsa behind google???) in PUSHING such people?
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my assumption is all about money.  that these sites generate tons of revenue for google, by google ads, etc.  It's hard to imagine any innocent explanation.  Google has a deep vested interest (and a profound corrupt conflict of interest) in keeping sites that pay them very high in their rankings.  It seems to me tht google has come up with clever ways to try to obfuscate the ranking algorithms to make this kind of thing harder to prove, but the bottom line is that google is not going to gore their own ox by making changes in ranking that would significantly threaten their income flow.

sure they may make a change here or there that penalizes the worst abusers, and they do have an interest in keeping searchers happy by having good search results, but there is an absolutely fundamental conflict between their business model and what would most benefit their users and they have been pushing that line back in favor of profits for a while.

phitsc:
...

Before reading this very informative thread today, I hadn't known that in the U.S. (= by U.S. law), if I understand well, it's perfectly legal to do what both cnet and Softonic do, vàv the respective developers? (That it's legal vàv the dumb customer, is another story, and better understable since on that side, the buggering is on purpose, given the respective small print accepted.)

...
-peter.s (April 03, 2014, 07:19 PM)
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That's actually a good point peter. I hadn't though about that.

peter.s:
"and they have been pushing that line back in favor of profits for a while" - that is very, very true, and very unfortunate... well if MS had better developers, they could jump in with Bingo or they call it, but prob is, in its current state that's not an alternative, let alone "ask.com".

And yes, for a moment, I had forgotten that alternative form of advertizing on google, and there are indeed 3 of them, to my knowledge:

- ads to the right
- ads on top, but, as before, with proper indication
- "search" results preeminence, i.e. bought "search winners" positions, without telling the "customer", i.e. the pc user... who's well-advised to never forget it's not him the [user for] EDIT: customer in google's business model: his actions are the product! (I'm even a little bit ashamed to say this since ordinarily, I prefer to NOT repeat age-old knowledge. ;-) )

Just for the fun of it, have a look into bits TODAY, where "IObit Malware Fighter Pro 2" (cf. above) can be had for free... and read the comments there: Except for one frog's: devastating! They don't even want it for free, for once I'm not alone!!! ;-))))

bit:
Okay, so far I've got Softonic on my crapware list.
Who else should I add?
CNET?
Who else, plz?

And what's that one that shows a Sergeant icon? That seems okay, or what do you think.
Tnx!

skwire:
Who else should I add?-bit (April 04, 2014, 05:25 PM)
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Brothersoft (unless they've changed their ways since I last checked).

And what's that one that shows a Sergeant icon?-bit (April 04, 2014, 05:25 PM)
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MajorGeeks was clean last I knew.

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