X1 Search Part Deaux

I suggest that it's only fair that since I ripped the X1 Search Software a minor new one (see below) I should also direct your attention to the minor rebuttal comment made by Josh. Please note his comment in response to my previous blog entry.

Regrettably, having little use for X1 Search, I have not tried it myself. (I rarely have past e-mail I have to find.)

I suggest, however, that giving your product away for free is no way to get someone to value it enough to actually install it and use it. I should add that in the software world, it is plain suspicious but I went through that already. Free products just don't merit any respect.

Ideally, Josh, my recommendation to you is to have you get some press releases out there in the hands Ziff-Davis, et. al. and have people pay for your product. Give them a discount, for cryin' out loud but don't give it away for free. I refer you back to my memory of 100's of AOL disks promising 1,000's of free hours from time to time in the past few years. Not ONCE have I ever used their product, even when free software only had to be checked for viruses.

One last thing, Josh. I did read a couple of reviews which indicate that there MAY BE spyware and adware in X1 Search. Particularly, quoting Jim Halloran from http://www.jimohalloran.com/archives/000302.html:

". . . the licence agreement . . . suggests that "adware" or "spyware" might be insalled along with X1. The relevant section of the licence agreement:

'4. Third Party Content. Your use of the Software may take you to web sites operated by third parties. We do not endorse (and those third party sites do not endorse us or the Software) nor are we affiliated with these third party web sites and we are not responsible for any content that appears on these sites.
... additional popups and redirections to third party web sites are classic symptoms of a machine with adware or spyware type programms installed. Later, the following appears in the licence...

YOU UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT YOU DOWNLOAD AND/OR USE THE SOFTWARE AND ALL THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE MADE AVAILABLE IN CONJUNCTION WITH OR THROUGH THE SOFTWARE AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION AND RISK'

Which suggests that third party software will be installed along with X1.

I don't know for sure whether spyware is packaged with X1 or not because I didn't install it, but the fact that the licence allows for it is enough to stop me from trying it out.

Of course most people don't read the licence, so they get away with it, but its amazing how many programs actually disclose the fact that they're installing spyware on your machine in the licence agreement."

Wag again, here:

Frankly, Josh, if there isn't any adware or spyware in X1 Search at this very moment, the license agreement leaves it wide open for future inclusion of spyware or adware, not to mention the evil, dare I say it? POPUPS!!! Woo hoo! Just what I need on my already over-burdened PC's and wideband connections!

Ergo, I won't soon be installing your software, even if you do send me another free one! Sorry. But good luck to you, nonetheless!

(Ed Foster, are you observing this one?!! heheheh)

--Wag--