It's just my humble opinion as an internet marketer :) i'm not related to CNET atm, worked there as tech for some time. And i think it's really an ingenious idea with wrapper, maybe not so good with all that toolbars.
Maybe it's crapware and they lose like all geeks, 20% publishers and 30-40% users maximum - they still will be like x10 profitable than before. Don't get me wrong but Google wasted like hundreds of millions on unprofitable YouTube, and now they airing this shitty advertisements that are so fucking annoying %) luckily there are all theese adblock extensions out there.
But it's not an ingenious idea; malware has been doing that kind of thing forever.
Downloading and installing software is an activity that is fraught with peril. The authenticity of the app you're downloading is critical and almost all the security properties depend on it.
If you think that breaking app authenticity is a great marketing opportunity, well, your brand will do no business with me or those I advise.
