Does it really matters? I mean... does it hurts you when you buy through a affiliated link? Probably not... Does it helps the developer? Maybe a little bit.

I don't care about the links... imagine that it would be otherwise... that it inserted a coupon-code or so... would you still complain?

ps: i'm *really* not David... and I'm neither pro or against this individual ;)

Funny, I get the impression this piece's author is the asshole, not David Watanabe.

Don't be so ungrateful.

I hear what you're saying and all.

But seriously, If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were tearing up a GOOD mac developer for no reason. If he WOULD have told the public UP FRONT... would any of us be LESS likely to use his product?

The whole controversy just doesn't make any sense. I'm happy he found a way to get compensated for free software. MORE mac developers should start thinking like this.

One quick question, Derik: Did you pay anything to hit those links? No. Give the guy a break. Inquisitor is a great add-on.

If you think it is so wrong, why don't you uninstall it and quit lining his pockets.

Ease up, man. You are starting to sound like a Windows user.

A lot of people are up in arms about this, and I don't think they have any good reason. I side with Watanabe on this. He's not asking you to buy anything from Amazon. It's not like it only returns Amazon affiliate links and not useful Google hits. There's no gun to your head to click on those links. How are they different than any other Amazon search result? Products don't cost more when clicked through those links.

When you use the Google search bar in Safari or Firefox, you're "unknowingly lining" both Apple's and Mozilla's pockets with money as well. Every time you use that box Google makes a small payment to the respective company. Yet are people up in arms over that? No.

What it boils down to is this: you're the one downloading the software (for free), so you agree to deal with whatever it does. If it does something bad to your system then, by all means, throw a fit. But if all it does is put in affiliate links then I don't see any cause for outrage. It's easy to point fingers but there's really no basis behind everyone's complaints.

Well said, jackfrost. Watanabe has done absolutely nothing wrong here.

The disclaimer of search result insertion is still deceptive. The text is in such poor contrast against the background that I had to highlight it to read it. I didn't even know it was there until I tried to highlight the whole page!

David makes some very nice looking applications, that are well written, but is given too much credit were credit is not due. Someone who sacrifices years of their life "to enhance the lives of others" does not hide caveat in the fine print.

Derik DeLong: wrong.

I've got to go with the vast majority of the responses on here and say that the author of this piece is the one that comes off looking badly. When a company gives away a product, only the most naive of consumers thinks that the action is purely motivated by unconditional generosity. I assume that any search program I use is profiting the individual or company that created it in some way. If you've felt deceived, maybe it's a reflection on your expectations rather than the programmer. Why not thank him for all the good his program has done for you instead of emphasizing what seems like a very insignificant "downside" (such as it is)?

Wow... some people can really be reactionary a**holes! You have to respect a guy's right to make money for his work. I don't think he has any responsibility to disclose exactly how he's doing that, as long as it doesn't invade my privacy or disclose personal information unknowingly, which this does not.

David makes GREAT software. I bought inquisitor before it went freeware and I continue to use it daily now. I've paid for several of his other products as well. Everyone should appreciate the effort he puts into making the kind of software that makes being a Mac user a great thing.

Get over it. This is a poorly conceived aricle and it dramatizes an issue that does not deserve the attention. If the software bothers you, don't use it. But don't try to paint the developer as some kind of nefarious villain. We live in a time of shifting landscapes where business models that survived generations no longer carry any relevancy. That an indie developer has added something as inocuous as an affiliate link (gasp) into your holy search results in the hopes of generating some kind of return on his work is not a crime. It's not evil. It's not sneaky. It's practical and affects you not at all.

My God. I've been a Mac user for over ten years. I joined the ranks when the future looked bleak. And one of the reasons I joined was because there was a community of users and developers that fostered enthusiasm for the platform. And these were dark times. Stop bringing us down. If you want to run with your conspiracy theories at least direct your ire at people and companies who deserve it. Network Solutions uses whois lookups to choose domains on which to squat. Microsoft paid Paramount a hefty sum -- not to prop up their inferior HD-DVD format -- but to keep the format war going in order to give them time to figure out a downloadable HD solution (and I'm ashamed to admit that Michael Bay agrees with me). Go complain about them! They deserve it.

I'm so mad right now.

I support this article. The guy should mention what the software is doing. Cause we trust that those searches are authentic google searches.

Still, watanabe is not an asshole, far from that. Just a little overlooking on his part.

Not to heap on Mr DeLong, but I can't help but feel that this is a bit of a tempest in a teapot.

He also GROSSLY missed a point that was easily derrived from the quotes he posted.
"But when I get threatened with harm and called an asshole by someone I have never met,...."
This is the real issue worth writing about. Regardless of whether or not you agree with what he did. It is at worst a bother that makes his software less useful and might make him sneaky and greedy (That is not my opinion but seems to be the authors).

That is most likely not cause for being called an a-hole and certainly doesn't give anyone cause to threaten harm apon someone.

Why didn't you get outraged about that? Why weren't you at least equally upset that a software developer was berrated and THREATENED for something that caused no REAL harm to anyone.

Why not write a piece on how the internet has given many people permission to behave in an antisocial and horrible way to strangers. Or Maybe on how some feel such a sense of entitlement that they feel they are OWED anything other than to be treated in a reasonable and just fashion.

That is a post worth reading.

1. My point is that he should have disclosed this from the start. The product is supposed to show results from the search engine of my choosing. It doesn't do that, it shows results and affiliate links. If you're reading in that I feel entitled to this software, you're not reading my piece. I don't. That's a straw man.

2. The fact that this software does this actually does bother me and I've gone back to Acidsearch. I might have been OK with it if I'd been informed up front that the product was in content ad-supported, but no one was. If he didn't think he should have to begin with, he wouldn't have amended the product's page.

(As for sounding like a Windows user for criticizing what is in some respects adware, I think the opposite is true. Windows users have always lined up to install software with this type of behavior (Bonzi Buddy, etc.). I find the guilt by association with Windows argument to be a crutch in the Mac community anyways.)

3. The Firefox analogy is flawed. I'm asking Firefox to give me search results. It gives that to me unadulterated. Applying the affiliate link in that case is appropriate because I'm asking their product to give me search results. It would be more appropriate if Firefox modified Google search result pages on the fly to include affiliate links. It doesn't. Inquisitor misrepresents these inserted links as search results.

4. The idea that this "doesn't hurt me" is irrelevant and untrue. Irrelevant because it doesn't change the deception. It's untrue because I actually use Amazon's affiliate system to support websites and people that request me to. I use this system to help support them. I can't do that if I get tagged with Inquisitor's affiliate signature.

5. I'm not "missing the point" about internet jerks. It's not newsworthy or even interesting. I've been threatened plenty of times because of this aspect of the internet. Penny Arcade documents it perfectly.

6. wamez, I've been on the Mac platform for longer than 10 years, though I'm not sure what relevance that tenure has. I'm not attacking the platform. I'm criticizing the actions taken by a Mac developer. I'm not going to tacitly support that behavior, allowing it to continue and spread to the rest of the community. I'm sorry about your anger over next generation video formats, but that's really not related to my beef with Watanabe.

I don't think the developer has done anything wrong here. Google searches typically produce a large number of sponsored product links. If there's a few thrown in to the Inquisitor results, it's actually a fairly reasonable representation of what a traditional search would produce. At least the preferred vendors are well-known in the online world.

If there's any code of ethics for freeware developers, I can't imagine that not mentioning this particular feature is anything but a minor technical violation. Hardly worth a mention in MacUser- or at least it wouldn't have been worth a mention back in the old days, when MacUser was a print publication and premier source of Mac news...

I wish i had the email he wrote me when after a couple months that i paid for inquisitor he decided to make it freeware...

What the hell is that? He was quite rude to me, and i ended up buying xtorrent aswell, but i didnt know it was his too..

i dont mind paying for some cool apps, but when u pay for them just to see them go freeware, that kinda sucks.
he should have compensate those that paid for it... give them a license to another paid soft, that wouldnt hurt

Umm, he should had disclosed this. Plain and simple it's deception. I don't mind him being compensated for his hard work but he still should be up front.

With that said I think he got a little too bent out of shape about the whole thing quite honest. What is this whole idealism of the Mac anyway? Is he speaking of the Mac community?

Does he realize that his Inquisitor really just circumvents the built in Safari search in which Apple receives revenue from Google?

Derek, you're whining. Plain and simple, you're whining. Perhaps you could purchase a pacifier from those Amazon links.

Derek, you're whining. Plain and simple. The man inserts affiliate links into search results in a NON-OBTRUSIVE MANNER. It's not malware and it won't hurt you. It's a shame you still don't have inquisitor, perhaps you could have used it to purchase a pacifier from those Amazon affiliate links.

I am amazed that some people here are asking what difference this makes.

Put simply, it is dishonest and sneaky.

What other undeclared / undocumented functions does Watanabes software carry out without you knowing?
You don't know . You can't be sure.

Also, perhaps some of you need to do a google search (not an inquisitor search) on this Watanabe character before blindly defending him and tearing apart the author of this article.

Try "David Watanabe" and "Support" as a starting point for your search.
This guy has a very poor track record for support to his paying customers. He also has a record of being extremely arrogant and very rude in his communications.

The fact that some of his "work" involves a GUI on top of other peoples (uncredited) work is also very poor practice.

I really don't understand how so many people don't find Dave Watanabe's behavior regarding Inquisitor simply wrong...

IF he had disclosed it in the first time, that would make it ok... At least you would be given the choice to accept (or not) the compromised results... A lot of people apparently don't realize that the search results are NOT placed in a non-obtrusive manner. They are REPLACING valid and probably far more relevant results. In a time where information availability grows exponentially, I need to be able to trust that relevant items will be presented within the first 1-3 entries...

Also, in a previous comment someone said that Google also places sponsored links in search results. Uh??? At least in my browsers these results are placed at the side of the REAL list of results, and I'm free to look at them or not. This is clearly not what Inquisitor does...

And to add insult to injury, the current Inquisitor webpage presents the disclosure conveniently hidden at the bottom of the page, in a text color with low contrast to the background. Design decision? Maybe, but in light of the current discussion it doesn't look too good.

So, all in all I support your article and in fact I don't get it how so many user don't...

One more thing, although this one is not directly related to the Inquisitor issue, but to Dave Watanabe's persona...

I can't help but find hillarious that HE (as the blog owner/administrator/CEO/whatever) chooses not to allow users to comment on many of his posts... Even the ones that have comments are HEAVILY censored by him... Nice way to do business...

Oh... Just an update:

Dave Watanabe has just deleted the Inquisitor post from his blog... I guess it was getting him too much attention (and not the good kind)...