01.20.11
Microsoft Alleged to Have Tricked People Into Switching to Bing, Using a Rogue Site
Summary: Rogue site harms people’s computers by installing “a toolbar and chang[ing] their search provider and home page to Bing.”
Included in the logs just posted is a story we only posted in daily links due to lack of time. The short story is that Microsoft is in the midst of another Bong [sic] scandal and shortly after it was revealed Microsoft retreated from it:
Is Facebook’s third largest advertiser really a site that tries to trick people into switching to Bing? Apparently not. Still, Bing’s not happy with the tactics and is ending its relationship with the publisher. The site, Make-My-Baby.com, now appears to have gone down. But earlier today, it was suggesting that people needed a plug-in to use it — one that would install a toolbar and change their search provider and home page to Bing. The site had allowed people to create baby characters….OK, I have some more answers from Bing. Make-My-Baby was an affiliate of Zugo….Bing also confirmed that it continues to have a relationship with Zugo. That also means that all the people who had their pages changed by Make-My-Baby will continue to get redirected to the benefit of both Zugo and Bing, as best I can tell, despite the fact that they were obtained in a way that Bing disagrees with.
Our readers did not all buy Microsoft’s story and to quote last night’s conversation about it:
| DaemonFC | I guess they got sick of all the “Why doesn’t Last.FM work?” posts | 22:32 |
|---|---|---|
| oiaohm | Don’t worry its normally only temp. MinceR | 22:33 |
| oiaohm | First stage create more jobs than what is required. | 22:34 |
| oiaohm | Second stage restruct the departments because they are too expensive. | 22:34 |
| oiaohm | Third stage sacked too many todo the jobs. | 22:34 |
| oiaohm | then return to first stage. | 22:35 |
| oiaohm | This is kinda a never ending goverment cycle. | 22:35 |
| –> cubezzz has joined this channel (~cubeman@maxhost.org). | 22:35 | |
| –> tessier has joined this channel (~treed@mail.copilotco.com). | 22:35 | |
| –> TRIdentica has joined this channel (~twitfolk@216.105.40.114). | 22:35 | |
| –> TRT has joined this channel (~twitfolk@216.105.40.114). | 22:35 | |
| oiaohm | “first time the FCC has ever allowed discrimination on the Internet” Boy people have short memories. | 22:36 |
| oiaohm | Computserv anyone. | 22:36 |
| MinceR | CompuServe isn’t internet, afaik | 22:37 |
| oiaohm | It was a wrapper over the internet that was used to restrict access. | 22:37 |
| –> twitter has joined this channel (~pbj@173-17-111-185.client.mchsi.com). | 22:40 | |
| Read Write web notices that a toolbar scam is part of Bing market share gain. http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/facebooks_3rd_biggest_advertiser _is_a_bing_affilia.php | 22:41 | |
| TechrightsBot-tr | Title: Facebook’s 3rd Biggest Advertiser is (Allegedly) a Bing Affiliate Scam (With Updates) .::. Size~: 74.46 KB | 22:41 |
| That and the forced default on cell phones, new computers inflicted with Windows, etc. | 22:42 | |
| oiaohm | twitter: Problem is I cannot see who is behind that. | 22:43 |
| MinceR | duh | 22:44 |
| MinceR | it’s m$ | 22:44 |
| you really can’t tell where hundreds of thousands of dollars for a make_my_baby.com scam comes from? | 22:44 | |
| MinceR | they’re still struggling to get people to use bìng | 22:44 |
| no one would put up that kind of money on their own. | 22:44 | |
| It had to come from Microsoft. | 22:44 | |
| MinceR | they used to pay people to make them use whatever bìng happened to be called at the time | 22:45 |
| MinceR | this is a different approach to the same goal | 22:45 |
| oiaohm | I have not looked close enough at that. | 22:45 |
| oiaohm | to check if the 3rd biggest has hidden any other back doors. | 22:46 |
| this one hides in the fine print and the usual “you need a plugin to do this” | 22:46 | |
| oiaohm | Exactly what else is in the plugin twitter | 22:46 |
| they are obvious frauds, ohm. | 22:46 | |
| oiaohm | I know they are frauds | 22:46 |
| oiaohm | But are they are bot net master as well. | 22:46 |
| so there’s no telling what kind of malware they push | 22:47 | |
| oiaohm | Really the total mix of malware will give us a better clue who they are. | 22:47 |
| just like there’s no telling what Microsoft sends back to themselves via Vista and Windows 7 encrypted communications | 22:48 | |
| It’s someone who spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote Bing. They might also be a bot herder but that is irrelevant and the Bing issue is proved. | 22:49 | |
| <– abeNd-org has left this server (Quit: Leaving.). | 22:49 | |
| Microsoft disowned them, as they do all of their scape goats. | 22:49 | |
| DaemonFC | Compuserve was an AOL-type service, walled garden | 22:50 |
| DaemonFC | they both added internet access later | 22:50 |
| DaemonFC | then AOL bought Compuserve | 22:50 |
| DaemonFC | for a while, the Compuserve browser was based on Gecko, not IE/Trident | 22:50 |
| DaemonFC | I think it went back to IE though | 22:50 |
| DaemonFC | there was a beta version of AOL that used Gecko | 22:51 |
| oiaohm | AOL netscape | 22:51 |
| Microsoft Software, so bad the company has to pay people to use it. | 22:51 | |
| DaemonFC | no, the AOL client | 22:51 |
| DaemonFC | there was a beta you had to be invited to | 22:51 |
| DaemonFC | it used Gecko as the AOL browser’s renderer | 22:51 |
| AOL bought Netscape, it was unnatural for them to not use the browser. | 22:52 | |
| oiaohm | When AOL bought netscape they did a hybred. | 22:52 |
| oiaohm | Gecko trident | 22:52 |
| DaemonFC | they never really used Netscape much | 22:52 |
| oiaohm | In the AOL browser and in netscape | 22:52 |
| oiaohm | What was basically the same thing. | 22:52 |
| It was gone in the blink of an eye, then they fired the developers. | 22:52 | |
| DaemonFC | the Windows version uses IE/Trident and the Mac version uses Webkit | 22:53 |
| DaemonFC | way back when, they used their own rendering engine though | 22:53 |
| DaemonFC, uses AOL on Mac? Wow! | 22:53 | |
| MinceR | lol | 22:53 |
| DaemonFC | yes, it has Topspeed Technology to make my 56k modem go VROOM | 22:54 |
| DaemonFC | uh huh | 22:54 |
| DaemonFC |  |
22:54 |
| MinceR | that can’t be good for the modem :> | 22:54 |
| zzzzoooooommmmmm | 22:54 | |
| –> dtech has joined this channel (5da06baa@gateway/web/freenode/ip.93.160.107.170). | 22:54 | |
| have fun with the Bing news. That search engine is not going anywhere soon. | 22:55 | |
| <– twitter has left this channel. | 22:55 | |
| * DaemonFC throws a Winmodem at Mincer | 22:55 | |
| * MinceR parries it with a BFS | 22:55 | |
| [Notice] -TRIdentica to #techrights- [boycottnovell/@boycottnovell] Another Software Company’s CEO (Named Steve) Expected to Leave http://is.gd/oyxBuS #microsoft #ballmer #xbox #kin | 22:57 | |
| [Notice] -TRIdentica to #techrights- [schestowitz/@schestowitz] Another Software Company’s CEO (Named Steve) Expected to Leave http://is.gd/oyxBuS #microsoft #ballmer #xbox #kin #vista | 22:57 | |
| TechrightsBot-tr | Title: Another Software Company’s CEO (Named Steve) Expected to Leave | Techrights .::. Size~: 94.89 KB | 22:57 |
| oiaohm | http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=OTAwNQ I guess you have both seen this. | 22:57 |
| TechrightsBot-tr | Title: Another Software Company’s CEO (Named Steve) Expected to Leave | Techrights .::. Size~: 94.89 KB | 22:57 |
| TechrightsBot-tr | Title: [Phoronix] ULatencyD Enters The Linux World .::. Size~: 16.74 KB | 22:57 |
| MinceR | oh, according to “How Does This Work?”, it could be independent of m$ | 22:57 |
| MinceR | since it benefits Zugo as well | 22:58 |
| MinceR | via affiliate commissions | 22:58 |
| oiaohm | MinceR: link | 22:58 |
| MinceR | same article | 22:59 |
| MinceR | ( http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/facebooks_3rd_biggest _advertiser_is_a_bing_affilia.php ) | 22:59 |
| TechrightsBot-tr | Title: Facebook’s 3rd Biggest Advertiser is (Allegedly) a Bing Affiliate Scam (With Updates) .::. Size~: 74.46 KB | 22:59 |
| MinceR | there’s a sidebar titled “How Does This Work?” on that page | 23:00 |
So what do you think? Innocent or damage control? █
