In what can only be described as one of the most egregious abuses of the Google AdSense program, antivirus vendor McAfee has hijacked the good name of BitDefender. Insult is then added to injury - the BitDefender antivirus software is called a "virus" in the advertisement appearing on Google.com. The ad copy reads "Remove Bitdefender virus. Clean your PC if already infected" and links to the mcafee.com website. The sponsored link appears when a search for "BitDefender" is performed using the popular google.com search engine.

BitDefender is a fast growing antivirus company that boasts some of the best detection rates and some of the fastest response times in the industry. The Google AdSense program allows advertisers to bid on keywords, write their own ad copy, and appear when users search on the chosen keywords.

The AdSense program also serves the ads to participating websites.

"This is clearly no technical error, unlike the recent Griffiths case. It is false advertising and libel, commited with intent and purpose. We have not even begun to calculate the impact this incident has on the good name of our products and company, but it must be significant, since the libelous ad uses the name of an otherwise reputable company." declared Bogdan Irina, BitDefender Sales and Marketing Director.

Recently this year McAfee misidentified an internet setup program used by ISP's in more than twenty countries as a Trojan. The program's author, Mark Griffiths, has stated that he is considering legal action.

"We've had a great year in Europe, grabbing second place in retail software sales in France, a spot that was traditionally occupied by McAfee, so I suspect the opening of our new US offices may have pushed our competitors over the edge of fair play, and into shady business practices," Irina concluded.