It’s not everyday an application interface is designed to purposefully confuse people.
It mostly just kinda happens. There isn’t any malicious intent involved.
However, I’ve had it with Adobe and Google.
First off, let me say that I am very disappointed in Adobe for keeping Shockwave alive.
Merge it with Flash. Keep it down to one browser plug-in, jeez.
Second, shame on both companies for purposefully designing a confusing interface.
I visited a site recently that had a Shockwave applet. I wanted to see it, so
I installed the plug-in. Boom, up pops this window:
I read it as this: “Hey, you just started the installation of a plug-in. Click
next to continue.” Whereas it actually said “installing plug-in. To install
another plug-in you didn’t ask for, click next.” The insidiousness is in the
form of a little checkbox that asks if you want the toolbar. The problem is
that the checkbox looks like its part of the feature list, so naturally you just click
next to continue installing the original plug-in.
It’s a nicely designed form. It conveys information perfectly. Except
the information tricks you. It’s very malware-y. I would expect such a
thing from Adobe; they are starting to really annoy me. But Google has always
had the mantra of “do no evil”. I called phooey on that long ago, and this is
a perfect example of their hypocrisy. I realize they play a very minor role
in this situation, but they really should have rules about how people agree to install
their software.
I spent a good chunk of my morning yesterday listening to someone complain about how
Microsoft installs the .NET remote app installer plug-in into Firefox, and how inappropriate
that is. In my opinion, this is way worse. Microsoft just did it.
This is explicitly malicious. They go out of their way to confuse you so they
can say “hey, you agreed to install it.” Phooey, indeed.
</rant>
