StumbleUpon – “See Friend Reviews” on Google – Spyware?

Last Updated on Sunday, 25 November 2007 02:43 Written by greg Monday, 12 November 2007 07:47

It’s a very fine line between being a helpful tool and being spyware and now long time Social Media Optimization favorite StumbleUpon is working on blurring those lines. It seems that some odd behavior has befallen Firefox users who have recently upgraded to the latest version of the toolbar, version 3.15. This latest version comes with a changelog that announces this addition:

Versions 3.15
* Enables SearchReviews opt-in and configuration options for all users.
See: Toolbar -> Tools -> Toolbar Options -> Configuration tab -> Web Search

On previous versions of the Stumbleupon Toolbar you were presented with a choice as to whether or not you wanted your Google Search results injected with Stumbled info. The problem this time comes from the fact that even if you don’t want your Google results to be altered by StumbleUpon and you Opt-Out of this in your settings, you are still presented with an altered version of Google in a very sly way.

Here are the StumbleUpon settings, set to NOT alter your search results:

However, even with these settings turned off, a search on Google still produces a nice little link up at the top that reads See Friend Reviews in the same font as Google up with the rest of the Google Account Options.

This spyware-like behavior is also found on Ask, Yahoo, and MSN.

Wikipedia defines spyware as:

Spyware is computer software that is installed surreptitiously on a personal computer to intercept or take partial control over the user’s interaction with the computer, without the user’s informed consent.

– Wikipedia Definition

It’s fairly obvious that I’ve tried my best (short of uninstalling) to deny my consent to this behavior and though they state upfront that you are opting-in, the ‘configuration options’ section and options within would lead most users to thinking they could disable this “feature”. That, however is not the case and thus starts to blur the line between what is acceptable behavior in regards to your user information and what is actually spyware. Now it’s known that Stumbling is fun and that it can drive traffic and whatnot but surely they could come up with something better than this.

That said if you’re a fan of Stumbling you’re probably wondering:

How to disable StumbleUpon’s “See Friend Reviews” on Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Ask.com

You have 5 options to disable this unwanted behavior:

1. Uninstall the Toolbar.
2. Have patience. The link will disappear on it’s own after three weeks.
3. Get click happy. It will disappear after it’s been clicked three times regardless of your other actions.
4. OBEY. This link will also go away if you sell your soul to Satan and complete the contact import.
5. Go for Beta. The beta version of StumbleUpon will allow you to disable the prompt via the “Show StumbleUpon prompts and logos” checkbox on the Configuration tab of the Toolbar Options dialog

Now 5 different options of getting rid of this atrocity is more than Gator will give you. However all of these remain unpublished and unpromoted solutions to this problem. The fact is that even though they might garner some information which makes stumbling better and also new users from this approach, it’s obviously setup to benefit them way more than it would benefit the end user. And when you start digging around trying to figure out different ways to get rid of unwanted behavior from your favorite toolbar, you really have to start questioning it’s intentions in the first place.

UPDATE (11-25-07): It appears that version 3.16 of the Firefox StumbleUpon toolbar includes an OPT-OUT for this. Problem solved. Now you only have it if you want it, which is really how it should be.

Social Media Optimization Interview

Last Updated on Saturday, 27 October 2007 09:10 Written by greg Friday, 26 October 2007 03:12

Let it be known that I’m not a huge fan of video. Now don’t get me wrong.. I know how popular video is. I enjoy watching goofy stuff on YouTube and I know it’s an emerging field as far as web marketing goes, however when it comes to information pieces I just can’t ignore the facts:

1. Most of you come off looking like slimy infomercials or at best, bad Mac vs. PC ripoffs
2. There’s not much that you could cover in a video that I couldn’t absorb faster by reading.
3. I look/feel horrible on film

Regardless of my reservations, some people are into videos and worse comes to worse, occasionally I must oblige and be a part of them. That said, in watching this, the facts are still applicable but hopefully I’ll be able to overcome my personal reservations and someone, somewhere will benefit. So behold, my first, and yes completely impromptu interview with Sage Lewis of Web Marketing Watch:

Social Media Optimization Interview:

I hope my headache isn’t too obvious and that I was able to hold it together for you…

Analytical News: Measuring your success, one visitor at a time.

Last Updated on Friday, 26 October 2007 01:42 Written by greg Tuesday, 2 October 2007 09:04

Social Media sites come and go like the wind. It seems like every 5 seconds some entrepreneur is just around the corner with another Digg or del.icio.us knockoff, hoping that whatever Ajax maneuver they can bring to the table will make them this week’s hot topic or at least clever enough to catch the eye of whomever might have some money and want to absorb some wicked bit of code or an entire social media community. As it stands though the big players are still the big players and everyone else is just grasping at straws trying to find their place in the wide-open market. But where does that leave John Q. Internet? Where does that leave the average sap who knows that social media sites are the next big thing but doesn’t know what to do with them?

Well, it leaves them no better off than they were a year ago to be honest. Most people, though they may have heard of Facebook or MySpace or whatever, are no better off than they may have been well over a year ago before the marketplace was flooded by Web 2.0 wannabes. Now instead of trying to figure out how to leverage these spaces to their advantage, they are left to try to sort out the myriad of social sites for which there is no guidebook. What’s more popular… Netscape or Zimbo?

Though we, as web marketers might know the answer, the real truths for anyone involved come across when they try to measure their success. And this is where we talk about the glue that holds all of everyone’s efforts together. Be it through Social Media Optimization, SEO, PPC, or whatever cockamamie thing someone might be trying this week, the magic that makes this all more valuable than any other form of media is the precision with which we can track this, ie. analytics. And with that I am happy to announce a new blog by a highly skilled individual which aims to keep us all informed… Joe Abraham from AnalyticalNews.org.

In his introduction, Joe says..

I started this blog not only because I am in love with stats, but also to be a stats evangelist. I want to help demystify stats and help people find a good fit…

Best of luck to you Joe. I hope you follow through with your new blog and your mission. Check it.