Earthlink Bitch Slaps Microsoft Over Anti-Phishing Toolbar Claim   9/1/2005 - 887 views,

Today Earthlink issued their own press release, saying that Microsoft’s claim is untrue, and that Earthlink was the first to offer such protection.

According to Earthlink’s Kevin Brand, “Today’s Microsoft announcement stating that the company’s Phishing Filter Add-in for MSN Search Toolbar is the first such technology to be integrated into a Web search toolbar is incorrect. In April 2004, EarthLink launched ScamBlocker, a phisher-site blocking feature that is available at no charge to all Internet users - not just EarthLink access subscribers. To date, more than 1.3 million consumers have downloaded ScamBlocker.

Scamblocker is part of an easy-to-use, browser-based application that can be downloaded and installed as an Internet Explorer or Mozilla FireFox as a [sic] toolbar. These toolbars also include a search engine powered by Google, as well as EarthLink’s Pop-Up Blocker. In addition, the toolbars include EarthLink’s SpyAudit, which runs an audit detailing all spyware programs residing on a user’s personal computer.

Consumers can download the browser-based application at EarthLink’s Web site, http://www.earthlink.net/earthlinktoolbar.”

Will Microsoft respond? Will it be the battle of the press releases?

Stay tuned.