I understand the differences between spyware and virus infection. But, I have noticed for instance that Norton upgrades weekly but apparently spyware catchers do not often update. I use Earthlink and their spy catcher (a version of spysweeper). I do not recall them updating? I know that catching viruses (Virii?) is much more critical and complex. But aren't the spy people constantly updating and changing their methods etc?? Just wondering. I also use SPYBOT and I have noticed that SPYBOT and Spysweeper will both catch spys on my machine, but not the same ones. Maybe it's something do do with what they define as a spy.

They should have update options. I am not familiar with the earthlink versions, but the standalones do have updates on occassion.

Just like any vendor, the different software vendors do their own research and create their own signatures in order to detect the spyware. Some have signatures that the others do not. That is why we recommend people use both spybot and adaware when scanning for malware.