Competition heats up and Real Estate in real life as well as on the web is precious - the key differentiator is the same location, location, location.

The problem on the web, just like in real life there is a right way to advertise and gain recognition and there is a wrong way.  Space on the browser toolbar is precious. One of the tools that I have  used for a couple of years now is called Vuze. Vuze is a bitorrent client (originally it was a pure client called Azureus) that was tied in to reasonably high quality media available over the Vuze network and it became a clean way to subscribe to internet serials, and video podcasts like the TED or even the MIT classroom lectures.

The problem is the latest Vuze update essentially hijacked my browser added another line of duplicate search tools and "features" and adding insult to injury, designated Bing as my default search engine while giving it top billing in the new toolbar. The update itself in addition to being sneaky in its installation, is poorly written. The 'huge' overhead added to Firefox's already slow start-up is intolerable. A quick peak showed java, python (jython?) and calls out to the Bing site (with a Vuze token) all while I'm waiting to use my browser.

I'm usually pretty good at not accepting offers to add extra features when installing software but this one came in as part of their update process and enough is enough. Vuze, it was a nice ride for a couple of years but you are history - there are too many good applications and companies competing for attention and browser space to put up with this kind of poor customer service on your part.

UPDATE:

I am now on my third attempt at uninstalling this puppy. The application "uninstaller" left the Vuze application launcher behind and what it terms the Bing toolbar (complete with Vuze icon) still running in my browser. I attempted to take out the application launcher with uninstall again (it doesnt show up) and then with Revo uninstaller (that failed to completely remove it as well) so now I'm going to remove Bing anything .exe from the hard drive and the registry manually and hunt don and remove any related Browser Helper Objects (BHO's) and scripts - I'm glad I got rid of this application now, because it truly is acting like malware.