Remove Yahoo! Toolbar from all installers.

[jmckeehan]

Hello!

With the past two releases of muvee Reveal I have encountered the "forced" installation of Yahoo! toolbar. There has been no opt-out ability in either release. I contacted technical support after the first incident and was informed that this was a "bug".

The "bug" is still in place. Frankly, it's both annoying and off-putting.

Thanks
Jeff

[emarson]

Hi Jeff,

The bug was fixed as soon as we discovered it.

Just a background.

If the user did a fresh installation the Opt-In screen would appear. However if the user updates an existing installation, the opt-in screen would not be shown.

As soon as we discovered the bug was fixed in one of the recent releases. I checked with our release team and it seems like the fixed version was released after 15th Aprial (the date of your mail).

Since you have the Yahoo Toolbar installed accidentally because of the bug, the best way is to remove it manually. May I suggest that you remove the Yahoo Toolbar via the Add/Remove Programs (in Windows XP) or Programs & Features (in Windows Vista).

We are extremely sorry for the inconvenience caused.

Best regards,
Emarson

[zom]

I find ANY attempt to promote such browser plug-ins off-putting... especially Yahoo which has one of the worst privacy policies on the web... and their web beacons are everywhere. I feel contaminated just visiting a Yahoo site... and use the cookie manager in a free program called CCleaner to purge ALL unwanted cookies on bootup. There's also an option to save whatever cookies you want... say the login for this forum.

[terenceswee]

@zom

your disdain for Yahoo products in particular are noted. We will take that into consideration in our renewal of our strategic bundling partnerships. I hope you realize that promoting such products helps smaller companies like muvee keep on making great software and pricing them affordably for consumers. Video editing software in today's fast paced world is a very expensive enterprise, with the plethora of formats and royalties that goes into each product. I thank you for your feedback and support. I hope you will overlook that little inconvenience and continue to use muvee's products.

Terence Swee
co-founder & CEO

[Far Left Texas]

While I understand the need for additional revenue from additional sources, have you ever had a single customer or client say to you, "Oh, thank you so much for including the Yahoo! Toolbar with my download."?

Have you received any? Even just one thank you email?

How many people have installed Muvee and, when opening their browser and seeing a new toolbar, been glad that they accidentally installed the toolbar?

Really, I'm looking for the one end user in the world who likes having toolbars crammed/slammed/bammed (whatever it's called) on them while they install software they paid for.

Does adding the Yahoo! toolbar the way you do enhance the user experience for Muvee? If not, why is it there?

[terenceswee]

@Far Left Texas,

As in an earlier post, not asking the user for permission before installing the toolbar was wrong and was not an intended behaviour. We have corrected that bug in the later releases.

As for your question on whether the Yahoo toolbar adds to the user experience of using muvee products, the answer is yes, and that it will continue to evolve and become even more useful in future releases.

In the muvee version of the Yahoo toolbar, there are shortcuts to shwup.com, our online (free) video-photo group albums and collaborative mashup service that is closely tied to the Reveal product. There are also various shortcuts to convenient locations at muvee.com for you to check for updates, new styles etc.

We have had several thank yous for various features in our product offering, but not getting a thank you is not a reason to stop giving...

[Far Left Texas]

Well, let's just agree to disagree about bundling toolbars with software and having the default be "Install the toolbar unless I tell you not to".

As for thanks, please accept mine for Muvee itself--I'm still quite the newbie and don't know enough to state appreciation for any particular feature.