Technology giants Google, Lenovo Group, and Sun Microsystems are funding a nonprofit effort to combat something called "badware," a new term for all of the nasty spyware and computer viruses that users never wanted installed on their computers. <A HREF="http://www.pcworld.com/resource/article/0,aid,124481,pg,1,RSS,RSS,00.asp">The Stop Badware Coalition</A> launched a StopBadware.org Web site, which will be modeled on the Consumer Reports WebWatch site, and will be run by staff of about 12, operating out of two prominent university departments: Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet & Society in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and University of Oxford's Internet Institute in the U.K. The site will compile a list of companies that stick computers with annoying pop-ups, spyware, and other malicious code and will give users a central place to get information on this growing problem.