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Why are the TV stations hyping Weatherbug?

Tim Vasquez

Tim Vasquez

EF5
Joined
Dec 4, 2003
Messages
3,411
Channel 8 (WFAA Dallas) just did a really icky promo for Weatherbug -- they had some dude standing there in the weather center talking about how great it was and how you can download it to your computer. Why are the stations trying so hard to jump on this bandwagon?

Unfortunately the only thing I know about Weatherbug is that the raw data they collect for the NOAA MADIS program is kept proprietary -- they're the only one out of about 50 mesonets that prohibits distribution of their data to universities and research institutions -- very uncool.

Tim
 
As I recall from a few years ago when I was running it I found out it is adware and perhaps spyware. Supposedly it causes popups and can slow your computer performance. Often it is auto installed with AOL. Google 'Weatherbug adware spyware' and check all the results. Here's one:

Quote :lol: Weatherbug: More then just spyware. It's a pain in the ass.

http://axe-s.com/weatherbug/

Oh, to answer your question perhaps the stations can learn something about their viewers and market?
 
It's not spyware or adware, they addressed that ages ago. The more you promo weather bug or whatever brand, the more that go to the website, and the more hits the website gets the more online ads can be sold.
 
To be fair perhaps a lot of those problems were related to the old versions that used Gator (spyware). The new version supposedly doesn't have it and they claim it isn't adware or spyware even though it does provide advertising. Not sure if it is a performance hog or not. Here is the company's stand on the topic:

http://www.weatherbug.com/aws/notSpyware.asp
 
I tried it when it FIRST came out, like in 2002/2003...and it installed a bunch of crap on my computer...a bunch of ads and programs. I didn't even like the data it displayed to me....
 
Originally posted by Tim Vasquez
Why are the stations trying so hard to jump on this bandwagon?

Unfortunately the only thing I know about Weatherbug is that the raw data they collect for the NOAA MADIS program is kept proprietary -- they're the only one out of about 50 mesonets that prohibits distribution of their data to universities and research institutions -- very uncool.

Tim
Click to expand...

I'd say that the average viewer wouldn't know what in the world you're talking about, and that my friend is who they want to attract, "Average Joe". Weatherbug is presented neatly in a user-friendly way that screams out to the average person to use it.

The other possibility as to why news mets would be pushing it..........What is cheaper to get warnings for the general public, the Weather Bug or a NOAA Wx radio? We all know that NWR is probably more effective, but again, we're dealing with their target market of Average Joe.
 
KARK news 4 in Little Rock also promotes it. I ran it for a little while back in 2002 to 2003. It was okay but nothing to write home about. The ads drove me crazy and I was not even about to get the pay version w/ no ads when I can get weather data free elseswhere.
But to get back to the question, payola perhaps?
 
Payola? No. Money? Yes. Advertising support? Yes. Getting something to Joe Public he is MUCH more likely to use for warnings than NOAA Weather Radio? Of course...
 
yea my son installed it on a NEW computer before I had the chance to stop him, performance hog YES, pop up hog YES...
this was 2 years ago, but in all fairness you shouldnt enter the market pissing people off like they did.....the American way would be to ease them into all that crap...now for them to back peddle is near impossible now that they have tained their name (JMHO)
BEWARE NEWBYS
 
gotta love the scare tactics when you uninstall

Toss Weatherbug, This will uninstal weatherbug completely, remove the temperature, and no longer recieve life saving weather alerts.
 
Don't Do It!

Good day,

One thing to say ... DON'T DO IT!

The WEATHERBUG utility itself is allright, just your basic "current conditions" and weather (time, temperature, etc) for your area.

It is what is BUNDLED WITH the utility that can hurt you.

I installed the utility myself on my PC back in 2003 / 2004 (I think). It ALSO threw on "AOL Free Trial", "Gator", and opened a link to "Xupiter.com" in an IE (Internet Explorer) window.

When the explorer window opened, an "install / certificate" window appeared, and I accidentally pressed it since I really thought it had something to do with the "Weatherbug" install itself. This was the worst part of it.

I removed the "Gator" and "AOL Free Trial" icons (I already had AOL back in 2003) and their underlying programs in "Program Files" on my PC by choosing "uninstall". The uninstall removed most of everything, but left the directories there so they had to be removed manually. Ofcourse, I never uninstalled the Weatherbug.

This was only scratching the surface, though...

The Xupiter.com thing could NOT be uninstalled. Your home page in IE always went there, I would change it back to "Google.com" or "blank", then the next time you go into IE, Xupitor.com would come up. When you close IE on the Xupitor.com page, about 2 or three new IE pages would open, one with very explicit stuff on it!

Now, here was the real clitcher ... You did not have to be in IE to get POPUP ads ... They would pop-up right on your computer's (windows) desktop. Also, some links appeared in the systray (lower right) next to Weatherbug ... Closing them would only make them come up next time you start windows.

I searched the registry and found some "Xupiter.com" entries and removed them. I looked for any uninstallers of those links in the systray and nothing appeared obvious in either the registry or uninstall in the control panel (add / remove programs). Also, my PC was much slower - MUCH slower and would crash more.

I was really making my small bald spot much larger!

I was in IE, and mistyped a URL in the address bar (like "storm-track.com" instead of "stormtrack.org") and I never got the 404 error page - I was taken to a search page with all "sex site" and casino links. Closing that window made about 5 or 6 popups and new IE instances open, some without a close button with some XXX scene right "in your face"!

Imagine that happening at work trying to check SPC Outlooks really quick and your boss passed by?

What finally helped was going to Google (like Deja News) and searching for how to remove anything with Xupiter.com. It was a lengthy process, and eventually I got rid of it slowly but surely. I also ran "Spybot S&D" (search and destroy) and that god rid of a LOT of stuff.

I also had to remove tons of "junk" URL's from my "Favorites" folder as well as the restore the default messages ".htm" files for IE. Still, I would get an occasional pop-up and had to use a pop-up blocker for that. I was never able to remove the Xupiter.com toolbar off IE either.

I also installed a trial of a virus scanner (Symantec / Norton), and two viruses were found and removed (one was a trojan (worm) and the other one something like "chernobyl").

In addition to a DRASTIC increase in "You want Viagra" and "How to increase your endowment" email SPAM, A month or so after that, when signing on to AOL, I started get a "your account is already signed on" message and could not get on. I signed on to AOL using my work screen ID, sent a message to my screen ID (the one signed on already by ???) and IMMEDIATELY the "perpertrator" signed off with no reply!

Immediately signing on under my own AOL screen ID after that, and changing the password resolved this issue with someone else signed on. Most likely, some "spyware" got my password (maybe even a trojan) and passed it along to someone ???!

Eventually, frustrated with residual popups, copious amounts of spam for "endowment", I cancelled AOL and went with Bellsouth DSL and re-installed Windows after upgrading my PC with better faster hard drives for video editing. I never bothered installing Weatherbug after that, I just look at my clock on the wall and thermometor outside for "time and temperature" in my area!

Be careful ... There are a lot of things like this put there that are very "benign" and even "helpful" programs ... But it is the crap that comes with it that can literally kill your computer!

Chris C - KG4PJN
 
As they've frequently admitted, their initial release had some "not good" extras included. That was 3 years ago, and I've not seen anyone have the issues you noted with any recent installs.
 
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