Bonzi Buddy
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Bonzi Buddy is an on-screen software agent from BONZI Software. It is a well-known example of spyware, with computer speed, privacy and ease of use all affected by installing the program. When someone installs BonziBUDDY, his or her homepage gets set to www.bonzi.com.
The user interface is a purple ape who swings across the screen. The ape tells jokes, reads facts, sings songs, checks the user's e-mail, and delivers voice advertisements. The interface used to be a green parrot; the interface was later changed to the ape interface. Children often install Bonzi Buddy, seeing the program as a fun toy instead of as an advertising program.
The Bonzi Buddy application uses Microsoft Agent technology to display the Bonzi ape on-screen and provide text-to-speech capability.
Many people are skeptical of Bonzi Buddy, because it istalls quite a lot of Spyware. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spyware) While it may be a cute monkey it is generaly not a good idea to insall Bonzi Buddy. There are many free replacements for Bonzi Buddy, without the spyware. To find them do a Google (http://www.google.com/) search on whatever utility one is looking for.
External links
- Bonzi.com (http://bonzi.com)
- PC Hell site on how to remove Bonzi Buddy (http://www.pchell.com/support/bonzibuddy.shtml)
- Spy any site on how to remove Bonzi Buddy (http://www.spyany.com/program/article_ad_rm_Bonzi_Buddy.html)
- Scumware site on the effects of Bonzi Buddy (http://www.scumware.com/apps/scumware.php/action::view_article/article_id::1077260341/topic::Scumware,-Spyware,-Adware-&-Malware-Applications/)