Canonical wants to shill for Amazon on Ubuntu users’ desktops

Say you’re performing a local search on your computer for the word “Thompson” to locate documents about one of your clients. The last thing you likely want or need alongside the list of relevant files is a list of random products available on Amazon (as well as music in the Ubuntu One Music Store) that happen to include the search term. Yet that hasn’t stopped Canonical, maker of the popular Ubuntu, from desperately defending its plan to add that very “feature” to the forthcoming Ubuntu 12.10, dubbed “Quantal Quetzal.”

“It makes perfect sense to integrate Amazon search results in the Dash, because the Home lens of the Dash should let you find anything anywhere,” wrote Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth in a blog post defending the practice. “In 12.10 we’ll take the first step of looking both online and locally for possible results. The Home lens will show you local things like apps and music, as it always has, as well as results from Amazon.”

Anyone who downloads Ubuntu 12.10 will find that this expanded search feature is pre-activated. Canonical is leaving it to users to take necessary steps to keep Dash from retrieving Amazon product listings. They do have options in that regard, Shuttleworth noted: Instead of using Dash’s Home lens, which searches everything, users can use hotkeys to limit the search scope, e.g. Super-A for apps or Super-F for files.

Over time, Canonical will incorporate search results from other services, according to Shuttleworth. “There are many more kinds of things you can search through with Unity scopes. Most of them won’t pay Ubuntu a cent, but we’ll still integrate them into the coolest just-ask-and-you’ll-receive experience,” he wrote. “I want us to do this because I think we can make the desktop better.”

Canonical execs have leapt into action to defend the new feature in the wake of user backlash. Complaints have ranged from “I don’t want ads on my desktop” to “I don’t want Amazon to know what I’m searching for on my own computer” to “Why do we have to opt out of this, rather than having the option to opt-in?”

First and foremost, according to Canonical, these Amazon listings aren’t even ads; they’re just additional search results. “We don’t promote any product or service speculatively, these are not banners or spyware. These are results from underlying scopes, surfaced to the Home lens, because you didn’t narrow the scope to a specific, well, scope,” wrote Shuttleworth.

Though Canonical doesn’t view these listing as ads, the company acknowledged that it stands to profit from the listings. “It is no secret that for each product sold (not searched) from Amazon or the Ubuntu One Music Store, Canonical takes a small cut,” wrote Jono Bacon, Ubuntu Community Manager, in his own blog. “This affiliate revenue is a useful way in which we can generate revenue that we can continue to invest into the Ubuntu project to build new features, maintain our infrastructure, and improve Ubuntu.”

Several respondents said they didn’t begrudge Canonical seeking to generate revenue for its open-source project. “The problem isn’t Canonical making some money. That’s a very important and difficult goal (Speak with Bryam Lunduke from the Linux Action show about this). The problem is that nobody wants [expletive] advertising when trying to find a file or a program to finish his job,” wrote user benjamimgois in response to Bacon’s post.

Addressing users concerns about their desktop searches being shared with Amazon, Shuttleworth had this to say: “We are not telling Amazon what you are searching for. Your anonymity is preserved because we handle the query on your behalf. Don’t trust us? Erm, we have root. You do trust us with your data already. You trust us not to screw up on your machine with every update. You trust Debian, and you trust a large swathe of the open source community. And most importantly, you trust us to address it when, being human, we err.”

That phrasing — particularly the “Erm, we have root” part — didn’t sit well with some Ubuntu users. One going by the screen name Martin responded:

“[First], the communication between the lens and your servers is sent plain text, aka no SSL. This opens up every search to man in the middle attacks and similar privacy and security hacks.”

“[Second], it doesn’t matter if the “home” searches go to Amazon or only Canonical servers. They shouldn’t go anywhere; they should stay local. It’s none of Canonicals’ or Amazon’s business what Ubuntu users do on their desktops.”

“[Lastly], you do not have root on my machines. I cannot believe you just said that you do have root and implied you can do whatever you want on your user’s machines. What a mistake. You lost all my trust, you lost a longtime Ubuntu user, and thereby future potential users who I will send somewhere else too.”

Shuttleworth offered this advice to users who are still concerned about the change: “What we have in 12.10 isn’t the full experience, so those who leap to judgment are at maximum risk of having to eat their words later. Chill out. If the first cut doesn’t work for you, remove it, or just search the specific scope you want.”

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