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Alexa toolbar is adware

Posted by Jason on Tuesday, June 19th 2007

19
Jun

At least according to Avast it is. I thought I would write a post on Alexa and their toolbar for everyone that has not tried it yet. As you may or may not be aware, a lot of companies use your alexa rating to decide how much advertising on your site or blog is worth.

I figured that I could download it and give the fox a tiny boost while I am working on it, as well as all the other blogs I visit on a daily basis. But I have been denied.

I tried everything to get around it, but my antivirus refuses to let me play with it. I turned it off, installed it, but when I turned it back on it slapped my hand and said ‘No!’. Has anyone else had trouble installing it and maybe found a way to get it installed? My google, stumbleupon and del.icio.us toolbars all installed fine.

Popularity: 1% [?]

8 Comments Already

Ted Said,

June 20th, 2007 @3:31 am

I use a Firefox plug in to give me the Alexa rankings of sites and it also feeds your surfing habits back to Alexa so it can help boost your rankings there.

I use AVG anti virus and it hasn’t caused an issue

I’ve posted about it here http://www.devilworks.com/2007/06/05/alexa-for-firefox/

nongeek Said,

June 20th, 2007 @11:47 am

Many people consider Alexa toolbar as spyware because it send your IP address and surfing behavior to a third party site (the Alexa site). So, it’s indeed a form of spyware.

Anyway, your antivirus software seems to be too intrusive. A warning it’s enough in this case, IMHO. You should install in your PC any software you want, it’s your PC after all.

That’s why I prefer to use Linux, it’s more flexible yet safer.

dEEPAK Said,

June 21st, 2007 @12:47 am

Yup.. even Nod32 call it an Adware and didn’t allow me to install it.. Anyway that doesn’t matter for me now coz I’m on Mac and i use the SearchStatus addon for firefox for alexa rankings

Jason Said,

June 21st, 2007 @8:30 am

Well maybe all is not lost, I think I will try out the search status addon to see what it does. If Avast will allow me to install it that is

Natron Said,

June 21st, 2007 @11:46 am

I also use AVG and it doesn’t come up as adware. IT does have to send info back to track and calculate alexa rankings, don’t think this is a big issue though.

lady influence Said,

July 5th, 2007 @12:04 am

hi. am experiencing the same problem too. i use avast and i can’t download the alexa toolbar. the same message appears. i plan to just deactivate my avast software and install another software in lieu of it. yes alexa leaves adware in our computers so it can detect and monitor the way we use the toolbar.