The History of BonziBuddy - Virtual Assistant or Spyware? (A Retrospective)

[@app103]

I remember my father installing this on a computer, knowing it was spyware. He said he needed it, to yell at. Any time anything went wrong (not just on his computer), he would blame it on the purple monkey. Everything was the monkey's fault.

[@matthewbennett9928]

Omg that is the funniest thing I have read this today

[@A_G_w_R]

Is ur dad doing well today?

[@krisp9403]

@@A_G_w_R im just watching tech vids then boom a comment from 1 day ago lol

[@nisaplaysss1021]

@@matthewbennett9928 How about today?

[@Roll3er]

Everything was the monkeys fault

[@RandomGuy37]

What is my name? Expand dong. "Nice to meet you, Expand Dong"

[@PinguNSE]

Nice

[@DONGStudiosTM]

Uhhhhh. Hello.

[@sdgx0]

ah yes a joel fan

[@jimmysavile69]

Imagine a as on it saying 'You need to go to 'enlargenyourdong.com'

[@MeowieGamer]

Ah yes, A man of culture

[@nzoomed]

I remember back in the early 2000's at my first IT job, I would always be running antivirus/spyware scans on customers machines, removing BONZI buddy in the process. They would often ring back and complain why we removed BONZI buddy. We would always say back to them, "well is your computer faster now? We simply removed all the spyware and crap that you installed that was making it slow. BONZI buddy was only part of your problems we found"

[@stickfan134]

How?! You're a old channel

[@purplehexagon]

he is a user on 2006

[@jaketheman091]

I remember getting bonzi buddy back in 2000 and my brother and I would always make jokes about how he's a virus, and over time we found out he actually was lol

[@Mitsou44]

Bonzy Boddy was ahead of it's time. But look at it now. Now we have Cortana. An integrated Bonzy Buddy lol

[@vjcodec]

Mitsou44 took me a lot of time to get cortana out of the system hah

[@MLWJ1993]

Cortana isn't supported in my country (yet, hopefully it never will be) so we get the classic search routine windows 7 had with some upgrades.

[@beezanteeum]

Siri? Google Assistant? Bixby? Alexa?

[@Raven-Purple]

Cortana from halo

[@greetingsgentlemen.8179]

@MikePlays_ROBLOX no edit: yes

[@CoolDudeClem]

I used to have this on my computer back when I was a kid. At the time I thought it was cute, but it would make my old pentuim II take so long to fully boot up, I removed it in the end.

[@nekrugderzweite8298]

Good choice, i guess

[@SergioLeonardoCornejo]

My father installed it. I found it dumb.

[@samuelthecamel]

KZbin: Gets into trouble with COPPA BonziBuddy: You too?

[@zad_rasera]

f

[@mlz_c]

Hmmmm, why havnt i been raped yet? (Ik what you said is a joke lol)

[@sweetfiendprince]

“First time?”

[@PriestessofGenbu]

KZbin: Step aside peasant *Blocks your Coppa and Net Neutrality videos* *teleports behind alternative video hosting site* Pssh, nothing personal, kid. *Removes competition*

[@emirvmendoza]

I like the fact that even if there have already been many videos on BonziBuddy, there's something new in each one. Even this one. Michael MJD, thanks for explaining COPPA and the fate of Bonzi Software because of it.

[@MichaelMJD]

You’re welcome! Yeah I thought it would be cool to do my own video on this and I’m glad to see people are enjoying it!

[@windest22]

@@MichaelMJD isn't working on windows 7 (with antivirus) i did , its a spyware

[@stonent]

Sends you reminders, searches for you, notifies you about things, and collects data on you. I'd bet Bonzi is pissed off at Cortana/Siri/Google Assistant

[@wordart_guian]

well those modern assistants never sent me fake virus dialogs

[@the10ofdiamondscard]

@@wordart_guian No, but they sold your data and spied on you for years, instead.

[@the10ofdiamondscard]

@EasySneezy 123 google stan

[@jenngra505]

Because Microsoft is one of the clients that uses the Bonzi brothers' IPromote, I always assumed Cortana and Bonzi's ghost were in cahoots.

[@TheSultan1470]

No

[@LearningandTechnology]

I remember being a Sys Admin during the early 2000's and things were much more "wild west" when it came to controlling user systems. Bonzi Buddy was EVERYWHERE and another side-effect was that it hammered the network. This was back in the days when a T1 line was fast, but not fast enough for the Purple Ape.

[@SkyeWeeb]

Inb4 MIchael puts BonziBuddy onto the $5 Windows 98 PC

[@FubarMike]

And then running Bonzi Buddy in windows 10

[@AwesumIndustrys]

@@FubarMike holy piss you're a prophet

[@Electrizing]

i tried but you need to have atleast windows 2000 to install bonzi buddy

[@SkyeWeeb]

@@Electrizing and Windows 2000 through 7 works on the $5 Windows 98 PC

[@yaboijuanito1460]

@@SkyeWeeb hi nice anime pfp and i sub to your channel

[@TheFakeVIP]

People in the early 2000s cared at least somewhat about their privacy it seems. And yet today some of the world's richest companies survive soully off of using you as a data farm. Granted, their advertising isn't nearly as deceptive, but it still goes to show you how the public's view on something can change in a second.

[@TheRoboKitty]

I both agree and disagree. It feels more like an unspoken agreement to collect and sell as much data as they want, as long as they strip your name off all of it. KZbin can know I'm a 24 year old female or a 30 year old male all they want, and they can send me targeted ads to other Warhammer 40k models that I won't ever see thanks to AdBlock. But the moment they send Amazon my real legal name or try to throttle my internet speed they're getting their butts dragged to court

[@TheSultan1470]

No

[@josephlarrivy8090]

I love how you slipped the Dunder Mifflin - Scranton address in there at 8:34 hahaha!

[@oswalds8355]

Bonzi Buddy getting sued for doing the same thing every free app on Google Play does

[@meipei2423]

1. Not all 2. Bonzi buddy actually spies on you and your desktop.

[@elektra81516]

@@meipei2423 most apps have spyware on them. Tiktok being the worst offender.

[@meipei2423]

@@elektra81516 I mean your definitely right about tiktok. I wouldn't doubt that they have spyware.

[@ChrisTian-sd5yq]

yeah cause they sell your data

[@killertigergaming6762]

@@meipei2423 your point google does the same thing

[@samueljaworski5737]

In the mid 00s, I brought this in on a CD and installed it, AIM and N64 emulators on a half dozen school computers.

[@reneablackheart9563]

Nice lmao

[@samueljaworski5737]

@@reneablackheart9563 I got 30 days of detention!

[@computerkid1416]

There's a program called CyberBuddy that is basically this but without the spyware. It doesn't work 100% anymore but it's still something neat I throw on my XP systems.

[@namesurname4666]

I tried it lol

[@Jake1702]

Might take a look at it on one of my XP VMs.

[@klkkloreklffd]

@@Jake1702 You really didn't have to include the "one of my XP VMs".

[@jnickence]

Yeah, CyberBuddy is what intro'd me to MS Agent. Microsoft was ahead of their time with Agent. I mentioned once that they should have reintro'd this with Cortana. It would have crushed Alexa and Google Assistant into dust. But nope. Now they have a disembodied voice in enterprise while Alexa has cornered shopping, and Assistant rules search.

[@someguy4915]

@@jnickence There's a reason they dropped Clippy and the general agent framework: it was useless. You are one of the few that talk positive about it, most people either hated it or just disliked it and immediately disabled it. It rarely gave relevant answers, it popped up at the wrong times giving annoying suggestions and overall for the mildly experienced user etc. it was just a nuisance. Microsoft tried it with Bob, consumers genuinely hated it. Then MS retried it with Clippy as the face of MS Agent and the consumers still hated it. Clippy, Bob and Bonzi is fun for kids to play around with and can be helpful for people having their first computer experience but beyond that they're redundant at best and obstructive at worst. Had MS kept Clippy as the face of Cortana, a much newer technology which shares nothing with the old system, it would have burried Cortana... Had MS kept MS Agent as the system for Cortana, it would've been a poor joke today. Honestly I can't think of a single reason to ever have something like Clippy around, I know how to use Word and anything I do not know, Clippy didn't answer anyway...

[@dennisanderson8663]

I bet a lot of people don't know BonziBuddy was a green parrot before he became a purple monkey. I remember downloading it just to use the text-to-speech function to make him speak profane things.

[@scarlettkimberlyann5387]

My ex did the same thing lol

[@TrinityBigT]

So glad I found this channel. Excellent documentaries!

[@MichaelMJD]

Thank you, I appreciate it!

[@Jahades]

I love being attacked by an internet!

[@RandomTRandomReal]

a whole internet?

[@kermittypewriter]

A whole ass internet

[@YeetusHiatus]

THE whole internet

[@MisterOscarReed420]

Why you like the internet attacking you? 👎👎👎

[@orhankaplan]

So the servers can FREAKING WALK!?

[@timseguine2]

I used to do freelance tech support. One time someone payed me to fix an adware problem. They had a bad one. I fixed it, but then they got mad at me for uninstalling Bonzi Buddy. That ended up being an interesting conversation.

[@JD-mz1rl]

Wow. This just unlocked a piece of memory I totally forgot existed

[@mattjw16]

8:43 Apparently, Michael lives at Dunder Mifflin.

[@FlightDreamz]

I actually had this on a Windows 98SE computer. Even paid for a download to "improve" BonziBuddy's jokes/sense of humor. You got more (terrible) jokes but that's about it. Uninstalled it after it brought my computer performance to a crawl (especially the "Windows error message ads").

[@nickcliff]

Vinesuce Joel make jokes about bonzi the name expand dong was funny 😄

[@vjcodec]

Great video! You have a great storytelling voice! :) keep it up man

[@MichaelMJD]

Thank you!

[@PinguNSE]

3:09 Wait, so they are saying that there is *_multiple_* internets?

[@SergioLeonardoCornejo]

Didn't you know? And some will attack you

[@FIXTREME]

George W. approves this comment

[@MyMyMicah32]

I got an Norton security ad on this video... KZbin knows I'm in danger of being attacked by an internet

[@cheystar]

😂

[@MaskedGEEK]

LGR did a similar video he called a Retrospective, but it’s always nice to see another’s view over Bonzi.

[@brewHamm]

LGR and The Science Elf are losing it

[@wordart_guian]

the science elf hasn't posted in many months sadly

[@mikesmith1290]

This is my new go to channel! I just discovered it, and I’m hooked!

[@wesleyperkins]

In 2000 in Cambridge, MA a developer friend of mine was doing a demo for upper management - suddenly BonziBuddy leaps onto the screen and blurts out "Hey Petey-boy! I just found some hot new pr0n!"

[@illbeburningstar1]

It's sad but when I was a kid I remimber clippy allmost like a little friend and I wished I could chat with him.....r.i.p. clippy I allsays loved you

[@Poorgeniu5]

I already seen LGR's Tech Tails on BonziBuddy but at times like this lockdown, go figure!

[@ralf667]

it feel like same to me !

[@theuniversejr]

the nostalgia is taking me back to my 10 yr old self up late nights searching the web running on dial-up speed.

[@kyanoang3l0_old]

Looks like I found a channel to binge on, and it's one heck of a nostalgia trip, too.

[@arandomnoob2]

Micheal:its the year 1999 Also him: the dawn of a new millienuim is a "couple of years away"

[@STXVEARMY]

Very nice video! I enjoyed :D

[@peteytwofinger]

i remember installing a clippy prank on my boss pc . man we had so much fun laughing at him .

[@KxWarrior]

My mom loved her bonzi buddy lol. Interesting to see the history behind it.

[@Cometpluto]

Fun fact: my dad actually went to college with the Bonzi Brothers. IDK if he still talks to them, but I know they were in the same classes at college together.

[@BonzaiTheBased]

cool

[@Lupin-kf1fy]

Bonzi Buddy is the best friend I've ever had.

[@blainepalmerza]

Awesome video,Michael!

[@MichaelMJD]

Thanks!

[@syskey1402]

BonziBuddy: Basiclly Google, lmao google tracks you even more

[@wadmodderschalton5763]

Freeware and open-source software, you don't have to pay any money for it. (6:29) Abandonware, different story, legality depends on your country you live in.

[@CastawayRJ]

My favourite BonziBuddy feature is the speak feature, so I can make it speak what ever I want.

[@martymcfly88mph35]

Yup lol I used to write the most racist shit and get him to say it

[@HeenaPatel253]

Same

[@CastawayRJ]

I already have BonziBuddy installed in a Windows XP VM, so I can mess around with the piece of spyware without installing it on my actual computer.

[@DL30Creations]

There also was a company called Oska that had some characters called DeskMates. It suddenly vanished one day as well. I had Johlee and Kali, well still do if I can get my old 98SE to boot up it has been a few years lol

[@apollo7874]

"It's the year 1999 and the dawn of a new millennium is only a couple of years away"

[@ryanunderwood1798]

Yeah, that didn't make sense.

[@pikkon899]

@@ryanunderwood1798 It was 2 years away in 1999, hence "a couple of years" The New Millennium started in 2001. Odd choice of words but not incorrect. "A couple" means more than 1.

[@desrisnes]

Thanks for the information !

[@MichaelMJD]

You're welcome!

[@marscaleb]

This came out so early in the days of the internet, I wonder if Bonzi ever realized that they were being "adware," like was that really even a term at the time? It clearly seemed to exist to some extent, but did it really carry the same weight? How many people really saw this an an invasion of privacy, or had to have someone explain to them how this was bad? Like these people could have legitimately come up with the idea all on their own without having seen anyone else do it before. (Not saying they were the first, but it was early enough that maybe they hadn't seen it done.) I would imagine this could have completely changed their motivations. Perhaps, but perhaps not. Just pondering.

[@ghivifahmi4252]

Expand Dong is BonziBUDDY's greatest legacy

[@xBioTV]

You did it :O

[@alternatenican]

i'm waiting for Big Chungus to be my next virtual assistant.

[@mahmoud1002]

Only one thing I could say to this video, I'm sorry dad for destroying the family computer.

[@beedslolkuntus2070]

Listening old dates gives so much nostalgia

[@mazenmarvel7342]

"How did we get here" Me : do you have 90 minutes?

[@crazyfloridian]

Yay, a new video on my birthday!

[@crazyFLGaming]

No one cares about your birthday neither does Micheal. So get lost.

[@crazyfloridian]

@@crazyFLGaming How dare you speak to me like that. 😠 That's very rude of you.

[@LilyRoseTerraharuka]

@@crazyFLGaming Bruh, way to ruined the video by leaving this dumb comment. You should be ashamed of yourself!

[@MichaelMJD]

Happy Birthday!

[@MichaelMJD]

@@crazyFLGaming You seriously need to tone it down a couple notches

[@snifyy]

Dude, please do a video about BeOS. It was an interesting story.

[@Barret_Radtke]

i remember this from the early 2000s

[@aceofhearts573]

I remember being 12 years old and going to an internet cafe with dial up. Sat in the back and would type dragonmoonx hahahahaha. That old Yahoo page gave me flashbacks. Thanks

[@retrocomputinggrotto]

Bonzi Buddy was every-bloody-where - the same people who had so many Internet Explorer toolbars installed that they only had 1cm of IE available to actually use are the sort of people who had Bonzi Buddy installed! Funny how we called it spyware/adware back then when that sort of thing is common practice nowadays as without it Free websites like Facebook or even paid for services like Amazon wouldnt exist as they have loads of data on its users.

[@MGSncB]

Well, it is not quite the same, because as you sign up there - you automatically agree to that platform's Terms and Services. They state clear as day that they may collect and process personal data, albeit the exact nature and the amount of data may be left undisclosed. This piece of software did not even have that, and collecting data without ANY consent is asking for a lawsuit.

[@ParkBarrington360]

0:29 Holy shit, that green parrot is literally the "Shill Character" from Demeech. Like, he was originally a Bonzi. BUT he's now a Demeech character

[@amirmoradi9595]

so now we need a video of getting bonzi buddy to run on windows 11

[@lockecole3726]

1999.. dawn of a new millennium... 0:10 "A couple years away." Now, I'm not a mathematician, but I think something might be slightly off with your math there guy.

[@LilyRoseTerraharuka]

Inb4 Joel from Vinesauce and LGR comments on this video

[@spiralendr]

I'd love to see a video on Protegent

[@johnny-becker]

8:49 Maybe in 2021 but in 1999, no two year old is going to be using 99.999999% of the software on the market.

[@Quast]

An Internet Attack!? Damn, those martians!

[@IsCringe777]

Use the old net to revisit this the old net can revisit any website or version of a site

[@bankleaks1217]

I remember having to disable anti-virus to install this. And th text to speech being the coolest part

[@StonePac]

Make a retrospective on Clippy

[@twithnell]

my mom used this crap, and even back then, my younger self was smart enough to tell her to not use it.

[@Vedant9710]

8:38 Ah Scranton I now remember Michael Scott and The Office!

[@Safecaryt]

@MICHAELMJD my windows ME setup has a problem with the product key

[@bellakintgen6736]

When He Introduced The Gorilla, I Played The Smash Brawl Theme.

[@inny74]

Its like they say: if a product is free, *you* are the product.

[@MindCanTroll]

Windows 10

[@MLWJ1993]

@@MindCanTroll it's not actually "free", the upgrade was, but it used your old windows license which you did pay for (in most cases). In any other case the water marked version you can use for free has been around since XP (although it would nag you every once in a while to purchase a license).

[@MindCanTroll]

​@@MLWJ1993 True. But even if you pay for Windows 10, you're still the product due to Microsoft dubious privacy policies. Hell, I had to format my PC recently and It wouldn't let me create a local account, the option simply wasn't there. Only the email option was available. I had to circumvent that by disconnecting from the internet and adding a random email and a random password (lol). Which is rather shady if you ask me. They'll stop at nothing for every piece of your info they can get their hands on. (You even have ads on their classic solitary game now...)

[@MLWJ1993]

@@MindCanTroll Oof, sounds pretty rough. Haven't had to resort to that, what I did appreciate was the multiple ways to initiate resetting to a previous recovery point, since my PC wouldn't let me run any programs or anything without crashing (which apparently was caused by the OS thinking the OS was on a different drive then it actually was, I don't even know how that happened). Only 1 of the 5 or so ways to get to a previous restore point actually worked without crashing, haven't had any problems since luckily.

[@MGSncB]

Well, there's open-source, FSF and Linux...

[@blainepalmerza]

About the voice email, why wouldn’t you just get a mic or download the music to send, because you could add attachments back then.

[@jedibattlemasterkos]

"It's 1999 and new millennium is only a *COUPLE YEARS* away." Wait... what?

[@nathanpollard1223]

Yeah.

[@namesurname4666]

Can you talk about microsoft agent/and mash

[@blocktagon]

Ohhh nostalgia I remember America Online like yesterday

[@williamlegotyler1825]

this is the only virtual assistant ever to have a personality,im not kidding,its like talking to a friend,wich,now a days,isnt like that,thats why i love it,few days ago my wifi was down...so i soent 4 hours talking with bonzibuddy on windows xp,im not kidding,but it was fun! i learned new things and good jokes!

[@googlechromulent2049]

$84.95 - but why that price specifically? Didn't your other video for SoftRam use the same price? :D The .95 cents really sticks out as suspicious when early merchants (that still do this today) would have listed it for 84.99 or 79.99

[@dennisanderson8663]

I hate deceptive pricing. If it's that close to an even dollar they should just round up.

[@PotterPossum1989]

They do that so you think you're getting a deal. That's why everything on TV used to be listed as $19.99, or $19.95. it's under $20, so it's a deal.

[@noahbeaudin6478]

Not sure who should get credit for the idea: LGR, The Science Elf or MJD? Because they both did almost the same thing!

[@mr.smash96]

Joel from Vinesauce.

[@Jake1702]

3 people but "both"??

[@TheBeresford7]

You gotta watch out for those internet attacks

[@whitebeartigtig]

I mean.. Google collects way more information on you than Bonzi Buddy ever did

[@dibberz-v1z]

that moment when you remember the 2010s are over

[@FIXTREME]

😢

[@HeenaPatel253]

That decade was the best

[@AlarakTheHighLord]

I still have my windows 98 computer and I believe I still have this little purple dude

[@raxpyraxp]

2000: Oh, Bonzi is collecting user data for advertisements! It's a spyware! 2020: Oh, Google is collecting user data for advertisements! Well, nothing to see here!

[@RomanBellic]

Hello There, EXPAND DONG

[@TemFromTheTemShop]

Yep, I remember Internet Alert ‘99! I LOVE simulating internet hijacks and attacks. Worth the 40 bucks...I guess. No seriously, who would pay 40 DOLLARS just to simulate internet attacks...?

[@_what._.]

Is there a version of BonziBuddy who isn't a spyware ? I would like to try this thing, but I don't really want to have problems... 😅

[@hirakchatterjee5240]

I must admit tho even simpler programs like clippy / bonzi buddy had more personality than siri/cortana/assistant all of which dont try to be anything more than ai robots

[@emberfluffyboi1408]

In my opinion, I think the company became corrupted with greed after getting rich from other products they made, and their greed would be their downfall. Also great video Michael!

[@RetroSmoo]

I had one that was Stitch from Lilo and Stitch and it'd eat my files lol

[@derekbayless8157]

"The year is 1999 and the new millenium is a couple of years away" lol

[@AmaroqStarwind]

Microsoft Bob, Microsoft Agent and the Longhorn Trio (WinFS, Castle and Nexus)... May they rest in peace, and may an open-source spiritual successor take their place.

[@morganrussman]

Not that I'm accusing you of stealing Micheal, but LGR did a tech tales episode on this, and OS First timer did a bit of a episode on it too.

[@morganrussman]

@@stupidgenius42 I get that.

[@panqueque445]

"Even inform you of new virus alerts" Oh the irony

[@mcanty]

I just realized this dude writing out the address is a reference to the office

[@joshc7348]

8:49 The username should be littlekidlover

[@domwarden3443]

Ahh good. Bonzi buddy can help my download some midi's 😂

[@kalalisto]

My parents remember when this lawsuit happened because it was a big deal in spokane since thats where the lawsuit was started