Viewpoint Media Player

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
This article or section has multiple issues. Please help improve the article or discuss these issues on the talk page.
  • Its factual accuracy is disputed. Tagged since March 2008.
  • It may have been edited by a person who has a conflict of interest with the subject matter. Tagged since August 2008.

Viewpoint Media Player (VMP) is a browser graphics rendering plug-in originally produced by Viewpoint Corporation, the consumer products division of Enliven Marketing Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: ENLV).

Contents

[edit] Description

Viewpoint Media Player is a web browser plug-in that enables users to view 3D content and other rich media, such as Flash content and video, on the Internet. Viewpoint Media Player has been included with various products from AOL, including AOL Instant Messenger (AIM).[1][2]

Some companies, ranging from online retailers to auto manufacturers, have used Viewpoint Media Player as the graphics platform for interactive 3D tours of their products. Viewpoint Media Player powers product tours of the Toyota 4Runner and Sony laptop, desktop, and server computing products.[citation needed] The player was used to power the Scion configurator on the Build Your Scion website, which won the People's Voice Webby Award in the Automotive category in 2006.[3][4]

[edit] Adware concerns

Viewpoint Media Player is sometimes accused of being adware.[5] This is often due to it being installed without the user's authorization.[6] If a program that claims to require Viewpoint Media Player, such as AIM, is installed by the user, it will automatically download and install without user consent, even if it was previously removed from the system.[7]

[edit] Browser Hijacking

 This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2009)

Allowing Viewpoint Media Player to update loads software which installs a Viewpoint Toolbar in Internet Explorer, superseding any previously installed toolbars, and attempts to replace the current search choice with Viewpoint Search. The update or original Terms of Service do not indicate that it will load and install a browser toolbar. The only possible way to remove the Viewpoint Toolbar is to first manually end the viewmgr.exe process in Windows Task Manager, and then uninstall the Viewpoint software through the Windows uninstaller.

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.viewpoint.com/installer/v4/html/vmp_faq.html
  2. ^ http://scottmace.typepad.com/service_provider_blog/2004/09/viewpoint_aols_.html
  3. ^ "Webby Nominees". http://www.webbyawards.com/webbys/current.php?season=10. Retrieved on 2008-11-04. 
  4. ^ "Scion Configurator Website wins Webby". http://www.madeforone.com/Articles/index.php/technology/scion-configurator-website-wins-webby/. Retrieved on 2008-11-04. 
  5. ^ Viewpoint to Plunge Into Adware - ClickZ
  6. ^ http://edeldoug.blogs.com/thoughts_rants_raves_and_/2006/03/aols_forced_ins.html
  7. ^ PCHell support

[edit] External links

Computer Science portal
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viewpoint_Media_Player"
Personal tools