And you thought ClipperClippy was bad?

Microsoft, that gentle giant, is considering to buy The Company Formerly Known As Gator for 500 thousand million dollars (500 us billion). Ungh. And this from the man who stood on stage to support the Make Poverty History campaign. Well, he sure will, for some.

Before Gator renamed themselves Claria, they were one of the biggest creators of spyware. Now they claim they’ve turned (slightly more) nice, but there’s still a bad taste in many a mouth. And if the deal happens, the guys who at least used to be on the axis of evil can move to the lap of luxury in a more convenient way.

Soon we’ll have the Microsoft Weatherbug, the Microsoft SurfBonziBuddyThing, the Microsoft Kazaa (badly) Hidden Feature, et cetera.

In an ideal world, this move would be because Microsoft are Good. They want to buy the Bad Guys to study them, then incorporate the lessons learned into their spyware product, and the world would be a happier and more peaceful place. Like the myth of David Lee Roth once offered to buy Muzak, Inc., just to shut it down.