Dave Watanabe's Inquisitor plugin for Safari has been the source of some controversy for affiliate linking shenanigans, and underwent some changes following the public outcry. None of that seems to have deterred Yahoo! from taking an interest in the search plugin. Yahoo! revealed today in a blog post that they would be acquiring the rights to Inquisitor.
The new version (which is a free download) removes affiliate links (completely, I assume) and updates the preferences interface. There is a reference in the Yahoo! post to a simplification of the process of selecting a search provider but I'm failing to remember what was complex about it in the previous version. Obviously, the top choice on the dropdown is now Yahoo!, but you can still choose to use Google and all of the other secondary search options appear to be intact.
I'll give Yahoo! credit for recognizing a beautiful interface and what many -- myself included -- agree is an extremely useful plugin. Whether Dave Watanabe's existing reputation will affect Yahoo! in any way is debatable, so I'm withholding speculation. Dave has made it clear that he remains an independent developer and is not joining the ranks of Yahoo!, remaining focused on his existing projects.
Thanks, Ross!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-09-2008 @ 4:38PM
Joe RIckerby said...
I guess this means no more Google in Inquisitor?
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5-09-2008 @ 4:55PM
Fray said...
Except for the part that says: "you can still choose to use Google"
Also, what is "Dave Watanabe's existing reputation" and how could it possibly affect Yahoo!?
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5-09-2008 @ 4:58PM
Chad said...
Some people have said negative things about him. You know how lemmings are.
5-09-2008 @ 4:58PM
christophercjensen said...
I can imagine he just made a good wad of money :)
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5-09-2008 @ 5:05PM
LuminousNerd said...
It removes affiliate links? That ought to be illegal! Why the hell would you want to do that?!
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5-09-2008 @ 7:19PM
Macskeeball said...
By removing affiliate links, they meant the ones added by Inquisitor itself, not affiliate links that are in the actual search results normally.
5-09-2008 @ 7:37PM
LuminousNerd said...
My bad! Misunderstood, sorry
5-09-2008 @ 5:40PM
Onny said...
this is yahoo's only way to get into that google-owned search box and make some money off the rise in popularity of mac/safari. with eric schmidt on the board (and google's wealth) there was no other way to get in. nice move on yahoo's part. now look out for the monetization scheme--though, since it's yahoo, there may not be one ;)
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5-09-2008 @ 6:05PM
losty said...
Well I guess version (v53) was my last update.
If anyone wants it before being forced to download the yahoo enhanced version google (irony) will help you find it. As will I:
http://mac-free.com/download/Inquisitor.html
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5-11-2008 @ 6:01AM
yakov chodosh said...
That'll be awesome for you when Safari 4 comes out and everything completely stops working.
5-09-2008 @ 9:32PM
Ed said...
I guess Yahoo decided they needed a toolbar for Safari, and this was a good way to do it. As long as Google can be chosen as the default and it isn't broken in any way to benefit Yahoo, that's fine with me.
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5-10-2008 @ 5:18AM
henrrrik said...
It's not a plugin. Safari doesn't support plugins. It's an unsupported hack.
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5-12-2008 @ 3:42PM
Fray said...
John Gruber? Is that you?
5-11-2008 @ 6:55PM
Marc said...
I guess it has something to do with the fact that I am running Tiger here, but it seems the Inquisitor installer renamed my existing InputManagers folder in my Library to 'InputManagers-Tiger', created a new InputManagers folder in the top-level library and installed Inquisitor in there.
Thereby effectively shutting down my existing InputManager (which is SafariBlock, an awesome ad-blocker).
So if you are running Tiger and you have other InputManagers running, be aware.
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