What Could Make Me Feel Sorry for IAC

After observing how our society behaved online for over 30 years I often share a simple bit of advice. Before you post ask yourself, “What good will come from this?”. Former IAC PR executive Justine Sacco didn’t know about my advise before sending her last tweet on her way to South Africa.

What made this particular remark exceptional was that Ms. Sacco was soon in the air on a 12 hour flight with no Wi-Fi access. Her tweet generated a social network atomic bomb. She had no way of knowing the firestorm she had created and had no way do to damage control.

By the time Justine landed in the country of her birth, her employer had disavowed her comment and removed her from their website.

This was IAC’s Media Kit web page before Ms. Sacco left on her flight. Before landing IAC had already updated their PR contact info.(see on right)

Photos taken at the South African airport show her on a cell phone. The offending tweet was soon removed and her account was deleted.

I’m no friend of the company IAC even though they once offered to make me a millionaire. For a while I started to feel bad for IAC. I soon recalled all the Email from frustrated customers wanting help removing the invasive Ask.com toolbars. As of today, a total of 166,948 WinPatrol users have removed its Mindspark toolbar not counting the same toolbar with different names.

IAC owns a variety of Internet companies but the #1 method of promoting their properties is based on taking over a computers’ search using a variety of toolbars and hijackers. They’re the folks behind Ask.com and the distribution of different toolbar brands like Mindspark. My major complaint with IAC is their ability to look the other way while affiliates create malware preventing the removal of Ask toolbars and search hijackers. They also have been slow to address complaints about perverts using Internet services like Zwinky marketed exclusively to children.

The first time I reviewed the company Board of Directors I was surprised to see the likes of General Norman Schwarzkopf and William H. Berkman as in the “Berkman Center For Internet & Society at Harvard Law School.”  The board has changed but now includes future presidential candidate Chelsea Clinton. Ms. Clinton did her part representing IAC by retweeting a published response prior to Ms. Sacco’s plane landing.

Technorati Tags: Ask.com,toolbars,iac,mindspark,twitter

I felt this story was an important lesson and regret posting it the day after IAC suffered from a second more personal lose. The father of IAC Board Director, Edgar Bronfman, Jr. died on Saturday. The senior Bronfman was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1999. I’ve followed the family since having a brief connection when Samuel Bronfman was kidnapped in 1975.

After taking some time to gather her thoughts Justine Sacco did publish an apology today. She addressed her apology correctly to the people of South Africa and not the audience on social media. I hope everyone who felt they were a part of this disaster will use this as a learning experience. Many of the comments I read weren’t the most sensitive I’ve seen.

I’ll say it again, before you press Enter or click “Tweet” or “Post” ask yourself, “What good will come of this?” I just need to get this off my chest is not a good answer.

Would you like Toolbar with your Software Order?

Yesterday, I had a chat with a nice guy who does business development for IAC, the folks behind Ask.com. IAC is also behind other products I don’t care for like Zwinky and so-called FunWebProducts. IAC has had a lot of success lately talking companies into including their free Ask.com toolbar and they thought WinPatrol might be a popular partner.

Last year a number of companies decided to treat their customers with automatic installation of the Ask.com search/toolbar. If you’re not paying attention when you install software from Webroot, Nero and Zonelabs(Check Point) you’ll soon have a branded version of the Ask.com toolbar installed. My new friend at IAC tells me it’s quite common and they recommend pre-checking the install option to make sure more users receive the toolbar. He mentioned bundled installations of DivX and Skype as examples of this being an accepted industry practice.

The sales pitch to include a toolbar with WinPatrol was compelling. I’m told that the my reputation wouldn’t be affected and I would be providing my customers with a service by including the free toolbar. All the companies currently installing the toolbar are very happy. He even leaked the news that another well known Anti-Spyware vendor would be announcing their own deal soon.

I crunched the numbers and sure enough the revenue I could receive by including the toolbar would be huge. My overhead is low and the free version of WinPatrol has many thousand downloads even on the slowest day. If I chose to include the Ask.com tool bar I could probably retire comfortably by the end of the year.

Unfortunately, a number of people think I’m a really, good guy and I respect their opinion. For the last ten years WinPatrol has had a flawless reputation. I know myself, I really hate companies that install additional software that I didn’t ask for. It’s not only rude, it’s just wrong.

While IAC may be a respectable company, I’ve never been a fan of programs like SmileyCentral, and Zwinky that install multiple programs when users just want a single cool program. They also auto install the MyWebSearch toolbar and SearchAssistant. Ask.com may very well grow to become the number one search engine but they’ll do so by getting installed on computers without being asked for. (no pun intended)

I’m going to have to pass and keep WinPatrol simple and pure. There will be a new version of WinPatrol later this month and it won’t include any toolbars. Hopefully, users and editors will continue to recommend Scotty the Windows WatchDog because they love and respect WinPatrol. This may not be the best business decision I’ve ever made but I can live with myself.