Productivity Portfolio

Those of you who know me can vouch that I’m a skeptic. I’ve been around long enough to know that too many sites pull you in, but don’t provide the goods. Worse are scam artists with the sites that sell free software. This give away site addresses the concerns I usually have:

• The programs are guaranteed to be free of malware (computer viruses, trojans spyware).
• The programs are the current version
• The programs are fully functional and not “cripple ware”
• You’re not required to provide membership info or email address
• The programs are useful commercial applications

Another interesting aspect is Giveaway of the Day pays the software publisher for the copies. I suspect this policy may be one of the reasons publishers are willing to go with this promotion.

The Give Away of the Day Details

Each day, the site provides a new timed offer (1). The best way to access the information is to use their RSS feed so you don’t miss a good deal. You can quickly find out from the headline whether the software package will interest you.

Once at the site, you’ll notice they provide information on the giveaways. The current offer is always at the top, but you can see past items. The front page provides a brief program description (2) and the current user rating (3). People can give the program a thumbs up or thumbs down. The site provides a percentage ranking and the vote count. At the bottom, you can see how much time remains on the offer (4).

Click to enlarge

When you go to the program’s download page, you see more information. The most important part is to look at the Terms and Conditions. Although you’re getting free software, you may not get support or upgrades. This varies with the publisher.

This download page also provides user comments. Usually these are from people who have installed the software. The comments can be useful, but you’ll see that some users don’t follow the instructions. Sometimes users offer up other software recommendations. You can add your opinion by either clicking a thumb icon or providing a comment. Or, you can scroll to the bottom of the comments page and add your notes. For comments, you do need to provide an email address.

Each program is offered in a zipped file you download from their site or a mirror. In this package is a file called readme.txt. that includes the important information you need to know. Sometimes, you need a registration number and other times you need to use an “activate” program. My suggestion is to read this file before doing anything.

(S)he who hesitates gets the trial version

I found out about this maxim the hard way. I saw an item on TechMeme that True Launch Bar was free. The program had been previously recommended, so I snagged it. The problem was I didn’t install it until the next day. The program installed, but I no longer had the free version. It reverted to a trial version. Blimperskins! Obviously, they are appealing to people that act.

Featured Giveaways

The programs that Giveaway of the Day offers aren’t household names. I wouldn’t expect to see software titles from large publishers. The titles tend to be in the utility or specialty group. As example, today’s offer for RSS Mix appeals to a small subset of webmasters. However, a program like True Launch Bar would appeal to millions.

Part of the dilemma with providing free software is that it still needs to be good. Price aside, people won’t like it if it doesn’t provide value. The team that selects these programs has done a good job. In scanning the approval rate for past selections through late October, the overwhelming majority were favorably approved. I found a few items where negative ratings surpassed positive ones, but those were when the site started.

The site is new and I think offers a good service. Even though I spend a fair chunk of timing testing software, it doesn’t mean I spot everything. It’s nice to have an alternate source providing good ideas. There are a couple of items I wish the site included. One is a Privacy Policy. The site requires users to submit email addresses if they post a comment, but I couldn’t find a reference to what they do with this data. I also would appreciate it if I could zoom in by comment type. As example, negative comments are where people post installation problems. For example, if I see multiple comments that the program won’t install with X, I may skip that download if I also have X.

They say hindsight is always 20/20. In glancing through the list or previous give aways, I’m sorry I didn’t find this site sooner. I saw about a dozen programs I would like to have tried. This is why I added their RSS feed so I don’t lose out again. I suggest you do the same.

URL: http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/
Cost: Free
Rating: ★★★★☆