The next wave of product placement?

The 1990s was the heyday of submarine spyware bundling. For instance, you might want to add a little widget to your Netscape or Internet Explorer toolbar that tells you what the weather is when your little slice of Cubeville didn't have access to a window. Unbeknownst to you, when you installed said widget, one or more other programs--almost always spyware--were installed in the process.

Even reputable companies try to bundle software with downloads. For instance, iTunes will install Quicktime, and attempt to have you install Apple's Safari web browser. Similarly, the Yahoo! toolbar attempts to ride Adobe Acrobat Reader's coat-tails during the installation process. Ditto for Sun's Java, if I recall correctly.

The difference is that the reputable companies will make it pretty obvious when they bundle other software (third party or their own), although they are not above making that the default installation option. And the associations are pretty much no-brainers: Companies like Adobe, Sun, Yahoo and Apple are all gunning for the 8000-lb. Redmond gorilla, after all. You know: The enemy of my enemy and all that...

However, yesterday when I clicked the Windows system tray icon to update my version of Java, Sun offered me a free trial of another company's backup software. I'd never heard of either the company or its product, which--from my highly uninformed and thoroughly subjective standpoint--seems to be crossing a line from "strategic alliance" into "paid advertising." It's not at all hyperbole to say that Sun's emaciated corporate body is in the process of being swallowed by the Oracle anaconda. Thus, it could well be that the notion of companies buying ad space in the upgrade forms of other companies' software is merely an evolutionary dead end--McNealy and Schwartz's attempt to add that much more gilding to their parachutes, if you will.

For pete's sake, I hope so.