In addition, RealNetworks has a nasty reputation of releasing spyware. There have been many reports, most especially from highly respected Steve Gibson of grc.com (http://www.grc.com). It makes me very nervous to install a product such as Real Player, then find Zone Alarm asking me lots of questions about whether or not it can access internet. According to RealNetworks, their product is not spyware since uses of data are fully spelled out in privacy policy. Let me just point out that their privacy policy is, I'm sure, very complete - document is 187kb in size!

I visited web site recently (http://www.real.com) and found that it's very different from one I saw years ago. It's obvious that some marketing people have been hard at work. For example, it used to be that you could find mention of free version of player directly on front page, brilliantly displayed. Now I had to search for over 15 minutes until I found a link to earlier version available for free (I got distinct impression that newer versions are not free).

I also have a problem with download and installation procedures that ask me to purchase additional products (lots of them) by default (I have to turn them off explicitly), ask for too many options about what they can do and seem to be trying much to hard to sell me additional things constantly. I'm sorry, all I want to do is download silly player so I can see that Osama Bin Laden video, not purchase a gold subscription to this and access to that, and oh yes, can they send me this and that and this and that? Jeez.

As a webmaster, I cannot say that I would feel comfortable putting Real video and audio content onto my site. While technology is sound and works well, I think I'll stick with formats which do not require so much work and so many decisions on part of my audience.

You see, MPEG-4 is an open standard, which means it is not owned by any particular company and has instead been created by internet community and various working groups. I don't know about you, but I tend to trust this kind of software over that created by companies with highly commercial purposes and undisclosed (hidden) agendas.

Visiting Quicktime web site was an interesting experience. The site was not extraordinarily commercial and link for free player was right up front (where it belongs). The download was clean and easy and did not require any information from me at all (they asked for but did not require my email address). To me, this is mark of truly profession software of this type.

You see, if I put a QuickTime video on my web site I want it to make it painless and easy for them to install plugin. If site asks for too much data, then my visitors have a greater chance of being annoyed and moving on. Since Quicktime does not require ANY data from my users, that particular issue never even comes up.

The installer did not ask me to purchase anything, except for a brief, well placed question reminding me that it might be a good idea to purchase professional version.

I think it's pretty obvious that I like this product. Out of big three (Windows Media Player, Real Player and Quicktime) it was easiest install of all, it asked fewest questions and interfered least with my computer. I would not have any hesitation about included a Quicktime video on my web site for my visitors to watch.