Someone reviewed v on Jul 5, 2022

Pros: 555

Cons: 555

Bottom Line: 555

compufixer reviewed v3.0 on Mar 28, 2006

It is apparant that despite their protestations that ViewPoint is not spyware... they ARE INDEED Adware and intend to be.

As ViewPoint is pre-installed by a number of PC Vendors, and is included with numerous software installs including AOL and AIM - it is quite prevalent in terms of installs. AOL is particularly egregious as it AUTOMATICALLY REINSTALLS ViewPoint every time you open AOL if you uninstall ViewPoint. (Unless you know the SECRET to turn it off.

ViewPoint masquerades as a useful, innocuous, and misunderstood and maligned technology to enhance your web experience. Unfortunately it seems it has little real purpose beyond being a fancy graphics adserver.

http://www.clickz.com/news/article.php/3561546

Most of the positive comments on this forum come from known speculative investors in Viewpoint. Zaphod and Michael Tzez, For example, hit EVERY appearance of a negative comment about Viewpoint that they can find on the web to chime in and extol the greatness of the software. They're just shilling to protect their investment. Google viewpoint and read comments ANYWHERE!

Zaphodbbx reviewed v3.0 on Aug 5, 2005

This toolbar is excellent for keeping visual bookmarks. What's cool is that the thumbnails enlarge as you pass your mouse over them. All my sites are very easy to find by folder and image. Searching is enhanced by visual thumbnails so you can preview before you click, preventing wasted time searching.

The best new feature is the Photo printing/ sharing service. You can enhance and store your images on your PC, and just upload the images you want to print or share. It has a new video help assistant, too, so it's easy to learn. I've had 3D/photo tool software from Viewpoint (previously MetaCreations/Kai's Power Tools) for 15 years now, and they always have made impressive software. They've done a great job with 3.0, and continue to impress.

dzinr reviewed v2.8 Beta on May 24, 2005

It is a quality product created for the average user. The toolbar overall use and design is well thought out. Integration of visual and text search results along with right click movement enables even the youngest user to search with ease. The product is the best I've seen at demystifing Web searches.

bootso218 reviewed v2.8 Beta on May 24, 2005

What's wrong with everyone here? I am an IT professional in NYC for over 15 years. This program is harmless. It is actually very cool and useful.
Definitely nothing to be scared of.

Are all these posters the same person? I have seen something similar to this before - the competitors were bashing the better company. Something is definitely not right here.

acascianelli reviewed v2.8 Beta on May 18, 2005

Spyware...

darthbeads reviewed v2.8 Beta on May 18, 2005

Utter malware crap. Avoid at all costs.

pyridox reviewed v2.8 Beta on May 18, 2005

If you are keen on Adware/Spyware, then by all means go for it. Personally, I spend too much time already keeping this stuff from getting onto my machine! B-E-W-A-R-E!

funcheung reviewed v2.8 Beta on May 18, 2005

Trash disguised as treasure

stay awake!

adamdawg reviewed v2.7 Beta on Apr 9, 2005

Viewpoint is one of the most world renouned adware companies. I'm a computer tech, and I see peoples' computers jam packed full of their intrusive and meaningless "software" every day. Stay away from this trash.

bunghole reviewed v2.7 Beta on Apr 8, 2005

Pure garbage. Avoid this "toolbar."

phaedrusone reviewed v2.7 Beta on Apr 4, 2005

hmm.. yea.. 4 comments with a 5 rating... suspiciously all use the same words "try this one out"... same writing style... "the best visual toolbar around" ... "5 years ahead of the pack" .... very suspicious...

AEGraber reviewed v2.6 Beta on Apr 1, 2005

The toolbar is an integrated part of my work toolset. The popup blocker works great giving me the opportunity to view and determine if the pop up is junk or valuable. The visual graphic bookmarks save me untold keystrokes and clicks when referring back to websites I use most saving me valuable time at work. The search results are always relevant and useful. I have used the toolbar since it was introduced in March of 2004 as a beta an upgraded every time. Each new version has added new features that were orders of magnitude better than the previous one. I am currently running the V2.6 beta that allows you to save bookmarks in a directory structure. The performance and speed of the latest toolbar is excellent.

At home I use the toolbar to perform research for projects and to manage my investment research sites.

It is very refreshing that the developer of this product is committed to protecting my privacy and maintains a very open NO SPYWARE policy in its product. That is very refreshing indeed.

Over all I give this product an A+ and recommend it!

2fast4>you reviewed v2.6 Beta on Apr 1, 2005

What an innovative idea - a visual search function. No toolbar has convinced me more. A perfect visual Pop UP blocker and the genius idea to have “visual bookmarks”. Ok - I see 39 reasons to download it. Try it out...

dzinr reviewed v2.6 Beta on Apr 1, 2005

Pictures are worth a thousand words! This is by far the best designed, visual toolbar on the market. It's evident that Viewpoint took the time to think this one through. It's easy to use. Try this one. You won't be disappointed.

michael_tzez reviewed v2.6 Beta on Apr 1, 2005

Simply the best toolbar available.
It is the only one that does what it does.

You be the judge and try it out. Nothing like it! 5 years ahead of the pack!

alienvenom reviewed v2.6 Beta on Mar 16, 2005

This program is utter crap. DO NOT install this program or any other programs by this company. Viewpoint makes spyware that sends in information (including the sites you visit) to them and other companies. This program and others like it should be blacklisted from FileForum/BetaNews. We do not need or care about programs like this that get updated.

Pizda reviewed v2.6 Beta on Mar 16, 2005

people who market this sh!t should be fined and jailed! betanews need to check their priorities and stop promoting spyware ridden trash.

daze reviewed v2.6 Beta on Mar 16, 2005

guess even spyware companies can purchase a feature on betanews now.

Black-Wolf reviewed v2.6 Beta on Mar 12, 2005

Crappy crap!!
Nothing good about it...
Spyware infested....

Just like the weather bug!

KerstKern reviewed v2.6 Beta on Mar 12, 2005

This could be a really neat search bar but the spyware aspect of it as well as the search engine itself just make this a bandwidth hog, piece of junk. Look at the example picture, this is indicative of the search results you get when using this bar, ads ads and more ads. I've tried to make this thing do good searches but it proves itself as nothing but a directed ad feeding mechanism.

Clean up your act, let people use it without having to phone home to you, provide a real search functionality and you would maybe have a good contender in the search bar arena. Maybe license your interface to a real search engine company as an alternate interface product.

micronix reviewed v2.6 Beta on Mar 12, 2005

people don't install this toolbar themselves. it gets installed for them automatically. that's spyware in my book. why is this even on betanews?

gerryf reviewed v2.5 Beta on Feb 8, 2005

spyware....arguably.

Despite protestations to the contrary, Viewpoint Toolbar does send information (non-personally identifiable info, it says) back to ViewPoint. One could argue that Google does the same, but Google allows you to opt out, at the expense of a feature. Viewpoint Toolbar, when I tried it several versions ago, did not.

Furthermore, I am still somewhat irked at the company which used to install Viewpoint Media Manager without warning or alert. It appears they have since cleaned up their act on that, so kudos are due there.

So, if you like the toolbar, and don't mind giving up a little bandwith to give up anonymous surfing habits, then that's the tradeoff for the software you get. If they were more upfront about that, rather than making you dig for the info, I'd be a little more forgiving, but this software still falls in the gray area between clean and spyware.

Gail C. reviewed v2.0 Beta on Aug 9, 2004

I have had the Viewpoint toolbar since it first came out in March 2004, and now have the most update Version 2, and I absolutely love it. Version 2 is much faster than the first one that came out in March. There are many, many more new skins that have come out for it also. The thumbnails load much faster on broadband that on dial-up, but that part of it is supposed to be improved later on.

allsiante reviewed v1.0.0.37 Beta on Mar 29, 2004

"Functionality seems a little clunky" --- well, well, well, pretty nicely put :) I think it's very very very so :) Still, it looks cool alright, but when I try to find something it isn't the hyped eyecandy which I'd like to wait on and for, but to get the results nice and quickly. Mozilla's builtin Googler and sidebar together are the winners for me. This... well this is something maybe-useful-dunno things, maybe'll use it sometimes just for fun :) but for nothing serious :P

BonnieD reviewed v1.0.0.37 Beta on Mar 29, 2004

I like!

geekz reviewed v1.0.0.37 Beta on Mar 28, 2004

I agree, I think I would prefer Google search, but the graphic idea is kind of cool.

ogman reviewed v1.0.0.37 Beta on Mar 28, 2004

It's interesting and different. Not sure I like having Yahoo results, but I'll try it for a while. Functionality seems a little clunky, but hey, it's a beta. Worth a look.