TOPIC: IE has stopped working

Many consider Alexa (and similar toolbars) as malware and spyware. I never use them myself, personally.

In Firefox it's so small and unobtrusive as you don't need need the toolbar install, it's just in the status bar. And since it helps with the ranking, I'm all for it. Several search engines rely on Alexa as a data source for their rankings. It's no different than the Google toolbar.

I agree there are perks to it, but a lot of spyware removal programs mark it as such, Microsoft sees it as spyware, and it can eat up system resources. A lot of people dislike the "invasion of privacy" aspect. I'm certainly not trying to encourage or discourage its use; I just wanted Ian to know why it could be happening.

Yeah if you have run the full toolbar in IE it uses some resources, I agree. The privacy thing I'm not concerned about as it's anonymous but I do understand why don't like it.