That 40% figure wasn’t correct last year when Roy used it and it remains incorrect. Rather, out of all the statistics he could find, this was the highest one.

One or two months ago Microsoft reported that it found malware on 1 in 3 machines it had scanned.

As for the “scam”, all the search engines share this problem. My father almost fell victim to this using Google. He searched for “itunes” and clicked on the first sponsored link. He thought it was the company website because the green address under the sponsored link said “apple.com”, but in fact that was false information entered by the ad buyer. Instead the link went to a 3rd party site trying to sell an expensive music membership. In fact, scam artists are more likely to try and game Google’s results because they are the most popular.

Maybe vendors like HP and Acer have dumped Yahoo toolbars so they can replace it with Microsoft’s awesome new “Bing Bar”. Yup, Microsoft has a new toolbar.

eWeek explains it as “Windows/Microsoft Raises Bing Bar Against Google” (No need for a link, just Google it).

According to eWeek:
[snip] Microsoft now offers the Bing Bar for Firefox and Internet Explorer. The downloadable application grafts a tool bar to your Web browser, allowing one-click access to various Bing features such as Shopping, Video, Web Search and Maps, as well as instant access to news, stocks, weather and Hotmail.”[snip]

Wow! A new toolbar! That’s some seriously original and innovative stuff, don’t you think? Google must surely be shaking with fear…lol.