Bundled software and pop-up ads are difficult to eliminate, why are they more difficult to prevent than they were ten years ago?

To surf the contemporary internet, you need a lot of skills, one of which is knowing how to download software.

Even an intellectual who has been "online" for more than a decade can easily get stuck in downloading software. When you search for software that is not available in the official store on your browser, you will see a bunch of download buttons such as "Safe Download", "High-speed Download", "One-click Download", "Download Now", "Direct Download", "Android Download", "Click to Download" and so on.

At this year's 315 party, CCTV exposed the problem of software download platforms hiding inducement traps, more than 200 software download stations or bundled downloads.

In fact, this is especially true in the Android and Windows markets. Users' initial download choices also have a one-click packaging and installation method without routines and ads, and as speculative operators begin to find out the gray area of the software download path, software downloads are becoming more and more invincible, and the experience is getting worse and worse.

The routine of bundling software and pop-up advertising has long been not new

If your internet age is long enough, you should remember the days when the Huajun Software Park, Sky Software Station and Dot Software Park were "three-legged", when the three major download stations provided netizens with a lot of one-stop installation services, so that netizens got used to installing software, first go to the download station to search.

But I don't know when it began, and a number of download sites began to "degenerate". The first stage is to disguise the advertiser's software as a fake "click to download" link and guide the user to click in the form of an image.

▲ Image from: Zhihu user @ star is fruity

After downloading the installation package, you will find that the software you want has been "tanuki for a prince". What's more frustrating is that a software is often bundled with multiple software, such as "xx wallpapers", "xx calendars" and other useless tools.

▲ Picture from: Zhihu user @ Wen Dao is half blind

So later people began to download software on platforms such as "360 Security Center" and "Golden Mountain Guard". However, these platforms are not worrying, "one-click repair", "immediate acceleration" and other daily pop-up windows, often linked to "rogue software" behind them, if you do not pay attention, you will be caught.

▲ Image from: Zhihu user @ Xu Jian

In order to enhance its competitiveness, the old download station began to transform and enter the second stage, removing the previous fancy Flash ads and exaggerated image links from the website and turning it into a clean and refreshing appearance. Instead, we now have links such as "high-speed download" and "safe download".

After clicking on these links, a so-called "high-speed downloader" will be automatically downloaded and installed. After the user opens it, he unconsciously downloads many rogue software by default, which makes people really invincible.

The same is true of the download platforms that were exposed at the 315 Gala. The reporter tried the PC6 download station, the orange terrier download station, Tengniu network, ZOL software download and other platforms, found that downloading multiple software, there will be 5-6 popular recommended software pages, the desktop software will automatically appear when installed, inexplicable pop-up window ads also appear, even if the fork is turned off, the installation is still silently installed.

Through further investigation by the reporter, it was found that there was no difference between the actual speed of "ordinary download" and "high-speed download" displayed on the page. Behind the "high-speed download" that is clearer after the color is colored in green, there is a bunch of software installation and advertising traps.

There is even a deeper routine of changing tanuki for the prince, sometimes the downloaded software will be transferred, will be replaced by the same kind of software of the customers they cooperate with, and the user will charge a sum of money every time it is downloaded.

In such a "surfing environment", slowly many people get used to downloading software by going to the official website to download it. Generally speaking, on the "Product Center" or "Download Center" page of the official website, you can download software that is not bundled with other software or programs. It is a relatively worry-free way at present.

However, some netizens found that the official website download also needs to "have more eyes". For example, the "Flash China Special Edition" on Windows will be "crazy pop-up"; the home page of the "Firefox China Special Edition" will have many promotions. For these software, going to the English official website to download is the correct path.

From no wide download to rogue bundle, software download why drive backwards

It is no exaggeration to say that although the software ecology of today's various systems has been much fuller than that of ten years ago, in the experience of software download, there has been a situation of "driving backwards".

▲ Image courtesy of thesoftwarereport

Ten years ago, when the rise of smart phones was just emerging, basically a "91 mobile assistant", "pea pods" and other platforms could include most of the software needed for daily life, and there were not so many routines for each download station.

With the prosperity of the software market, the user download experience has regressed, which is a confusing phenomenon of the contemporary Internet.

One reason is that the growth of the app store has not kept pace with the growth of the number of software.

For some reasons, the application market and supporting services (GMS) provided by Google for Android are generally not normally used on domestic Andrid mobile phones. This provides a good opportunity for software platform manufacturers to make a fortune, so we see more and more Android software stores in China.

▲ A wide variety of app stores

Software such as App Treasure, Baidu Mobile Assistant, Pea Pod, 360 Mobile Assistant, etc., I believe that old Android players have installed it. But as the software market's pie grew larger, these third-party software stores began to "go to war." For example, around 2015, pea pods were blocked by Baidu mobile assistants.

▲ Image from: Zhihu user @ He Ye

During the civil war in the third-party software mall, the software stores brought by domestic mobile phone manufacturers began to rise, and the user group was quickly divided and recalled. The number of users of the self-built software stores of Xiaomi, Huawei, OV and other manufacturers began to surpass the number of third-party software stores.

After the rise of the official software mall, although the commonly used software downloads, the user experience has been improved, such as through the depth of permissions, so that users do not need to confirm or jump multiple times, to achieve "one-click installation". However, for niche software and software not included in the official mall, the cost of user acquisition and download has become higher.

Like Huawei, Xiaomi, OV, OnePlus and other official stores, the richness of software varies. Some niche software can only be found through certain third-party platforms, which is related to the vet rigor of the app store. Generally speaking, official stores have relatively high requirements for software quality, and some software with single functions or serious homogenization have been difficult to pass the audit.

▲ Image courtesy of Indiamart

Various official malls and many third-party malls have formed a situation similar to "warlord division" and control different software resources. This is in stark contrast to the "unified" iOS ecosystem. Users also have to pay some price for this freedom when using the Android ecosystem with a high degree of freedom.

Compared with mobile phones, the Computers of the Windows camp have few brand-customized software malls, and few users download software through the Microsoft Mall. Although the variety and quantity of software are increasing, the user experience of downloading software has not improved greatly.

▲ Image courtesy of systwea

Another "pot" that must not be mentioned needs to be "backed" by search engines.

Ideally, when searching for a piece of software, users should see the software's official website in the most conspicuous position and click to enter the official download channel.

But this is still a "luxury" for now. Different search engines, entering the same software name, display different content.

For example, when I searched for "Ruqi Travel" with Baidu, I pulled down to the 7th article to see the official website of Ruqi Travel, and the above 6 were all advertisements. Interestingly, two of the first three are links to the official websites of competitors (T3 Travel, Flower Pig Taxi).

However, the phenomenon of some search engines "hanging sheep's heads and selling dog meat" has a long history and is not a new thing. While we can't afford to improve the search experience, we can draw up the following lessons to make the next download a little easier.

Download the software as far as possible to go to the official website, in the product page to find the download link.

The results of Baidu search, directly have a "download" button, do not click.

Do not trust the attractive buttons such as "high-speed download" and "safe download", especially platforms such as xx download station and xx software park.

Before clicking "Download", confirm that there is a small print description around the button.

Before installing software, carefully observe the presence or absence of default check boxes, otherwise bundles may be downloaded by default, especially for Windows PCs.

However, if we want to solve this problem at the root, we must rely on ecology. For Android users, the ideal picture is to use the Google Play Software Store anytime, anywhere. Otherwise, it is hoped to see that the brand's own application mall is full enough, the application is complete enough, and it is new enough.

▲ Image from: mobilespyfree

For Windows users, of course, it is hoped that Microsoft can pay more attention to the software store. After all, the current download experience is too bad, not only the number of software is small, but the version is also difficult to say.

Today, when hardware is fully developed, manufacturers should spend more effort to improve the basic software experience of users.