in my experienceJanuary 24, 2002 3:22 AM
Seriously, Spyware is one of the worst things to come along on the Internet in the last year or so (the Nimda and Code Red viruses would be my other pick). What is so offensive about it is that YOU intstall it without your knowledge or approval, and then it reports various bits of information back to the creator of the software.
The experience the user gets from this sort of thing is terrible and does not lend itself to a viable business plan. People will actively fight back against these sorts of activities, and news articles will cover it, which only underscores the need for positive, user oriented, product experiences. AudioGalaxy failed at that, and has shot iteself in the foot. If you use their software, or a produce internet software, please learn from their mistake.
<update when="December 24, 2003">
Solutions for removing perfectnav (aka find4u ?) have been posted here recently. Scroll down to see those solutions and to see a comment from what seems to be a perfectnav representative (offering uninstall info). I had never heard of perfectnav before people stated posting comments about it here (I'm a Mac OSX user) and cannot vouch-for/verify anything in the comments posted below. Swim at your own risk.
</update>