Scumware vendors 180solutions and Hotbar team up

Today's new name to revile: Zango. According to Ziff-Davis, adware vendor 180solutions has merged with Hotbar. The new company will be known as Zango.

I've written about 180solutions before; they were among the adware vendors connected to Yahoo! in Ben Edelman's report How Yahoo Funds Spyware. In January, the Center for Democracy and Technology filed complaints against 180solutions for adware and other network abuse.

I'm not as familiar with Hotbar, but Ziff-Davis has an article about a suit between Hotbar and Symantec over whether or not Symantec would flag Hotbar for its users.

The new company, Zango, will supposedly give away free content such as videos, games, and tools in exchange for displaying ads. In other words, the "free" content will come bundled with adware. Say hello to the new business, same as the old business.