[Area12]

Does anybody remember when a default install of Oracle RDBMS also installed ask.com? It was at that point that I realised that a significant part of Oracle Corporation no longer cared about how disreputable they appeared. I can't even imagine that they got all that much money from ask.com, on the scale of their total revenue.

[bzzzt]

Even though I've got no love for Oracle business, there are a few facts: The Oracle software with the bundled Ask.com toolbar was the Java client installation. And the decision to bundle the toolbar was made by Sun microsystems (before they were bought). They probably signed a contract for a few years which is why Oracle couldn't get rid of it earlier.