For a little while Digsby has been bundling software with their installer as a way for them to make money. They try to get users to install the third party apps, and in return they get a pretty good payout. This isn’t anything new, and we’ve tried to point this out to our readers whenever we’ve written about Digsby.
As Lifehacker noticed last week it’s starting to get a little out of hand. During the setup routine it tries to get you to install up to six different pieces of crapware now, which is something I wasn’t aware of. The last time I had to install Digsby from scratch was months ago, and I only remember there being one or maybe two different apps it tried to push on me. Ever since then Digsby has just been self-updating so I’ve never had to go through the process again.
That’s enough to irk me right there, but the thing that really made me jump the bridge was what Lifehacker noticed in the Terms of Service:
You agree to permit the Software to use the processing power of your computer when it is idle to run downloaded algorithms (mathematical equations) and code within a process. You understand that when the Software uses your computer, it likewise uses your CPU, bandwidth, and electrical power. The Software will use your computer to solve distributed computing problems, such as but not limited to, accelerating medical research projects, analyzing the stock market, searching the web, and finding the largest known prime number. This functionality is completely optional and you may disable it at any time.
Yeah, you can disable this functionality… but how many people actually knew it was even doing this? And for that matter how long has it been doing this? Every time Digsby updates itself I don’t recall having to accept a new agreement, and so are they pushing this on me without ever having shown it in an agreement? Granted I probably wouldn’t have read the agreement anyhow, and I’m sure they’re aware of that which is why they tucked it there in the first place. That’s what makes this even more double-crossing.
Digsby came forward to comment on all the negative publicity they were getting, and have since rolled out a release that makes the whole “distributed computing” thing a bit more transparent to users. Overall I’m pretty disappointed with Digsby. I don’t know if I can trust a company that only admits to something once they’ve been confronted about it. They knew darn well what they were doing when they put this in the Terms of Service, and then tucked the option to disable the functionality in some menus that most people never look at (and for that matter should never have to look at). I’ve seen plenty of other programs go down this road, but some are a bit more tasteful about it. CCleaner, for example, has a version that tries to install a toolbar, but at the same time they also offer a “slim” version that is bundled with no third-party software.
I’ve recommended this software to so many other people that I’m now left wondering how many PC’s have been unknowingly contaminated. Most tech-savvy people are smart enough to not install the extra junk, but what about everyone else? For now I’m going to hold off on recommending Digsby to anyone until their team finally figures out what revenue model they are going to pursue.
In the meantime I’ve switched to Miranda, and even though it’s taken a significant amount of time to customize I’d say the end result is well worth it. I now have a messenger that uses less than 7MB of memory on my machine, and some of the plug-ins available really make it shine. I’ll talk about these customizations more in a future article for those of you who are also looking for another alternative.
So what about you… are you sticking with Digsby?
“For now I’m going to hold off on recommending Digsby to anyone until their team finally figures out what revenue model they are going to pursue.”
Same for me. Though I’m glad Digsby came forward and commented specifically on Lifehacker’s negative publicity, and they pushed out an update that pulled the “Support Digsby” item out of obscurity in the Help menu to the Preferences window. For now, I’m sticking with Digsby.
Yes, they did come forward, but for me that doesn’t quite make things right. I view it the same way as a phone company embedding in their terms of service that they’re going to monitor some of your calls for quality assurance, and the only way you know that they’re doing it is if you read through their terms. Obviously once someone points it out they are going to retract and apologize, but they knew very well what they were doing when they were hiding it in their terms.
I agree. I really like Digsby, and had to re-install the other day. I knew from the articles that they were pushing more and more for monetization, but it was definitely out of hand. I expected a few things, but had to keep declining. I don’t think it’s all that obvious for a basic user to know how to get around it (round the wording they used a little odd), and would not recommend it to anyone right now.
It’s very disconcerting, and when you see some of the obscure crapware that is being pushed, it makes it feel a lot less legit than I know it is. For now, I will keep using it, but won’t recommend it to anyone.
You are right. We should have been more upfront about it. We did publish a post when we first introduced it ([blog.digsby.com]) as well as make an announcement to our users.
The article made us realize that many of our new users weren’t aware of this and we’re working on making the option more prominent when a user first installs Digsby.
Maybe you guys should have disabled it all together until you figure out a better way to present it to users.
Of course I would recommend it. It remains an excellent bit of software – and if I can recommend it I can also add the codicil “warning – if you need to you should disable “x”, “y” and “z”"
I’m not thrilled about having to earn a living but I understand Digsby’s need to. Who are we kidding, Google and MS all do it, Digsby never hid the fact and now it is more transparent. So be it.
Yes, but it can be presented in a much clearer fashion. For example, after declining the half-dozen third-party apps they should present you with a screen with a serious of checkboxes confirming all of the things you will or won’t be installing should you choose to proceed. Kind of a last-ditch effort before they drive you into coffin.
Good point Charles. They do make an amazing product, and it keeps getting better. They definitely have to make a living. I think I was just thrown by the install, and how it’s not entirely obvious to opt out of each bit of crapware. From what I remember, it seemed like you were canceling the install, or installing the add-on. I don’t think it would be obvious to a basic user.
That being said, they do have to make money somehow, and I would rather this than ads within the interface.
Digsby first committed this offence in December 2008, then promised “it will not happen again.” See Steve Shapiro’s comment at the end: [forum.digsby.com]
They still continued to install the Java-based botnet, then proceeded to overwrite your Firefox search bar (taking search revenue from Mozilla)
This is one reason that I just stick to web-based services like meebo since I don’t have to install anything and worry about software on my computer using up resources without me knowing. I wouldn’t like it if a company pushed out updates and changed their terms of service without alerting the me. I’m sure Digsby didn’t try to add this new computing thing to intentionally mess with people but they should have been more open about it like showing the terms and service again and highlighting changes in bold or something so the user knows what’s been added at a glance.
Never have recommended it, never will. But then I’m weird – the appeal of such services has always escaped me.
Or perhaps it’s just that I actually have a life…
I’ve since switched to Pidgin, seemingly before all this stuff with Digsby happened.
While I almost miss the ability to stalk every move of my ‘friends’ on facebook, it’s not a decision I regret.
You know, right on their download page they have the “lite” version that doesn’t try to install anything?
“Installing to a USB drive or secondary hard drive? Having trouble with the above installer? Click Here.”
I just tell people to click that and download that version… as far as using my CPU power when I’m not, meh, go for it.
Really…. I’ve seen that link but never really thought about whether it included all the crapware with it. I might have to check that out.
Sorry but I can’t recommend a product like this to users when the install process is a minefield. If they had the spyware/junk optional by default, I would be more optimistic. But recommending this to my friends and family who have no idea what this would install (and would accept the defaults blindly), would be recommending to them that they install crapware on their PCs and then I’d be left cleaning it up months down the road. Who knows what kind of phone-home services these other products leave behind? It may *only* be a few programs that Digsby installs, but these other services may phone home and decide, it’s in the users best interest to install more random junk. I can’t recommend this product.
yeah i would. but only a portable version with no toolbars and cpu-sharing disabled:
[stadt-bremerhaven.de]
I am using Pidgin and I am happy with that. I recommend Pidgin to others.
Let’s be straight about this. Pidgin is fine. Good code works well (looks aweful), pretty light weight. But it only does multi-protocol messaging. That is NOT what Digsby is. Yes at its core it is a messaging app but it is much more than that – it integrates sociial communication web accounts, acts as a brilliant notifier for multiple email – including webmail – and more.
So recommending Pidgin is fine but it will not give the user what Digsby offers. Only Trillian Astra comes close to that.
I’m sticking with Digsby. It’s more attractive and allows me to customize the display of my conversations. It provides access to social networking tools that, without Digsby, I’d probably never review, update, or use for the purpose they’re intended (e.g., LinkedIn). I can deal with crapware, I’m even willing to let the use my processor for their research once I know what that’s going to be. In the end, I’m not in the least bothered by anything that Digsby has done.
Digsby doesn’t respect their users, why should anyone use their spyware laden software?
Say NO to companies like this.
i wasn’t angry about digsby since i only had it installed once for a testing which took around one hour. and that ended my relation with it.
i never could understand what was so ultimately great abut this program that it received constant attention and promotion by lifehacker & followers.
i use Miranda for years now and i can recommend it to anyone. it’s not only open source but it terms of functionality and customization beat every other IM software out there.
so the initial effort to configure and adjust miranda to own needs pay off. you can also download various preconfigured pack with bundled plugins and skins. eg: [miranda-vi.org]
NO
Yes, but not using the installer/download manager but use the direct link: [update.digsby.com] . I wrote this in my blog (also with several Digsby’s tips & tricks) [blaszta.com] (in Indonesian Language, but you can use Translate button at the toolbar at the bottom of the blog).
Digsby is a great application, far less clutter and everything one place. I would happily recommend it to people but only if I can trust Digsby to be straight and honest about what the application is doing beyond the advertised features. At this point, I cannot trust them although I do feel Digsby has learnt a painful lesson. Hopefully painful enough to be very clear in the future. It will most likely take sometime to earn peoples trust again, easily lost, painfully long to gain again.
Regarding the crapware during installation, if you to impatient to read the installation questions and just click away you should accept what you get. It takes less than a minute to review those questions.
Accept what you get? Yeah, that’s all fine and dandy until you have friends and family wanting you to fix their computers.
For the non-techy-miranda-wanting-but-unwilling-to-configure-user:
[gecko.me]
Saved a lot of useful time ….
I’ve once tryed Digsby on early stages, since it crashed on the moment … i never touched it again, then lots of websites reported crapware warnings … so i had no interest in it.
I use MirandaIM, free, portable, minimalist and functional, or even MSN Live Messenger but “tweaked” to minimal.
As much as I hate their new installer, I’d still recommend it to others as the best IM client, hands down. I would, however, be sure to explicitly warn them about the junk that it attempts to install and make sure that it doesn’t get installed. As long as you’re careful to read everything, you can avoid all the extra crap.
I first learned of Digsby here and started recommending it to friends; now however I will not. I myself have always preferred meebo due to the fact I don’t have to install anything other than a browser. Digsby really hurt themselves with this tactic. I do understand their need to earn a living, but sometimes people do not put enough thought into how to earn the money before just jumping in like Digsby did. Now they will have to deal with the fallout including less users…
I love digsby, it needs to shave the 50mb ram footprint for me to enjoy it on netbook