Todays GGOTD was a big fish game so I am (sort of) on topic here. Help me everyone... I think I might want to instal this toolbar but am unsure. I asked this question once on another forum; people there advise against it but didnt offer any reasons why. I know lots of GGOTD Fans are also Big fish users so please..everyone...Did you ever try their toolbar? Did you like it or not?
Big Fish Games toolbar...is it any good?
(9 posts) (5 voices)-
EXPLOITSUSHI
MemberPosted 18 years ago # -
Alianthia
MemberI have heard that the toolbar really spies on what one does etc.
If you want to get full games and don't mind ads, try the mostfun site.
(I got the site from a posting here at the forums)
I have gotten some games from them and haven't had any problems. I run a spyware program regularly and it doesn't come up with any spyware or malware.
the player does want to load with startup so I look for games there that are stand alone ones.
Have fun!Posted 18 years ago # -
NolafromNZ
MemberI buy a lot of games from Big Fish and have had their toolbar for years. I have never had any viruses through it, (I use Avira AntiVir and AVG regularly-separately), nor malware (Spybot Search and Destroy) nor do I have any knowledge of them spying on me or trying to send info back to Head Office! (Comodo). I mainly use their toolbar for getting tomorrow's game today because I log onto their site daily to see what is on offer. Their toolbar is very handy to see at a glance all the games issued over the past month. For this reason I use it every day and find it very useful.
I have more of a problem with their Game Manager, but that is because I am on dialup, and they seem to be focusing more towards broadband users now. I have a lot of trouble paying for games believe it or not, their Game Manager tells me that I don't have a net connection and it can take me sometimes two days of trying to activate a game using a game credit (I have a jumbo membership) before it succeeds. And their downloader must be the slowest downloader in history and so often falls over in the middle of downloading that I now only download games from an internet cafe. I much preferred BFG pre Game Manager when I could use FDM to download and I didn't have to use a game manager at all. That said, theirs are the cheapest games in town, unless anyone knows of any cheaper?
(I must also add that, having sent several complaining (in a nice way) emails about activating their games, they are really making efforts to sort this problem out for me)
I have purchased hundreds of games through them and have never ever had any problems other than mentioned here and I have had their toolbar since it was first issued.
Posted 18 years ago # -
CreamyPretzel
MemberWhile it is true that the BigFish Toolbar does no harm to your PC, it is also true that it gathers info from your PC and your web surfing habits. In fact, almost ALL web site toolbars do this.
Think about it for a minute. Why do you think that a web site would "give" you something like that? To benefit YOU? Absolutely not! The only reason they offer things like toolbars is to help themselves. And in this case, it is to help themselves to info that you may or may not want them knowing.
If a web site wants to gather info, fine. But I am not going to do it for them. If they want to know anything, let them ask.
I have a BigFish account, but there is no way I will put their toolbar or anyone else's (with the exception of the one built-in by MS)on my PC. -Dan
Posted 18 years ago # -
NolafromNZ
MemberHi Dan, Can they still get my web surfing habits when I use IE only for BFG and Firefox for everything else? I am not being sarcastic here, I genuinely want to know if the BFG toolbar can access info from Firefox? I don't use IE View in Firefox unless a new site demands IE and I am in Firefox. But, I have Firefox up and running all the time I am on the net, and IE only for looking at BFG's games.
Posted 18 years ago # -
CreamyPretzel
MemberI haven't actually checked it, because if I don't have it, I can't. But I would say to use Ctrl+Alt+Delete to open your task manager, then check under the "processes" tab. If you see the toolbar process on when you are NOT using IE, then I would say that it is definitely doing something. And why should it be doing anything if you are not running IE? That is the question I would ask myself.
I tried an eBay toolbar before I knew much about toolbars, and I noticed that there isn't really anything in the toolbar that I can't do some other way. For instance, do you really need instant access to the BigFish Games most recent 30 new games? There is a drop-down menu on their toolbar for that, but you can get the same info on their web site. Unless there is just something fantastic on a web site toolbar that you gotta have, I would suggest avoiding them. But that is just my opinion.
Posted 18 years ago # -
EXPLOITSUSHI
MemberNola thanks for all that info and you too prezel. Thing is Bigfish web page always takes too long to load. I would like to check it everyday but I usualy dont because of that inconvenient load time. My impression is that the toolbar will show me the days offering without me ever having to go to that page and wait as it loads. I suppose based on what pretzel says.. I should be able to simply disable the add-on after I see what I need to see? An enable it before I shut down for the night. My surfing habits cant be tracked in that way? Funny I would have expected many more replies to this topic.
Posted 18 years ago # -
CreamyPretzel
MemberEXPLOITSUSHI - Perfect solution:
Subscribe to BigFish notifications. They will send you an e-mail every day to let you know the new games. Toolbar problem solved.
Posted 18 years ago #
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