Google now warning against Badware

August 7, 2006 11:33 PM

Google earlier this year joined Harvard, Oxford, Consumer Reports, Sun Microsystems, and Lenovo to Stop Badware and will now begin warning searchers of dodgy websites. Badware means spyware, malware, and adware. If you got the Google warning too late, cleanup with AdAware and Spybot Search and Destroy.
posted by CCBC (11 comments total)

And yet, they still bundle RealPlayer.
posted by verb at 11:46 PM on August 7, 2006

I thought malware was already a catch-all term for nasty software.

"Mal... bad... in Latin."
posted by nthdegx at 12:00 AM on August 8, 2006

maybe stopmalware.com was already taken. Badware sounds pretty stupid, though.
posted by delmoi at 12:06 AM on August 8, 2006

yeah, malware clearly includes spyware & useless adware, but advertising supported useful software isn't really malware. But useful adware its still lame & "bad", as well as likele contining malware. You ought to flag sightss who distribute ad supported software as "potentially hosting malware", but maybe this silly term "badware" gets around it.
posted by jeffburdges at 12:34 AM on August 8, 2006

Might I also suggest checking out SpywareBlaster? It's designed around more of a prophylactic approach.

(It also has a neat tool to parse EULAs for scary bits...)
posted by Samizdata at 1:22 AM on August 8, 2006

Well, as to the picky semantics. "Malware" has a very specific definition from these folks, maybe redundant, but remember that some people are suing over "adware" versus "spyware", so maybe this terminology has particular importance. As for Realplayer, I hate them.And I'm surprised nobody has brought up Google vs. Microsoft yet.
posted by CCBC at 2:59 AM on August 8, 2006

"Badware" is less elegant than "malware," but also less jargony for The People.
posted by zennie at 9:37 AM on August 8, 2006

Newspeak: evildoerware
posted by Mr. Gunn at 10:35 AM on August 8, 2006

Take a look at what Simplicita is doing. Granted, it's at the carrier scale, but it's fucking neat.
posted by SweetJesus at 10:46 AM on August 8, 2006

what do y'all recommend for mac os?
posted by oigocosas at 11:18 PM on August 8, 2006

This isn't generally a *problem* for Macs; System 9 and earlier weren't high-profile enough targets, and OS/X is *Unix*.

"OS/X: because making Unix user-friendly was easier than debugging Windows." --Simon Slavin, on Usenet.
posted by baylink at 8:32 PM on August 9, 2006