Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

About five months ago, I made the switch from AIM to a new Instant Messaging client, Digsby.  Installation wasn’t a big deal, I just had to be careful and press decline to some crapware they wanted me to install.  After installing it, I was able to hook up my Facebook, Twitter, AIM, Google Talk, and Facebook Chat accounts into one convenient client.  After that, I checked out the forums to see what Digsby was all about and I saw some people complaining about the fact that Digsby conducts research when your computer is idling, but there is an option that turns it off.  Alright, so Digsby’s just trying to make some money to keep themselves afloat and offer an ad-less client. 

Are seven crapware apps and research really necessary?

LifeHacker recently published a good article which explains why Digsby is a bad client because of all the ways they try to install software.  I am inclined to agree with LifeHacker’s opinions even though I enjoy using Digsby.  I don’t think it is right for any company to market a “free” product and install so much malicious software along with it, yet they go one step further and allow Digsby to conduct research. 

Interestingly enough, the option to turn off the conduct research is hidden deep within Support Digsby under Help.  Users when first installing the client won’t know anything about this option that is default set to enable unless they hear from a forum user or read Digsby blog posts on the issue.  However, a new version of Digsby just released today will move that option into an easier to find location. 

A lot of the software Digsby wishes to be installed are not safe and are marked as spyware and adware.  Fortunately enough for users, each piece of software can be declined to install, however, I’m sure many fall for this trick as they press accept thinking it is necessary, something I almost did.  I can understand Digsby wanting to install one or two apps, but I think seven is definitely pushing it, especially considering each app can be potentially harmful to your computer.  The image above is what your desktop would look like if you install all of the software Digsby asks you to install. 

Digsby’s affiliate program

Digsby is looking for a way to monetize their program and is barely getting by.  For every referral you to get to install Digsby, Digsby will pay the you up to a dollar depending on your referrals’ geographic location.  This sounds great, but to do this, but you must create an additional account from a service outside of Digsby.

I am unsure how many people are taking advantage of Digsby’s affiliate program, but it is possible Digsby is dishing out a decent sum of money for this.  Thus, they are earning enough money from all this crapware and research to give back to their community.  Whatever happened to the good old days when programs were created to make things easier, and not for personal gains? 

Digsby Announcement - Please do what we tell you to

So let me get this straight - I have now installed over 7 different programs when I only planned on installing one, my computer is trying to solve AIDS and cancer while performing complex math equations in its spare time (a noble cause, but not something that seems to be inherently related to social networking and IMing), and I’m making a dollar every now and then.  That sounds pretty cool. 

From time to time, Digsby likes to send out announcements in the form of an IM to all their users.  I remember one time where the IM asked to vote for Digsby on a LifeHacker poll of the top 5 IM clients.  However, LifeHacker published a screen shot where it pretty much asked you to use this service - Tinker.  It sounds like Digsby is open to displaying text based ads, which are made to seem like a normal announcement. 

Web of Trust does not Trust Digsby

Recently, I had noticed my Web of Trust Firefox add-on displayed an orange rating when accessing the Digsby homepage.  Web of Trust checks the safety of the site you are currently visiting using Firefox.  I can’t remember if it’s always been like this, but I’m pretty sure in the past it used to be green, indicating it was a safe site.  Orange is usually a precautionary, or unsatisfactory, color indicating this website isn’t the best website to be surfing right now, but it isn’t a terrible website.  Take a look at the WOT scorecard for Digsby.com yourself and see what kind of ratings it gets. 

To Digsby or not to Digsby - that is the question

Please keep in mind Gadgetell in no way endorses nor discourages people from using Digsby.  When all the facts are considered, I still plan on using Digsby, but I will always have a certain degree of skepticism when using it.  I would prefer if they had not bundled the software with a ton of crapware, but that’s the way the world works. 

As long as you decline everything Digsby suggests, your computer should be safe.  Underneath it all, Digsby is a great piece of software that handles many different social networking services well and it is a shame to see it receive all this negative press.  I got in touch with a Digsby representative and basically they are going to let their users decide their course of action.  They are conducting a poll on a blog post asking users to select one of three options:

Option 1: Continue to show multiple offers in the installer along with the research module

Option 2: Show just one toolbar offer in the installer like other IM clients do and place small unintrusive ads in the product with an ad-free pro version available for a modest price

Option 3: Other - let the creativity flow!

Here are the results of the voting so far: Option 1 68%  (3990 votes) Option 2 20% (1185 votes) Other: 12% (681 votes). 

It will definitely be interesting to see how Digsby plans to change their revenue models from here on out and how the fanbase reacts to the recent negative press.  Feel free to share your comments on Digsby as a whole below. 

Check it out [Digsby]