I'm confused. Did Microsoft make a deal with Cnet to include this on every download, or did a third party do this? StartNow (startnow.com) is run by an independent company:
"The StartNow Start page is owned and operated by Zugo Ltd, a start page platform company. Our start pages are usually official operated on behalf of one of our clients or partners. Some pages may be "unofficial" and in support of/dedicated to improving the user experience for an existing product or extending a product's existing functionality."
This sounds like really bad PR for Microsoft. I wonder what they will do.
Microsoft, as well as Google, pays for searches you bring to them. That's why many free applications offer you toolbar and/or default search. They make money out of it. Similiary, browsers (Opera, Firefox, ..) make money out of it as well. So there's probably nothing wrong here done by Microsoft. It's CNET that is abusing this.
"The StartNow Start page is owned and operated by Zugo Ltd, a start page platform company. Our start pages are usually official operated on behalf of one of our clients or partners. Some pages may be "unofficial" and in support of/dedicated to improving the user experience for an existing product or extending a product's existing functionality."
This sounds like really bad PR for Microsoft. I wonder what they will do.