Grimm, the difference is that ESPN uses "marketting techniques" to get you to download their toolbar - they don't sneak it in the back door using a hack / security violation to do it.
Toolbars (since google first put one out there) have been known to be a good business model. Getting more people to install your toolbar puts you in a position to talk to those clients every time they are online, bettering the chance they return to your site and bettering the chance that they will use you when they decide to make a purchase or look for that purchase. It pumps up the page views, pumps up the visibility, and so on.
Most adult toolbars are NOT helpful, they are a hinderance. They get between the surfer and the net and return what the toolbar owners want the surfer to see, not what the surfer is looking for. Many of them modify the hosts and other files to assure that people don't get where they want, but get where they are suppose to go. It isn't unusual to see hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of popular link sites, tgps, and search engines get redirected to the "toolbar" search page.
Some of them are more subtle, watching for hits to adult paysites and changing the referal codes so as to absorb sales. Some of them don't even show as toolbars, rather hide in the weeds playing games.
Most surfers till don't know what malware is, and have little or no knowledge on how to remove it. Surfers on dialup are unlikely to ever get the full microsoft updates, so they are vunerable as hell.
People who install anything on a system without permission should be held as the hackers they are and subjected to the patriot act - who knows, maybe they are intending to use the comprimised systems to commit a terrorist act against the internet? :-)
Alex
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Let's go to the edge of disaster Push the pedal and go a little faster Let's slam into a wall at ramming speed Let's go to the edge of a mountain Jump off and lets start countin' Hit the ground and tell me if it bleeds
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