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Norton's Safe Search/Ask toolbar
What to make of this?
"I’ve seen the negative feedback here in the forum regarding Norton Safe Search, and have been carefully listening over the last couple weeks, and working with my team on the best course of action.
While we believe Safe Search is a valuable feature, many of you were surprised by the addition of the search box to the Norton toolbar, and expressed concern over not being given the choice of whether or not to install it.
Given your response, we’ve taken immediate action. Moving forward, Norton Internet Security and Norton 360 will now ship with the search box disabled by default. Norton Safe Web site ratings will still be available to users. We are starting this process immediately and will be rolling out updates over the next few weeks."
- http://community.norton.com/norton/board/message?board.id=nis_feedback&thread.id=40814&jump=true
Response from Donna at CoU:
"Safe Search is the new one from Symantec after they partner with Ask.com. It's similar to what Comodo, ZoneLabs and Stopzilla have done where they promote Safe Search, SafeSurf etc only to mislead users that it is added as protection but it was added to give way to Ask.com which they (the vendors) earn money per inclusion of Ask.com (in a toolbar format) in their installer."
- http://www.calendarofupdates.com/updates/index.php?showtopic=17621&view=findpost&p=76552
Comment: Looks like Norton finally recognizes they have egg on their face.
Reference: http://securitygarden.blogspot.com/2009/03/recommendation-replace-norton.html
beversoll
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March 19th, 2009 10:00
This whole situation is just sad. It seemed that the new Norton products were getting good marks at some independent testing, then they go and put adware with their improved security product. It just goes to show that the almighty dollar is the driving force behind malware practices. Even some security vendors are willing to bundle adware (which in my opinion is in complete contrast to what they stand for) into their products to earn a little extra cash. Let's hope this doesn't become the norm.
ddd1ddd
126 Posts
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March 19th, 2009 10:00
Norton has over 60% of the PC anti-virus market. Why? Because they are a great marketer, having their products pre-installed on many systems (trial); and available in every retailer that sells technology.
EDIT: Avast and Anti-Vir are both excellent and are offered in free editions.
joe53
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March 19th, 2009 14:00
If you want an excellent summary of what Symantec has done to Norton, see this letter from one disgruntled user, copied at CoU from the Norton support forum. It really says it all:
http://www.calendarofupdates.com/updates/index.php?showtopic=17621&view=findpost&p=76593
ddd1ddd: Regulars hereabouts, including myself, have been recommending the free versions of avast! and AntiVir for years. Nice to hear you agree.
I would hope that Dell will recognize that NAV is no longer worthy of being pre-installed on their operating systems. Faint hope, perhaps. Big bucks talk.
xcator
887 Posts
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March 21st, 2009 11:00
"NAV is no longer worthy..."? Others may not see it the same as you or define "worthy" the same as you. I am not here to defend Symantec bundling ask.com search in their products. In my opinion it should be a user choice whether to install or not. To be accurate NAV does not have Norton Safe Search, it's a feature of 360 3.0 and NIS 2009 suites.
The fact that it is now turned off at install with NIS 2009 does not satisfy some people who want it completely removed. I suspect that Symantec and Dell will provide what users want if it fits their business models. Dollars do talk. Bottom line, is there a suite that overall performs better than NIS 2009? I judge by performance. As long as NIS or any other product performs, is tweakable and unwanted feaures can be turned off (such as Safe Search with NIS, for example) then go for it.
joe53
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March 21st, 2009 21:00
xcator:
Thanks for the clarification.
I don't use Symantec products, and had wrongly assumed Ask was being pushed on all Symantec products. Nonetheless, I judge a vendor by the company it keeps. IMHO, what Symantec did was disgraceful, regardless of which products were affected. And I stand by my opinion that Dell should distance itself from such a vendor. (Not that Dell is likely to care what I think).
I too judge by performance. And (the Ask issue aside) even though I was impressed by advances in performance in recent versions of NIS, I would still not rate it among the best available. I have yet to see objective testing of NAV (or any other Symantec product) that would lead me to recommend it.