Filed under: Internet Tools
Inquisitor raises some questions
On a tip from a reader I started up a packet sniffer before I ran a search for "Nintendo" in Dave Watanabe's Inquisitor plugin for Safari. Sure enough, the first link presented was an Amazon link, with an affiliate redirect (associate tag: exoscience).
I'm not shouting anything about the sky falling. I actually think it's great when software developers find ways to provide amazing products to users for free. This case simply raises a question of transparency. Most of us who spend any time on the 'net already know that if we click a link to a retailer from a blog or reviewer's website, there's a good chance they'll be getting a cut of any conversions. It's when those links are directly promoted by the owner and the affiliate urls are masked that it becomes a question of ethics for some.
It's certainly not required of Amazon associates that they reveal their affiliate links. But when you're providing a search service, especially when it's touted as using Google results, sticking an affiliate link in as the highest ranked result does raise some questions. Sure, we use Inquisitor of our own free will (and for free), but transparency on the part of the author would make the choice to do so a more legitimate one.
Thanks Allan!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
James said 10:08PM on 1-07-2008
Watanabe bashing in 3...2...1...
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James said 10:08PM on 1-07-2008
Watanabe bashing in 3...2...1...
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Aaron Gyes said 10:08PM on 1-07-2008
Hah.
I kind of hate the guy because of Transmission and Acquisition, but I've decided that at least Inquisitor is nice to use and seems to be a nice contribution by him to get recognition. I can't believe he doesn't disclose stuff like this.
Dodginess just follows this guy around.
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Think Adrian said 2:53AM on 1-08-2008
I like Transmission more than Inquisitor, because I need Transmission more - the features you need of a torrent app, in a small neat package.
Aaron Gyes said 3:01AM on 1-08-2008
Might have misunderstood me Adrian, Transmission is not by David Wantanabe. He has a client called xtorrent which some feel is ripping the Transmission developers off. I like Transmission too.
Luigi193 said 10:13PM on 1-07-2008
Hey, if its freeware I don't give a crap, they gotta make money somehow!
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Luigi193 said 10:13PM on 1-07-2008
Hey, if its freeware I don't give a crap, they gotta make money somehow!
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Matt said 4:30AM on 1-08-2008
You are right - but he should mention it somehow...
LD said 10:13PM on 1-07-2008
What's there to disclose? He's not collecting any data. There are no privacy concerns. Are search results altered other than adding the affiliate portion of the URL? Are they identical otherwise to straight up Google searches?
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Brett Terpstra said 10:20PM on 1-07-2008
Nope, the results at the top of certain results don't even show up in a straight Google search. And the url is masked so you never know it's happening. That's all.
Allan has more detail posted here:
http://on.thehold.net/2008/01/has-inquisitor-gone-scurrilous.html
Aaron Gyes said 10:19PM on 1-07-2008
Upon closer inspection he actually has a big list of terms for which he sticks fake results into the top result. He also replaces all natural amazon URLs with those that make him money. The list of terms is huge, but it includes things like logitech, elmo, linksys, lindsay lohan, etc. He also looks for P2P-like searches to insert ads for his own software. If anyone wants an xdelta against the binary that kills this stuff, let me know.
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Aaron Gyes said 10:21PM on 1-07-2008
Upon closer inspection he actually has a big list of terms for which he sticks fake results into the top result. He also replaces all natural amazon URLs with those that make him money. The list of terms is huge, but it includes things like logitech, elmo, linksys, lindsay lohan, etc. He also looks for P2P-like searches to insert ads for his own software. If anyone wants an xdelta against the binary that kills this stuff, let me know.
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LD said 10:35PM on 1-07-2008
How can we uninstall?
Thanks!
LD said 10:44PM on 1-07-2008
Figured it out:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=397086
I agree, I can't use it knowing all the stuff he's doing. If he were straight-forward it might not be an issue. But he's hiding a lot of stuff and I can't trust that he's not doing something malicious.
The other comments in this thread are right on. He can't be trusted based on this and past actions.
it's a shame, because he can make some nice software. He just has no moral compass.
Kolby said 11:27PM on 1-07-2008
well does anyone have any replacement suggestions? and thanks for the uninstall link saved me the trouble
Joe said 10:27PM on 1-07-2008
What do you expect? If you decide to use an app developed by a sewer-dweller, don't be surprised at the smell.
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paul said 10:29PM on 1-07-2008
This is shady. If I add a search engine to Firefox, I expect Firefox (also a free program!) won't alter my results to make money. I'd expect the same from Inquisitor.
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beg_ne said 10:58PM on 1-07-2008
Are you being serious or did you bring that up because you knew about the Firefox thing?
Because Firefox actually does something quite similar. Everytime you use the google search box in Firefox check the google URL you should see a client=firefox or something in there. Safari does this too, and I believe Apple gets some revenue from Google from searches done from the search box.
Here is a store about Google making $72M from that google search box, looks like thats back in '05
http://www.calacanis.com/2006/03/06/firefox-mozilla-corporation-mozilla-foundation-made-72m-last/
Dalton said 6:55AM on 1-08-2008
@beg_ne: I don't think those are the same things at all. It's fairly widely known that Firefox, Safari, etc, are given kickbacks for sending traffic to Google. Even if you don't know that, the behavior is consistent and transparent—you search, and you get the expected results from Google or Yahoo.
The issue with inquisitor is quite different. The app is clearly tampering with results in a way that benefits the developer. This is similar to what spyware does - it's bad news. I hope everybody uninstalls this garbage and the developer learns his lesson.
pcx said 10:38PM on 1-07-2008
Hardly surprising considering everything he has done in the past. I really don't get why people continue to support and defend him.
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