MS in talks to buy Claria AKA Gator
 

http://www.itworld.com/Tech/2428/050630msadware/

May fall through because of the public perception such a move would cause.

MS has also downgraded Claria detections.

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,13793423

So much for AntiSpyware :(.

Re: MS in talks to buy Claria AKA Gator
 

They've done the same for Weatherbug, which is why I prefer to recommend CounterSpy rather then MS's Antispyware.

From a prior post of mine:

How many ‘vendors’ can ‘convince’ Microsoft to allow their adware/spyware? Some interesting articles can be found at the following websites (a paragraph or two from each one immediately follows the link):

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/200...044223_F.shtml
“While certain adware companies have been looking to bribe anti-spyware companies into taking them off the list, Broadband Reports wondered how Microsoft would respond to such an approach. Already, the company faced just such a question, as the anti-spyware software identifies Weatherbug as a possible threat. Weatherbug, of course, used to be a big adware provider, but claims that they've reformed from their earlier ways and no longer do such things. As such, they were peeved about the classification -- even if it's described as a small threat. Microsoft quickly backed down and agreed to remove Weatherbug from the list.�

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1749409,00.asp
“A Microsoft spokeswoman said the beta product included a vendor dispute-resolution mechanism to deal with complaints from third-party companies.

In the case of WeatherBug, the dispute-resolution process paid immediate dividends. On Friday, the company received a response from Microsoft with the good news that the current signatures for Minibug will be removed.�