On December 17, 2004, Microsoft announced the acquisition of an anti-spyware company, surprising many in the industry. The acquisition is notable for two reasons. First, Microsoft had already revealed its intention to get into the anti-spyware market. Second, the company it purchased, Giant Software Company, was largely an unknown in the industry. Largely, that is, except for me. In a rare moment of luck, I'd actually been a fan, customer, and advocate of Giant AntiSpyware, as their anti-spyware solution is logically named, for several months. In fact, I've found it to be far more effective than the industry darlings, Ad-aware and Spybot Search & Destroy. And I've been recommending it to friends and family ever since.

But wait, the luck doesn't end there. While months of experience with Giant Antispyware gives me a unique perspective of this product, I was also lucky enough to interview Giant co-founder Andrew Newman just days before his company was purchased by Microsoft. Newman discussed with me Giant's plans for future versions of the product, including a centrally-managed enterprise version that, I suspect, played a large part in Microsoft's interest. Newman explained to me why Giant's approach to tackling spyware is superior to that of the competition, and provided some valuable insight into how spyware can be confronted and defeated.