The folks at stopbadware.org have sent their second alert in less than a month calling RealPlayer “badware” because the organization takes exception to the Message Center in an older version of the player, and a flaw in the un-install process in our current version.
I actually admire what stopbadware is trying to do to keep consumers safe. But in this case the only thing bad is the report itself. Here’s why: Not a single claim raised by stopbadware actually hurts anyone.
Yet the report cites such egregious practices as promoting movie trailers or security software that consumers can enjoy by using Real’s software.
Message Center tells consumers about video they can enjoy using RealPlayer (film.com is owned by RealNetworks) or security and performance software they can download from McAfee because they are Real customers.
The truth is that I actually found the Message Center in the old RealPlayer to be annoying too. So I turned it off. Not rocket science. And certainly not the sin stopbadware alleges.
And here’s the thing: lots of our customers told us they didn’t like the Message Center either. So guess what? We turned it off in our current version so not a single person ever sees it unless they go and turn it on. Stopbadware even gives us credit for this improvement in the user experience. But that’s old software so I’m not sure why we’re talking about it. We announced the availability RealPlayer 11 on May 31st of last year¬ nearly a year ago. RealPlayer 11 is the default application you download from RealNetworks today. And it has won the acclaim of The Wall Street Journal (subscription required), USA Today, Businessweek and Wired for being consumer friendly and innovative. That’s why millions of people around the world have downloaded it since.
Stopbadware raises a second claim with respect to the current version of RealPlayer: That we install the Rhapsody music player engine without explaining the connection between it and RealPlayer, and then we fail to remove it during the RealPlayer un-install process. Well, they have a point here. But it’s not that consumers will be hurt by this oversight. It’s that someone failed to explain the connection between the two (RealPlayer is a universal media player, so we install support for all major media formats like Windows Media Player, QuickTime and, yes, our own Rhapsody), and that we also didn’t catch that in the un-install process. (though to be fair, the Rhapsody player engine is listed in the windows control panel add/remove programs and can easily be uninstalled from there) As far as we know, no one has been hurt by this mistake. In the software business we call that a bug and we fix it in our next version of the software.
We will continue to make improvements to RealPlayer, and I think you’ll see that just like we did in our current version those changes are intended to give consumers more innovation ¬like being the first to give people the ability to simply download Internet video ¬and a better experience. That’s why we simplified the installation process and why removed extraneous features and promotions.
Let us know what you think.
-Jeff Chasen, vice president for RealPlayer
I downloaded real player and was annoyed with with the constant interruptions so much so that i uninstalled it only to have my audio ripped off my machine, i reloaded and it came back,
after a few days of putting up with it's slowing down my computer and annoying interruptions,i uninstalled again and now i'm left without audio on my machine. I have done restore and every other fix i can and have spent hours trying to correct HELP
Posted by: al compos | June 28, 2008 at 11:15 AM
Hi Real Team!
Real Player Browser Record Plugin 1.0 was a thrill. Unfortunately, it's not compatible with Firefox 3.0. Can you please real-ease an update quickly?
Thanks by advance, in the name of the millions of users of FF3
Posted by: Harold | July 01, 2008 at 02:42 AM
keeping customers safe is probably one of the biggest concerns of most big companies. Safety first... I admire what stopbadware is doing... but I feel that Real has kept things real on their side and shown that they are not trying to harm anyone .. - KG
Posted by: KG | July 04, 2008 at 01:56 PM
Please consider updating the RealPlayer plugin SDK's. The current info is getting rather dated, particularly I am interested seeing some samples using apple's xcode compiler.
Posted by: ScrobrealPlayer | July 14, 2008 at 05:05 PM
Please tell me how to get rid of "Real Messenger Center". It is maddening to have to wait for it to come up before I can go on-line. I did not order this or even WANT this thingie...How do I get the darn thing off my computer?
Posted by: Sandra | July 21, 2008 at 07:33 AM
What I want to know is whether installing RealPlayer yesterday has anything to do with the fact that certain music clips Web pages are no longer downloading properly on my browser. Instead of the list of clip selections, I now get blank white screens.
Posted by: K. Swarts | July 26, 2008 at 04:07 PM
Maybe I blamed RealPlayer unfairly for my computer's being unable to download my regular music Web page yesterday. The latter is back online this morning.
Posted by: K. Swarts | July 27, 2008 at 05:23 AM
i love real player and love the continuous updates that you provide for us. i havent had more problems with real player than i have with itunes.
good luck and heres to your success.
jay
http://www.bestcybermondaysales.com
Posted by: Cyber Monday | August 18, 2008 at 11:49 PM
i love real player and love the continuous updates that you provide for us. i havent had more problems with real player than i have with itunes.
good luck and heres to your success.
jay
http://www.bestcybermondaysales.com
Posted by: Cyber Monday | August 18, 2008 at 11:49 PM
i love real player and love the continuous updates that you provide for us. i havent had more problems with real player than i have with itunes.
good luck and heres to your success.
jay
http://www.bestcybermondaysales.com
Posted by: Cyber Monday | August 18, 2008 at 11:50 PM
i love real player and love the continuous updates that you provide for us. i havent had more problems with real player than i have with itunes.
good luck and heres to your success.
jay
http://www.bestcybermondaysales.com
Posted by: Cyber Monday | August 18, 2008 at 11:50 PM
The easiest and cleanest way to install Real Player on a Windows machine is using Google Pack that installs and update your third party software with just 1 click. (I sound like an advertisement but it's true).
http://pack.google.com
Posted by: Oscar | August 21, 2008 at 07:23 AM
While installing REAL PLAYER I noticed that desktop weather channel seemed to have been included in that download! It seemed harmless enough initially. However I decided to uninstall it ,or rather try to uninstall,and was unable to! When I pressed on the uninstall button within my uninstall programs link (control center) nothing happened.Weather channel is still present (listed)in control center(programs). I have shut down ,reopened windows several times in an attempt to uninstall this feature with no luck. Why is this? I am uncomfortable having any program, feature on my computer that I am unable to get rid of at free will. I feel as though the company is attempting to force that feature on me, although I have made it clear that I do not want it ,by trying to uninstall it.I am not happy and this is a bad business practice .How do I get this off of computer! I want no remnants of it left behind period! I am now reluctant to trust anything labeled"free for download" on the internet, for fear that it will hurt more than help!!
Posted by: MissK | August 27, 2008 at 08:16 PM
Transparency is so vital to people downloading software on the internet and there are a lot of features and issues with Real Player that are not transparent to the average internet user.
That's why people get P.O'd.
Posted by: Get Student Loans | September 07, 2008 at 08:23 PM
I build my own computers.
Happiest day of my life was ridding my system of all Real product.
Still can watch all real content though.
Google is your friend....lolz
Posted by: XxSATANxX | September 11, 2008 at 02:14 PM
I enjoy using RealPlayer. The installation was easy and flawless for me. I would recommend this great products to others. Thanks.
Posted by: GR_Gifts | September 15, 2008 at 01:35 PM
I just wish the "suggestions" department would actually implement some. I do a little home automation work, and use the real player to play media files via remote control. I really want more keyboard shortcuts. to things like shuffle play. and better shortcuts to fast play, faster play, rewind and frame fwd etc.
I also want integration to mozilla current, and chrome for the recorder functions, I want more browser choices and flexibility but nooooo one listens.
Posted by: Benjamin | September 16, 2008 at 08:08 AM
Does anyone know where I can get a plugin for QuickTime that will allow me to play Real media content in QuickTime and/or convert Real media to either MPEG or MOV so I can play it in QuickTime on Leopard?
Posted by: cuteboy | September 20, 2008 at 03:09 AM
Realplayer Sucks! Get VLC instead: http://videolan.org/vlc/
Posted by: Anonymous | September 24, 2008 at 02:13 PM
real player 11 destroyed all of my medical lectures, all the anatomy, microbiology, chemistry, cellular biology lectures. I am not just deeply disappointed in a 'badware,' I have to start over. This is a disaster for a med student. And customer support is non existent unless you have the Gold RP.
Posted by: cindy | September 25, 2008 at 07:27 PM
I deleted Real Player because I was annoyed by the popping up of the message center.
But to my surprise, it is still popping up.
Huh? so this'"Badware"? If you want people to take your company seriously,then this is not the way to do it.
So post the solution to get rid of this `MC!!!!!!!
Posted by: Ruud Leeflang | September 28, 2008 at 04:13 AM
Hi,
I need security contact email address of RealNetworks to report a vulnerability in RealPlayer.
Thank you
Posted by: Behrang | September 30, 2008 at 09:09 AM
I was think that I only one have problem with Real Media Player, I totally agree about release 11 very annoyed and lazy. So sorry if must talk that maybe more people don't like bother by bad behavior of that software, maybe I can ask real player team why not create smallest installer, friendly, and configurable and etc.
Another not all people like to be updated to the newest version, we are know that new can be same thinks as more bug. I have enough to use version 10 but why real player download new version automatically, then I try to install, hope new version more good and da... da... da... awfull. Lazy, Lot of Resources, Annoying Message Center, I don't like that. I try to uninstall, result not clean enough and the lasting I want tell to you, I FORMAT AND REINSTALL AGAIN MY WINDOWS.
Best think, create small, faster, configurable, easy for idiot people like me, maybe we can love it.
Thanks
Posted by: Mozaiq | October 12, 2008 at 04:41 PM
I am amazed why nobody mentioned that RealPlayer is a damn resource hog. I don't know if there are memory leaks all over this utter piece of shit software, but i can barely play a f-cking CD on my brand new laptop, without the thing stuttering or simply replaying a section of a track over and over while completely making the rest of the system unusable. It appears to be doing the same exact thing on my 2 other machines one of which was self built. Fix you f-cking bugs and until you do, stop making money on this shit!
Posted by: Serge | October 23, 2008 at 09:25 AM
RP totally sucks - real alternative does the job without the disgusting bloat - dont ever download the real realplayer.
Posted by: mickey mouse | October 26, 2008 at 06:32 AM