Oracle has decided to displace Ask with Yahoo! in Java updates
For many years, Oracle has been blamed for filling crucial Java updates with Ask Toolbar. This way, Ask search provider has been increasing the number of its users on a daily basis. If you have never heard about “bundling” before, then, of course, you are a lucky person because you haven’t encountered with a deceptive marketing technique and haven’t been tricked into installing unwanted applications on your computer. Speaking about Ask Toolbar, many years its developers have been supporting Oracle for checking the toolbar by default in new Java installs and crucial updates. Consequently, people who tend to install such software in a rush and hit the “Next” button all the time were very likely to find Ask toolbar installed, search.tb.ask.com set as a default search engine provider. People are continuously revolting against ‘bundling’ and demand banning it, especially when we talk about such legitimate and popular software as Oracle’s Java. However, instead stopping to attach third-party apps alongside Java installers and updates, Oracle is displacing Ask with Yahoo!
Such news has been reported on Wednesday at the annual shareholder meeting. The CEO Marissa Mayer reported about a new marketing strategy, which is supposedly going to bring Yahoo! search provider back to the market. Unfortunately, many details haven’t been provided and it’s not clear yet how much Yahoo is going to pay Oracle for the ability to get more users. However, the fact is the fact – Oracle starts to promote Yahoo! search engine via Java installers and updates from this month. According to the experts, even such tactics is not very likely to help Yahoo! outmatch the present giants, including Google and Bing.
Security experts are striving for banning “bundling”; however, that’s not an easy task to achieve. They are warning people on a daily basis that hundreds of potentially unwanted programs, adwares, browser hijackers, and other cyber threats are lurking under freewares, including Java, Flash Player, Media Player, and other popular installers and updates. It has been found that the same marketing strategy is commonly applied for spreading Delta-homes.com, Omiga Plus, mystartsearch.com, and similar browser hijackers. Despite the fact that critics are loudly naming ‘bundling’ and promotion tactics as “dodgy” and “despicable” tactics, it seems that developers of search engines are determined to do anything to get more income. Keep in mind that no matter whether you set a search engine willingly or it is set by default against your will, developers generate income from advertising, tracking users, making them visit sponsored websites, and similar activities anyway.
Therefore, if you want to keep your computer safe and prevent irritating modification of default start page and search provider by Ask, Yahoo or another dubious search site, you should always install free software as carefully as possible. Make sure that you analyze every step in great details and unmark ticks saying: “Set Yahoo as your homepage and search engine on Chrome and Internet Explorer, plus get Yahoo as your new tab page on Chrome.” Of course, if you prefer using Yahoo! or even Ask searches, you are free to do so. However, whenever you notice an offer to install apps via another freeware, you should treat it as a warning and terminate its installation at all. That’s the advice of the security experts who certainly want to help you keep a computer safe!