The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time: I remember 90% of these. AOL is singled out as the worst, but there are some real trips down memory lane in here.
The Cuecat:
Readers were supposed to connect the device to a computer, install some software, scan the barcodes inside the ads, and be whiskered away to advertisers’ websites. Another “benefit”: The company used the device to gather personally identifiable information about its users.
Pointcast:
[…] push quickly turned into a drag, as PointCast’s endless appetite for bandwidth overwhelmed dial-up connections and clogged corporate networks. In addition, PointCast’s proprietary screensaver/browser had a nasty habit of commandeering your computer and not giving it back.
IE6:
Full of features, easy to use, and a virtual engraved invitation to hackers and other digital delinquents, Internet Explorer 6.x might be the least secure software on the planet.
And the Sony rootkit fiasco:
The discs’ harebrained copy protection software installed a rootkit that made it invisible even to antispyware or antivirus software. Any moderately clever cyber attacker could then use the same rootkit to hide, say, a keylogger to capture your bank account information, or a remote-access Trojan to turn your PC into a zombie.