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Inquisitor answers the call

by Brett Terpstra Jan 16th 2008 at 1:00PM

Inquisitor, Dave Watanabe's search tool for Safari, was the cause of a recent debate regarding disclosure of affiliate links. In response to public criticism, Watanabe has released a new version that both marks sponsored links and even allows you to disable the affiliate links entirely. He offers his response in a recent blog post.

You'll notice an update to the download page as well, offering a statement regarding the affiliate links that Inquisitor (now, optionally) inserts into search results. I commend him for this response and I think a lot of people will be relieved that they won't need to give up one of the tools that makes Safari great, even if just on principle.

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Inquisitor, Dave Watanabe's search tool for Safari, was the cause of a recent debate regarding disclosure of affiliate links. In response...
 

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David M.

Hey. Does anyone know how to uninstall Inquisitor 3, I like it, but I don't like the idea of being unable to uninstall. Thanks.

January 24 2008 at 4:17 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Sportsmedjosh

None of my searches are coming back with that green affiliate box? Can anyone provide a search that does?

January 16 2008 at 8:52 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Michael Gomez

I think this is a good change, but I wanted other people to be aware of the way the Amazon search engine link works. Out of the box Inquisitor adds the "exoscience" affiliate tag to all searches of Amazon through Inquisitor. This presumably gives D. Watanabe a small cut of any sales that click through his software.

Unchecking the "Include Affiliate Links" in the Inquisitor settings DOES NOT disable the Amazon search affiliate tag.

The thing that takes me really aback is that even if I change the Amazon search query string in the settings, it makes no difference. I have tested this several times, and it appears that any search of Amazon through Inquisitor will be tagged to give D. Watanabe a cut.

January 16 2008 at 5:56 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
obcm

Too little too late. The guy lost all his credibility along time ago

January 16 2008 at 5:07 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
David Chartier

Inquisitor is absolutely indispensable to me and my work. I don't care what knid of a person Watanabe is (though yes, he can be cold at times). His software is great, and Inquisitor has nothing to do with the open source snafu of his other stuff.

I donated back when Inquisitor 3 went free. I've intentionally bought a few items through Amazon links I found in Inquisitor. And I just donated again this morning when I saw his announcement come through NetNewsWire. It's a fantastic, unparalleled plug-in that deserves due credit.

January 16 2008 at 4:05 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to David Chartier's comment
Ed

DC, you should care what sort of person he is, as that is what informs the decisions he takes when he writes his software, and is the reason for his out of date "f-you" attitude to paying customers.

If it wasn't for the sort of person he is, this latest furore regarding Inquisitor would never have blown up - it's his reputation that precedes him. Anyone else, and it would have gone unnoticed.

I know you've long been an apologist for him, but burying your head in the sand and saying it doesn't matter what he does as long as he makes nice software does not help anyone.

The longer you and others carry on donating to him, the more you will perpetuate his apparent belief that his way is the right way and every move he makes is justified. That would be to the detriment of the whole Apple community.

January 17 2008 at 3:13 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
SubGenius

If I were Dave I would have started offering two versions...
1) FREE... but continues to show the affiliate links.
2) $99 for a single user license and no affiliate links.

Debate over take your pick you ungrateful S-O-Bs.
But that's just me.

January 16 2008 at 3:27 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mark

It doesn't mark all 'sponsored links' as affiliate links, though. Try a search for either bittorrent or gnutella, and Watanabe's products are displayed on top. Sure, they aren't real affiliate links, but it's still a sponsored link and far from a true organic ranking.

January 16 2008 at 3:07 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Mark's comment
Mark

On a side note though, unchecking the affiliate links preference DOES get rid of those links (to his products) as well.

January 16 2008 at 3:13 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
B.

When it comes to Dave Watanabe most people behave like innocent nuns. Have you ever tried to read the fine print at Apple online Store? Are your 300+ leopard new features working as they should? And what about Google on privacy...and so on...? Come on, GIVE ME A BREAK!

January 16 2008 at 2:29 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
seyDoggy

dugg http://digg.com/apple/Inquisitor_answers_the_call

I am a fan of Dave and I think the haters keep beating him down. He's not a people person, from what I can tell, but why be persecuted time and time again for that?

Thanks for the update.

January 16 2008 at 2:26 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jason Krause

This is good news. Whether you had a problem with it before or not. This is what he shoud have done in the first place.

Still wish Inquisitor didn't disable 1Password though.

January 16 2008 at 1:53 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Jason Krause's comment
Bizzle

How does it disable it? I'm new to 1password, but both seem to be working simultaneously for me without a problem. Can you elaborate?

January 16 2008 at 2:37 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jason Krause

Well after some "experimenting" I've gotten it to work again. But when I installed Inquisitor 3.0 (v51) 1Password was removed/didn't work in Safari for me (and others if you read the comments on the Mac software sites, MU & VT). So I removed Inquisitor. I then tried Inquisitor 3.0 (v52) today and it did the same thing. So I reinstalled 1Password and it showed up again. Hard to say what is the cause now.

January 16 2008 at 2:49 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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