• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, August 29, 2006

Online watchdogs are once again turning their attention to AOL, this time over the company's software, AOL 9.0.

The anti-spyware group StopBadware, led by Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society and Oxford University's Oxford Internet Institute, has issued an advisory, warning consumers that it has made the "preliminary" finding that AOL's software is "badware." Why? When consumers download the program, AOL also installs a host of other software--QuickTime, RealPlayer, Viewpoint Media Player and Pure Networks Port Magic--without informing users. AOL 9.0 also adds shortcuts, including the AOL Toolbar, and adds icons and favorites to users' Explorer browser without getting their consent. AOL says it has already started addressing the concerns, but adds that the features complained about shouldn't qualify it as "badware."

"None of it was malicious. None of it had an adverse effect on users," said spokesman Andrew Weinstein. "The best way users can protect themselves from badware is to use a service like AOL," he said, referring to the company's suite of security services.

What's slightly perplexing is that this software, AOL 9.0, is coming under attack now, when it was first released to members three years ago. While the program was made available for free to all Web users earlier this month, it's identical to what was given to AOL members in 2003.

John Palfrey, co-director of StopBadware.org and executive director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, says StopBadware investigates in response to complaints and that the griping didn't begin until several weeks ago.

Why now? One theory is that AOL's paying members weren't complaining about the software, but that consumers who downloaded it for free took issue with it. Another is that Web users were still angry at AOL for releasing search data and were on heightened alert for consumer protection issues.

Either way, it's clear that AOL's software isn't adware in the traditional sense of following users around the Web and serving them pop-ups. But the controversy over installing media players and toolbars likely foreshadows a larger battle about what type of programs can legitimately be installed on consumers' desktops. This battle is likely to be especially acute when it comes to search toolbars--many users' first recourse for Web searches.

Google already has carped at Microsoft's plan to include a built- in search toolbar with its upcoming browser. At the same time, Google itself is bundling a search toolbar with a host of applications.

StopBadware has a point: Companies should tell consumers when toolbars, media players or other programs are going to be installed on their computers.

But it's not clear that watchdogs currently are looking at the related, but potentially much larger question, of which software programs are legitimately bundled with PCs--without notice to consumers--when the PCs come straight from the factory.