My friend running 10.7 needs a way to index her photos by keywords. Will probably use iPhoto as a database. I am not familiar with iPhoto, but it seems it will be useful for her to use custom keywords as she is selling them as stock photos. I did a little Googling, there seems to be a lot of complaining about iPhoto metadata. Brattoo iPhoto Tagger sounds right for her and I see there are a lot of places where you can get the download, but if I get it directly from them and pay the $7.95 it won't have adware, right?

You’d think so, but I wouldn’t want to bet the bank on it. Adware can enter in various ways, and preventing it requires close attention by webmasters. Even large sites and big name companies have fallen victim to it in the past. These days, many if not most web stores are fine, but still you often can’t be sure without trying.

Given choices, I’d rather go with sites that earned their reliability over time, and those include (a.o.) MacUpdate and CNet Download (yes, even that one, since it indicates which download comes with its adware, and provides a ‘clean’ option as well). That said, download sites like these usually link through to the original site for the actual download, but claim that they screen those for unwanted ‘goodies’.

Thanks. Well, I have done one download from cnet and it had adware, so I will try MacUpdate. Is there any way to tell if something has adware? Is there a kind of anti-adware software that works like anti-virus software?

I started to recommend the best solution I have found is Adware Medic but when I went to their web site to get a URL I found it has now been rolled into a more general anti-malware application, MalwareBytes. V1 mentioned MalwareBytes in this thread in the Lounge.

Given my previous experience with Adware Medic and MalwareBytes is from the same developer, I went ahead and downloaded it. I will let you know if there are problems.

I don't recall spraypainting it yellow... huh. might have I guess. I AM surprised I didn't get a single reply to that though.

I said I would let you know if I found problems in MalwareBytes. As far as I can tell at this juncture MalwareBytes is Adware Medic but with some additional malware included with the the Adware in the database. As far as I can tell, the UI is exactly the same. As my systems are clean and I am not about to intentionally infect one with either adware or malware, I am unable to comment on the efficacy of MalwareBytes removal capability, but based on my prior experience with Adware Medic I expect it to be good.

That works, but unfortunately, download.CNet.com is sometimes your only option. If so, know that when the big green Download link on download.CNet.com uses their adware-laced installer, there is always a clean ‘Direct Download Link’ (in smaller light blue text) below it. In addition, immediately below the main ‘Download Now’ link it now says ‘Installer Enabled’.

In order to use download.CNet.com safely, always look for that light blue Direct Download link. If it’s NOT there, the big green download button is OK; if both are present, use the Direct Download link instead. For more on this, see Oh, CNet, how low can you go?

Thanks all.