SwiftCD partners with WinRAR

SwiftCD has been selected by win.rar GmbH for the manufacturing and fulfillment of the new WinRAR Shareware CD release.

read full story here

GetAFile workaround

Replace getafile.com with 216.198.211.71 to access their resources now. We are not sure how long will that last, so you need to act quickly. This IP may be not functioning any time now, GetAFile is really down for good.

Spam king murdered

This news reminds us about a very important rule, that many shareware authors sometimes forget - DO NOT SPAM your customers!

Vardan Kushir, owner of education companies Center for American English, New York English Centre and Centre for Spoken English, was murdered today in Moscow. His companies were known for a very aggresive e-mail advertisement. He was spamming the Russia so much, that he was called a "spam king" there.

Body of a 35-years old Kushnir was found in his apartement in Moscow. As the police say, he was beaten to death.

Kushnir was known for his saying "e-mail was invented to send out spam". Most of the internet users in Russia receive his spam messages several times a day.

Police doubts this death is connected to spamming activity of Vardan Kushnir.

GetAFile.com is closed

The filehost company www.getafile.com that many shareware authors used to store the downloads of their evaluation versions has quietly quit business by "pulling the plug out" this morning.

SharewareJunction blog reports, that the file hosting service GetAFile has disappeared after its partner company, owned by Steve Lee, was acquired and separated from the venture.

T-Online Download Center

Effective immediately, T-Online customers have more than 25,000 freeware and shareware tools available for download as a free-of-charge included service. Users can select their favorite software from the range which is updated several times daily, and download it from high-speed servers at download.t-online.de. Especially popular is the free "Mail bei Update" service which automatically informs users when a new version of their favorite programs is available for download. With the Tip of the Day, users also receive an overview of the latest highlights.

read full story here

Digital River Launches oneNetwork for Software Resellers

Digital River lately announced it has made new enhancements to its online sales network. The company re-branded its online network for software resellers and greatly expanded its affiliate sales program with a new suite of marketing tools and sales incentives. Digital River intends to raise visibility for its network and attract new publishers and third-party sellers by creating an even more valuable online marketplace for buying and selling software.

As part of this move, Digital River officially announced an over-arching brand for its online sales network, called the Digital River oneNetwork™. The oneNetwork encompasses Digital River’s entire online software marketplace, including the existing reseller programs that the company offers to its online retailers, affiliates, portals, content sites, small business entrepreneurs and software publishers.

“We believe the Digital River oneNetwork is one of the world’s largest online marketplaces for buying and selling software,” said Joel Ronning, Digital River’s CEO. “Via this virtual marketplace, we connect publishers with resellers and create new ways for them to mutually expand their markets and online revenues. We offer publishers access to a channel of tens of thousands of resellers. We provide resellers an established catalog of digital products, which is ready for sale and download. Then we manage the e-commerce transactions, handle the back- end operations that support marketplace sales and deliver our partners a check with their profits.”

In conjunction with this re-branding effort, Digital River launched the oneNetwork affiliate program designed exclusively for its affiliates or third-party software sellers. By offering affiliates strong sales incentives and a suite of new marketing and merchandising tools to drive more traffic and product sales, Digital River intends to create a more attractive marketplace for this audience.

To learn more about Digital River's oneNetwork affiliate program, please go to http://onenetwork.digitalriver.com

A crack for your software is a marketing tool?

This is a very interesting point of view by Prakash Panjwani, general manager for rights management at SafeNet, which develops security software, said that some software companies "have let piracy continue because it's great viral marketing" - that is, a way of spreading the word about a product in guerrilla fashion. Perhaps because of this ambiguity, software companies have sometimes seemed less vocal about piracy than, say, the music industry, which has mounted a legal campaign against users of Internet file-sharing networks, who download and trade music illegally.

read whole story here

Download.com relaunches today

When you visit Download.com today, you will notice some big changes. Over the last months they have been working hard to bring the users a vastly improved Web site design and superior usability. They hope you'll agree that the new Download.com is sleeker, friendlier, and easier to use.

Download.com folks say:
Of course, though we've reduced the clutter, we haven't eliminated any of the features that you've come to rely on at Download.com. In fact, we've even added a few. Here are some highlights:


Screenshots: You'll notice that screenshots are now making an appearance across Download.com. Very shortly you will be able to upload your own screenshots for your products through Upload.com. We'll let you know as soon as this functionality is available to you.

Persistent navigation: No more dead ends on Download.com! We think our new navigation will make it easier for users to browse the site—and find their way to your product.

Higher profile for popular products: Our users have let us know that download counts matter. For this reason, you'll notice that our Most Popular lists now have a higher profile on Download.com. All the more reason to drive more downloads through our Button Partner program. This allows you to link to your product page on Download.com.

New share-it! Director Luca Giannone

Luca Giannone joined Share-it! as the new Director on July 1, 2005.

After he completed a double degree in business in Germany and the United States, he worked for seven years for various Internet companies. In early 2004, he took the position of Associate Director Product Management at element 5.

In his new position as share-it! Director, Luca Giannone is your new contact for all sales issues. He is also responsible for the further development of this division, the positioning of our platform within the Digital River Group, and strategic product planning.

In his new position, he will be responsible for share-it!'s business in more than 70 countries.

Digital River Shareware announces ICE awards 2005

This is the first year, Digital River Shareware formally recognizes its clients for their Internet Commerce Excellence - a.k.a. ICE Awards. The awards showcase small and large companies alike - savvy companies that are putting e-Commerce best practices to work in creative new ways to drive revenues and efficiencies through their online stores. If you can tell a story about a B2B or B2C e-Commerce strategy or campaign that generated compelling results, you could be one of Digital River's next ICE Awards winners.

How does the program work?

Digital River Shareware and share*it! recognize clients at the ICE Awards in five categories, including:

* Utilities and Tools and Security Solutions
* Sound, Music & MP3
* Internet & Communications
* Graphics & Multimedia
* Newcomer of the year

Every client of the platforms share*it!, DigiBuy, setSystems, RegNow, RegSoft, RegNet, SWReg, QWerks and eMetrix will automatically participate in the award. Judges will select up to two ICE Awards winners per category and reveal their identities personally.

Vector Capital buys shareware "icon" WinZip

This is about one of the greatest shareware programs of a time - WinZip.

WinZip, which specializes in software that compresses large files for storage or mailing, has been bought by turnaround investor Vector Capital.

For years, WinZip's eponymous utility has been one of the most popular shareware programs on the Web. More than 140 million people have downloaded the program, and it's downloaded for free about 500,000 times a week, said Chris Nicholson, a partner at Vector.

Technically, WinZip charges $29 for the program after a 30-day free trial. Unfortunately, the honor system doesn't work as well as it used to. Few customers end up paying for the program.

The company also has never charged for upgrades or new versions, a common practice in the software world. And it has not added extra features for customers that paid the $29 licensing fee.

"There was little emphasis on monetizing what they had," Nicholson said.

Vector will try to change that by reminding users a little more firmly that the software costs money, as well as likely coming out with features that only paying customers can download. Vector also signed a marketing and distribution agreement with Google.

read full story here

2005 SIC Winners!

This year's winners are:

Best Overall Utility
Beyond Compare by Scooter Software
TuneUp Utilities 2004 by TuneUp Software GmbH - 2005 WINNER
WinRAR by WinRAR
WinZip by WinZip Computing

Best Application
Advanced Installer Pro by Caphyon Ltd.
TurboDemo by Bernard D&G
UltraEdit by IDM Computer Solutions, Inc. - 2005 WINNER

Best Graphics Program or Utility
Axialis Icon Workshop by Axialis Software
IrfanView by Irfan Skiljan
SnagIt by Techsmith - 2005 WINNER

Best Desktop Enhancement
Microangelo Creation by Eclipsit Corporation - 2005 WINNER
OceanDive by SCS Software
Startup Guru by Lincoln Beach Software

Best Photo Program or Utility
CoffeeCup Pix Converter by CoffeeCup Software, Inc.
Images: In Context! by Liquid Mirror Software - 2005 WINNER
PentaSuite DigiPhoto by PentaWare, Inc.
Picasa 2 by Google, Inc.

Best Application Using .Net
Guitar and Drum Trainer 2 by Renegade Minds - 2005 WINNER
SourceGear Vault by SourceGear Corporation
Vacation Designer by Meliovation, Inc.

Best Utility Using .Net
Code Library for .Net by Softpedia
Filehand Search by Filehand, LLC. - 2005 WINNER
Infragistics Net Advantage Pro by Infragistics

Best Sound Program or Utility
Blaze Media Pro by Mystik Media, Inc.
Microsoft Media Player by Microsoft Corporation - 2005 WINNER
TextAloud by NextUp Technologies, LLC.

Best Vertical Market Program or Utility
Bell Commander by Acrovista
Help and Manual by EC Software - 2005 WINNER
Registry First Aid by Rose City Softare

Best Business Application or Utility
Black Hole Organizer by Lincoln Beach - 2005 WINNER
InnoSetup by Jordan Russell
PayWindow Payroll by ZPAY Payroll Systems, Inc.

Best Educational Program or Game
AceReader Pro by StepWare, Inc.
Cherokee Trails by Pharos Games - 2005 WINNER
TypingMaster Pro -

Best Hobby or Personal Interest
Performance Diet Pro by HealthKeeper, Inc.
Digital Physiognomy by Uniphiz Lab
Living Cookbook by Radium Technologies, Inc.
PhotoMix by fCoder Group, Inc. - 2005 WINNER

Best Internet Enhancement
FTP Voyager by Rhino Software, Inc. - 2005 WINNER
GetRight by Headlight Software, Inc.
TheBat! by RITLABS

Best Internet Communication
AliveChat 3 by WebsiteAlive
FeedForAll by NotePage, Inc. - 2005 WINNER
Skype by Skype Technologies S.A.
Trillian by Cerulean Studios

Best Web Enhancement
AI Roboform by Siber Systems
BrowserBob Pro 4 Professional
CoffeeCup Flash Form Builder by CoffeeCup Software, Inc.
HTML Match by Salty Brine Software, Inc. - 2005 WINNER

Best Server Program or Utility
DNS4ME by Rhino Software, Inc.
Quick 'n Easy FTP Server by Pablo Software Solutions
Servers Alive by bvba Woodstone - 2005 WINNER

Best Non-Action Game
CrossCraze by ORT Software
Pretty Good Solitaire by Goodsol Development, Inc.
Diamond Tetris by Plutosoftware
No Limits Roller Coaster Simulator - 2005 WINNER

Best Action/Arcade Game
Action Solitaire by Goodsol Development, Inc.
Arcade Lines by Lobstersoft
Astrogeddon by ORT Software - 2005 WINNER
PacFish by Suricate Software

Best Program for PDA's
CacheMate by Smittyware
Google Mobile by Google, Inc. - 2005 WINNER
TealDoc by TealPoint Software, Inc.

Shareware "geeks" learn marketing

More than 400 people spent time last week in Denver learning how to go from being an "introverted geek" to a savvy software marketer and seller.

The 15th annual Shareware Industry Conference drew software developers and marketers from around the world, each with a special interest in profiting through the use of shareware.

read full story here

Yashi Kant, Oracle managing director about shareware

Kant said there is a growing popularity in the public sector for shareware (software that is shared in the Internet), which is slowly replacing brand software like Microsoft.

This is crucial to Oracle, which has adopted shareware Linux for its software product line and for all its programming work, enabling it to save P1 billion globally, he said.

read whole story here...

Google AdWords Keyword Evaluation Changes

Google AdWords Announcement about the Keyword Evaluation Changes

You asked, and we listened. In the coming weeks, we'll simplify our keyword status system and introduce quality-based minimum bids, giving you more control to run on keywords that you find important. We believe these changes will result in higher quality ads.

What's changing

Simplified account management: Your keywords will be active or inactive — instead of normal, in trial, on hold, and disabled. In addition, accounts will no longer be slowed. Currently, accounts are slowed when they don't meet our performance requirements and your ads appear rarely for your keywords.


Quality-based minimum bids: Soon, each keyword will be assigned a minimum bid based on its Quality Score. Keywords with a higher Quality Score will be given lower minimum bids to stay active and trigger ads. Keywords with a lower Quality Score (including those that are currently on hold) will have the opportunity to run if your keyword or Ad Group's maximum cost-per-click (CPC) meets the minimum bid.

The Quality Score is determined by your keyword's clickthrough rate (CTR), relevance of your ad text, historical keyword performance, and other relevancy factors.

Ad Rank, or the position of your ad, will continue to be based on the maximum CPC and quality (now called the Quality Score).
What you should do

Here are some suggestions for what you should do before and after we implement the changes described above:

Before implementation: If you're happy with your current keyword list, there's no need to make any changes. However, if you have any on hold keywords that you don't want to trigger ads, we suggest you delete them from your account. This is because any keywords with a high enough Quality Score and maximum CPC could be activated and accrue ad clicks. You can use our Find and Edit Keywords tool, available in your account's Tools page, to quickly search for and delete any keywords in your account.

After implementation: We'll email you after we implement these changes. You should then log in to your account and monitor your keyword performance under these new guidelines. Any disabled keywords at the time of implementation will remain labeled as disabled in your account. Several weeks later, we'll delete them. This period of time is meant to give you an opportunity to review your disabled keywords and activate them.

Finally, to ensure your ads are optimized for performance, we suggest you continue to improve your keywords and ad text for relevancy.

Introducing the Shareware Starter Kit

from Dan Fernandez's Blog

Microsoft has officially released the Shareware Starter Kit on Channel9!!

The Shareware Starter Kit is a sample application of the common features in all shareware applications. You can easily modify, extend and integrate these into your own applications. The Channel9 guys even have a contest where you can write code to use the Shareware Starter Kit and code your way to a free ticket to the PDC. Michael Lehman also has a video walkthrough of the Shareware Starter Kit. After installing the application, make sure to read the SSK Developer Documentation for a full overview of everything it can do. Both Michael, Jed Rose, and I will be at the Shareware Industry Conference in Denver, Colorado later this week (ping me if you’re interested in a nerd dinner).

read more and download here...

Microsoft to take part in SIC

by Michael G. Lehman

We at Microsoft believe in developers and are keenly aware that quite a large portion of the innovations that happen in our industry start out in someone's bedroom, garage or small office. Part of my job is to reach out to the so-called MicroISV and help them be successful.

As part of our next major effort in this direction, I'm off starting Wednesday to the Shareware Industry Conference (http://www.sic.org) where we, Microsoft, are co-sponsors. Dan Fernandez , Jed Rose and I are going to talk about our new Shareware Starter Kit for Visual Studio 2005 (SSK) for C# and VB, as well as our Code 'n my way to the PDC contest.

All the attendees at SIC will receive a free VS2005 Beta 2 DVD, a copy on CD of the SSK and three lucky winners will win Microsoft-provided prizes on Friday's exhibit night. We've donated 2 Creative Zen Micros and 1 Zen Portable Media Center.

If you're going to SIC please look me up, I'll be talking on FRIDAY 10:15 and SATURDAY 3:30, at the Microsoft booth on Friday night and at the awards dinner on Saturday.

Digital River will participate in SIC

Digital River, Inc. yestoday announced that the company will attend and participate in the 15th Annual Shareware Industry Conference (SIC). The conference is being held from July 14-16 at the Hyatt Regency Tech Center in Denver, Colo.

At the conference, Digital River plans to introduce e-commerce programs that have been designed specifically for the shareware community. The company, a gold level sponsor at SIC, plans to have an extensive presence. It will host both an exhibit booth and a hospitality suite. Digital River also will have a number of e-commerce experts speaking about a variety of topics during the educational sessions throughout the conference. The panel session topics include affiliate marketing, e-mail marketing, Web analytics and software protection methods, among others.

SIC, a conference where shareware authors share information, was first held in 1991 and has evolved into a world-leading shareware conference. More information about SIC can be obtained at www.sic.org.

read the whole story...

Game Industry Demographics Survey

The IGDA is attempting to compile data on the workforce of the game industry. This survey will allow us to better understand our constituents as well as giving us a snapshot about the current makeup of the industry.

There are 18 questions and it should only take a few minutes to complete. The deadline for survey submissions is Friday, July 15.

This survey is anonymous and you will not be named or identified in any way. Results will be compiled in aggregate. The results of the survey will be reported by the IGDA some time in August. Free access to the report and aggregate data will be made available.

Feel free to pass the link to this survey on to colleagues. The more people who take this survey, the better picture we will have of the industry.

As a small token of appreciation, you will be eligible to win a Sony PSP handheld game console. After completing the survey you will be prompted to enter your email address (this is optional, will not be linked to your survey data and will not be used for any other purpose).

take the survey...

Google Sued for "Click Fraud"

Pay-per-click analysis firm slams Google in federal suit, alleging the search giant profits from ‘click fraud.'

Google profits from the manipulation of its pay-per-click advertising service by others, and hasn’t done enough to end the practice, according to a lawsuit filed by pay-per-click analysis firm Click Defense.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court as a potential class action, alleges Google has been negligent in monitoring fraudulent clicks, at a loss to its advertisers and a gain to its own bottom line.

In addition to more than $10 million, the suit asks that Google be required to disclose “the true extent of click fraud” and to return any money to advertisers that resulted from the practice.

“We believe this suit is without merit, and we will defend ourselves against it vigorously,” said Google spokesman Mike Mayzel. The case is similar to a suit pending in Arkansas state court, and Mr. Mayzel said the same comment would apply in that case.

While Google’s AdWords program does have a process for click fraud refunds, “the protocol is changing by the week,” according to Scott Boyenger, CEO of Click Defense. “When you’re bringing in a billion dollars a quarter, you’re going to protect that nut.”

Advertising is far and away Google’s main source of revenue. The company reported revenue of $1.256 billion in the first quarter, including $462 million in traffic acquisition costs that it shares with its partners.

read full story on Red Herring

States Pushing For Web Sales-Tax Collection

by W. Gardner

Momentum is building for level sales taxes on Internet retail purchases, as 18 states prepare to nudge online retailers to collect taxes on items purchased over the Web.

In the wake of a meeting of the Streamlined Sales Tax Project (SSTP) in Chicago last week, tax representatives from states participating in the effort have been encouraging retailers to collect sales taxes.

"This is still all-voluntary," said Dick Eppleman of tax software supplier Vertex. "There is still no mandate to collect taxes on remote sales whether they are for the Internet or for catalog sales. But it's a big step along a long road."

Some 40 states have been meeting since 2000 in an effort to hammer out an agreement to create some semblance of uniformity in the collection of sales taxes on remote sales, particularly sales across state lines. The decision of 12 states to create a uniform approach to the collection of taxes is considered something of a breakthrough.

The states comprising the leadership of the SSTP, which are working towards sales tax uniformity are: Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota and West Virginia with New Jersey in the process of joining that group. Associate members close to participating are Arkansas, North Dakota, Ohio, Tennessee, Utah and Wyoming.

read full story on Yahoo! News

EU rejects software patents

from SharewareBlogs

The EU has rejected the new laws for software patents.
In the US, software patents are awarded in a way that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Some patents have no mreits, but are just about trivial things, and block progress and the freedom for developers to build the software they want to build.
The European Union, after massve protest, decided not to make the same mistake.
The rejection was massive: 648 votes against 14.
The major reason for the rejection is most likely that the commission didn't want to follow the recommendations made by the parliament.

Google releases Firefox Toolbar

Google recently released a Firefox version of its toolbar in 10 languages, avaliable for download from http://toolbar.google.co.uk/firefox