I don't see that it's speculation. Avira putting the Uniblue ad in is well documented on many web sites. Mele20 pointed out the hornets nest they had stirred up on their own forum so it doesn't take a stretch to see that maybe they followed the direction he pointed them in to look and saw that maybe it wasn't a good idea.
As far as I know Mele20 has been banned from this forum, and for good reasons therefore as a source of information I would go elsewhere. I'm trying to keep an open mind towards Avira, when and if there's indisputable evidence of wrong doing I'll make my decisions. So far it's business as usual.
Fair enough but he certainly wasn't the only one bringing it up. I don't know him so if he was banned from here it must have been before my time. Avira has seemed to back off from it. I still have over a year on my Avira license so I'll be watching them carefully between now and then.
J_L is right as verified by an eruption of posts on Avira's own forum. Also cm1971 I believe Mele 20 is female if I recall correctly.
Yes, Mele20 is female, although I don't think it really matters in this context. I'd like to report that on the machine where I've installed Avira Personal there was a massive update offering webguard bundled with a search bar, obviously Ask.com. The webguard is not available separately from the search bar, it is actually integrated, therefore it is not possible to have the webguard alone. I'm sure lots of people will disapprove of the new development but let me put it this way, on my Avira premium I never activate the webguard for speed reasons, so if you are against ask.com, just forget about the webguard, or buy the premium version, or install Avast.
May I remind all Wilders members that a public discussion of any individual member's status is inappropriate. Let's keep the focus solely on Avira. Thanks!
Yesterday I downloaded Avrira Free from their website and installed: no Uniblue or whatsoever came bundled with it. It was absolutely clean, so perhaps we can stop the fuss now.
Avira did wrong everything again... http://www.h-online.com/security/news/item/Service-Pack-for-Antivir-confuses-users-1271030.html The toolbar, the Uniblue... Now the protection is incorrectly displayed and they say that "with the toolbar you'll get further protection of the WebGuard"...
For Avira to make money they would have to choose a paid software vendor to partner with, therefore CCleaner would not make them any money because it is freeware. There is a number of good paid software that Avira could have made partnerships with. Too many to list them all, of coarse Uniblue and Ask.com might be able to make them more money than others because they chose them and sacrificed their own reputation which could cause them to loose money instead of making money. Thanks.
To get back on the topic of Avira: Has Avira made any public statements indicating whether the Uniblue partnership is still intact? So far I have found anything but many users have said that the Uniblue rogueware ads are no longer displaying. I think it would be in the best interest if Avira would come right out and say that they are sorry for recommending and making a partnership with a known rogue company. But it looks like they are remaining silent about the issue which makes them look guilty. I have even heard rumors that Uniblue has secretly bought Avira. It might sound crazy but it wasn't long ago that Uniblue discontinued their anti-malware program "SpyEraser". Maybe Avira was the replacement? Thanks.
Maybe Avira's thinks Uniblue's current products are now better than they were in the past, so a partnership is OK? Who knows... Plus, problems with registry cleaners and the like are certainly not an Uniblue exclusivity. If you search on Wilders, you will find threads bashing Macecraft as well (and they make the arguably best registry cleaner available atm).
I use a registry cleaner. Not to try to speed anything up or keep things "clean" but they DO have their very specific uses. I like CCleaners.
I voted "I couldn't care less" I did try Avira not to long ago on a Windows XP box I am responsible for. After firing it up, I got a ad to buy more stuff.... I immediately removed it.
I believe they posted on their forum that the the Uniblue was a temporary promotion, tested only in the US and Canada. However they did not say whether/when the promotion is or will be over, nor did they say they had severed ties to Uniblue as their "trusted partner."
