The most popular Spyware blockers programs:

• Ad-Aware Professional SE
• SpywareBlaster 3.2
• eTrust PestPatrol Anti-Spyware
• SpyBot – Search & Destroy
• Norton AntiVirus
• McAfee AntiSpyware Enterprise Edition Module
• Panda Platinum Internet Security
• SpyHunter
• Yahoo! Anti-Spy Toolbar
• Microsoft AntiSpyware

The Spyware blockers market is both older and also less mature than the anti-spam market.

The problem with the commercial market for Spyware blockers products is that spyware is stealthy and quiet. So, when an Spyware blockers pioneer like PestPatrol came out with a spyware-killing tool a few years back, most people said, “So what? I don’t have any spyware on my PC.” The funny thing was that even back then, every time we ran Spyware blockers tools on a supposedly clean PC, it came back with lots of nasty stuff. So, while anti-spam tools took the limelight, getting rid of much of the spam from your inbox, anti-spyware tools didn’t really find much of a market until recently. Not only has the nature of spyware been changing and becoming more intrusive, but people are also becoming more aware of and concerned with online privacy issues.

Because we can’t cover all the products currently on the market, we’ve chosen ten completely at random … well, not totally at random. We’ve chosen some of the most popular Spyware blockers products, some solutions that look like they have a bright future, and some products that we used.
Note that because the Spyware blockers market is still pretty immature, some of the products that I mention in this chapter are in a state of flux. For example, PestPatrol, which was developed as a standalone product, was recently purchased by Computer Associates International and incorporated into its eTrust suite of products. You can expect a lot more consolidation as the market matures and smaller players with innovative products are purchased by the big spam- and virus-blocking vendors that need to fill the spyware hole in their product lines.