wordpressmobile.mobi is trying to fool me. It’s spyware!
Money, money, money.. that’s what this world is about apparently. I have some Google ad’s on my page just to get some smoke out of the chimney. There has to be some money to keep the stuff running. Actually, it doesn’t deliver me anything at all. No problem, i don’t care.
BUT!
I was Googlin’ for a nice plugin to make my blog better readable for mobile users. The first URL sure looked like a good one. It’s wordpressmobile.mobi and it has a nice free WordPress plugin. Hmm.. Free as in beer?
After stumbling through the code, i noticed the following piece of it :
$campaign = ($rand <= $admobshare) ? ‘pub-3132018019261025′ : get_option(‘wordpress_mobile_plugin_google’);
$rand = ‘Sharing ‘.$admobshare.’% to plugin author’;
Alright, so it’s Google ad number is pub-31320189261025. Why didn’t he tell me about it? Maybe i should just make a good backup of my WordPress installation and install the plugin. So i did. And YES, it’s a great plugin and YES the creator did a great job. You can change the ads from the settings menu in WordPress.. And NO, you will STILL get “some” ads from the author of the plugin.. WHAAAAAAAT..
But… even scarier..
Most people just unzip the plugin and after activating the thing, they don’t even bother to configure it. It works? Then it’s ok. What you don’t know is that it defaults all the ads to it’s own so they are making money without you even noticing.
Sure looks like spyware to me. It pings back to the author. It even mails the author that a new user is using his plugin. What’s next? Is he going to make a tarball of my complete WordPress installation which he sends to all his friends at facebook?
I see this “method” poppin’ up once every few weeks and it sure doesn’t make me very happy to know that this kind of “moneymaking” is not labelled spam or spyware, where every piece of Windows junk with some “call-home plugin” is. Just my thoughts and i hope someone would let me know some GOOD arguments for not putting this on the website OR in the readme (where it should be). Hell no! It shouldn’t even be in there 
Just my 2 cents and just some frustrations i need to get rid of . Maybe it will help other people get a safe WordPress installation. For now, no mobile support. I’m sorry.
edit: Oh yeah, if you want to know how to disable his own ads, mail me.
I appreciate your review of this plugin. I was all set to download and install, but after reading your review I’m going to re-consider and see what else is out there first. Good info.
Any alternatives to suggest?
@stephane
I’m sorry. I don’t have any real good alternatives. I edited the original to prevent calling home to the author. Maybe if i find the time, i will release the thing
perhaps check this, http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-wap/ and tell me what you think as a alternative?
(your review on this basically stopped my download cold in its tracks when I found out it was using a callback.)
I’ve been using Alex King’s WordPress Mobile plugin. I admit i haven’t had a closer look at the source code lately, so i’ll just have to trust Alex that his plugin is clean.
Thanks for that info.
You are sure right that most people will not check the code, so thank you for that.
I am not put off by the call home code, but I will be replacing the authors google ad code for my own.
Hi – i’ve got an alternative to suggest – it’s called the Wapple Architect Mobile Plugin for WordPress and it has more features and does none of the bad things you mentioned above.
I’ve just released version 1.5 and you can download it from http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wapple-architect/ – it’d be great to hear any feedback you might have!
Alright, i’ve checked your site and i’ll approve your comment, although it’s spammy
. I didn’t check the plugin yet. Will do. Thanks
Thanks so much for the expert advice on this. I was going to check-out this plugin but I’m not interested in putting that kind of stuff on my WordPress blogs. Very helpful information.
i agree – its like the plugin is designed to make him money – it has adds all over it and is over monetised
+ it doesnt work great it displays text only every now and again so i have to rely on reader s to tell me its not working — which means i dont know how long my sites been unavailable
which makes me feel like doing bad things to lego
what a %^&*$%
anway it doesnt work great as you say
and no one but the author knows how to configure web mobile ??
who needs web mobile anyway —with ads
of the 2 people who go to your mobile site your bro and your mum who’s gonna click on your .01 google add enough to pay for the hours i wasted deactivating this crap
rant over thanks
I used WordPress Mobile plugin long time ago. If I remember correctly the readme file has already mentioned what you blamed here.
I am using another one now, but I am sure whether it also has similar issue, so I would not give its name here.
I agree with gomobi. Everything is mentioned in the readme and if you have a look at the settings, you’d know that the author gets a piece of your ads. You can remove this by paying for the full version.
The “phoning home” is used on their homepage where it features a “last install”. Your site is featured as the last place it’s installed, which is kind of promotion FOR YOU, not the author of the plugin.
I’ve used this plugin for weeks now and I love it. The author deserves some of my ad cash.
Thanks for sharing this. Was just about to install and I saw your post on this. Am reconsidering now. Who does this kind of stuff? I bet he’s making a FORTUNE, by the way… millions of pageviews a day.