Today’s clinic in bad journalism

Here’s why I don’t trust or recommend BetaNews. Nate Mook of BetaNews writes an outrageously bad lede to a story on the Google toolbar this morning:

In a marketing tactic used primarily by spyware and adware companies, Google has begun bundling its Google Toolbar and Desktop Search software with the popular WinZip archive utility. The move comes as Google begins to expand its bundling effort with a number of leading software applications. [emphasis added]

WinZip quietly updated its download executable last week, which now weighs in at close to 4MB with the added Google tools. Users are given the opportunity to opt out of installing the Google software on the first WinZip setup screen; by default the tools are installed.

Good lord, I can’t even begin to count how many unwarranted innuendos are in this story. For starters, when you kick off the story by comparing the two companies involved to spyware and adware companies, you create an impression in the reader’s mind that is difficult to overcome. Mike at Techdirt calls bullshit on this story:

[T]he details don’t support the charge. It’s clearly displayed in the setup screen and it lets people choose not to install the bundled apps. Also, the purpose of the apps aren’t obfuscated by misleading language. It’s not a spyware tactic by any means — but the fact that so many spyware offerings use similar, if more underhanded, tactics means that such bundling is always going to be looked at suspiciously.

Here’s the screen that pops up during the installation of the evaluation version of WinZip 9.0:

Now, it’s true that you might see a similar-looking dialog box when you install a program that bundles spyware or adware. Except in those cases the intent is typically to mislead, and the bundled software often performs functions (such as displaying pop-up ads) that are not disclosed or are hidden in a license agreement deliberately written to confuse. For that matter, many bundled spyware and adware programs are downloaded without the user’s consent. But none of that is true here. This isn’t spyware. It does a good job of providing disclosure and asking consent (although I’d prefer that the default be off with the user being required to click yes or no to the installation of these two items). The bundled software doesn’t do anything that is remotely like spyware or adware. But none of those details are in the BetaNews story.

It gets worse. Here are a few more examples of loaded phrases, later in the story:

Google did not respond by press time to inquires about whether such a distribution approach could be seen as questionable from a company that boasts its ability to “make money without doing evil.” …

Unlike its rivals, Google does not have the ability to push its search tools via established software products…

But Google isn’t the only company resorting to bundling. Yahoo recently inked a deal to offer its Yahoo! Toolbar with Macromedia Flash and Adobe’s Acrobat Reader – both essential downloads for most computer users.

Let’s review: According to BetaNews, Google is “pushing” its software through “a marketing tactic used primarily by spyware and adware companies.” And to compete with Microsoft and Yahoo it has had to “resort” to this desperate bundling strategy, despite its “boasts” of not being evil. Can you blame Google for not responding when BetaNews asked them an obviously loaded question?

This is a great opportunity to discuss the nature of software bundling. As Techdirt notes, there’s a lot of room for confusion when bundling is involved. Users who have been trained to be suspicious of every unsolicited offer (for good reason) should be suspicious here. But a good journalist provides information that can help the reader figure out the real story, not throw more suspicion into the mix through sloppy reporting and inflammatory language.

And if a journalist is going to accuse a company of using unsavory tactics, it helps if they review their own standards and practices first. BetaNews uses Google AdSense ads (full disclosure: so do I). Ironically, this story is accompanied by a Google AdSense ad that links to Hotbar.com, which is identified in the Computer Associates Spyware Information Center as adware that includes a downloader and a search hijacker. (If that ad happens to appear on this page, I apologize. Please don’t click it.) Here’s a screen capture from the BetaNews story.

By the way, BetaNews uses a technology called IntelliTXT from Vibrant Media, which places ads directly in editorial content. This story contains a reference to Google’s rival MSN Messenger, which in turn links to an IntelliTXT ad that offers (I could have said “pushes”) Microsoft’s LiveMeeting software. I found this story through a link at The Office Weblog. I think Jason Calacanis, who owns the network that includes that blog, had the best description of this advertising technique: “The only publishers that will use this software are a) desperate ones, b) ones without ethics or c) people who make a mistake.” Ouch!