Softpedia
| Softpedia | |
| URL: | www.softpedia.com |
| Founded: | November 2001 |
| Location: | Romania |
| Owner: | Catalin Garmacea & Bogdan Gheorghe |
| Category: | Software Index |
| Number of softwares indexed: | 146,135 (6/01/06) |
| Total number of downloads: | 187,212,975 (6/01/06) |
| Spoken languages: | English / Romanian |
Softpedia is a website that indexes information and provides downloads for many games, drivers, mobile phones, and software for the Windows, Macintosh and Linux platforms. The site also indexes major technology, science, health, and entertainment news both from ticker servers and from in-house sources. As of April 2006, it is one of the top 700 websites on the internet according to Alexa traffic rankings. [1] The site was originally known as Softnews.ro. It was changed to Softpedia towards the end of 2003.
Softpedia claims to thoroughly test each software product and game they list and to check each one for evidence of viruses, malware, adware or spyware using a variety of well know antivirus and antispyware products. Programs which Softpedia finds to be free of viruses, malware, adware and spyware are given its "100% Clean" award; programs which are also free are given Softpedia's "100% Free" award.
Software categories are arranged hierarchically and are modeled after Windows filesystem paths, such as "C: \ Mobile Phone Tools \ Sony Ericsson." Large category listings are split across multiple pages. Users can sort by criteria such as the date of the last update, the number of downloads, or the rating.
Site Sections
Softpedia is composed of the following sections, each one with a specific purpose:
- The Windows section lists a wide range of freeware, shareware, trial, and demo software products for Microsoft Windows.
- The Games section lists demos, patches, trailers, information on upcoming release and so on.
- The Drivers section helps you find the latest drivers for your hardware, for all versions of the Windows operating system.
- The Mac section lists a wide range of freeware, shareware, trial, and demo software products for Macintosh computers.
- The Linux section lists a wide range of freeware, shareware, trial, and demo software products for Linux based Operating Systems.
- The Mobile section is designed for mobile phone enthusiasts and people interested in communication industry news.
- The News section is updated daily with IT and science related news and articles.
Site features
- Softpedia Klip, for use with Serence Klipfolio
- Poll Voting - users can vote in the weekly or monthly Softpedia poll, which determines the "Users' Choice" award
- Rate software - users can rate software on a scale from 1 to 5
- User reviews - Softpedia posts reviews of the software from registered users
- Refer to a friend - the site allows users to send information about the software to friends via e-mail
- Report broken link - users can indicate if a link to a piece of software is broken
- Report spyware - users can warn others if they find spyware, adware or viruses in the software
- RSS feeds - Softpedia provides RSS feeds listing new programs and news
- Send update information - users can notify Softpedia of updates to the listed software
- Downloads - users can download the listed noncommercial software, including some software mirrored on Softpedia's servers
- Screenshots - Softpedia posts screenshots for some of the software it lists
- Search - Softpedia has a search engine for finding software in either "simple" or "advanced" modes
- Submission - developers and users can submit software for inclusion in Softpedia.
There is no charge for the above services. Registration is free and provides more features, including reviewing the software, commenting on the software or news, posting to the forums, or sending news to friends. Registration also allows the use of a "download basket" to store programs for future download, and to be notified of program updates via e-mail.
How software is listed/updated on softpedia
Software can be submitted to Softpedia by any of a various means:
- Developers can provide softpedia editors with a PAD file which can be done by using the submit software form.
- Developers who do not have a PAD file file can fill out the generic form for submitting software, which requires the following information for a complete submission:
- Program name, program version, category, file size, applicable operating systems, download links, long program description, short program description, license, price (0 for free), 32x32 icon link, producer name, homepage and producer e-mail.
- Developers are free to e-mail softpedia editors with their software and request addition to the softpedia archive.
- Developers are also free to post their request to have their software added to softpedia on the English boards. This method is not preferred but not unwelcome.
Software updates can be brought to the attention of editors by any of the following means:
- Developers can make changes to their PAD file which Softpedia editors will see.
- Developers can e-mail Softpedia editors of a new version.
- All users, developers and downloaders alike, can make a post on the English boards with the new version information. This method is not preferred but not unwelcome.
- All users, developers and downloaders alike, are free to use the "Send us update information" link on the software's respective download page which will notify Softpedia editors of a new program version. Users are required to fill out a simple form which requires information on the new version before the update can be submitted.
Each software submission and update ticket is reviewed by a single member of the reviewing team from the respective section (Windows, Mac, Linux, etc.) and is processed in a timely matter.
It is also worth mentioning that Softpedia editors take the time to browse other major download sites like Download.com or Betanews to find updates to softwares that are otherwise out-of-date on Softpedia.
On the other hand, many software developers dislike Softpedia's tendency to troll for new software and post unauthorized listings on their site. Often, Softpedia will steal links and descriptions from other software listiing sites, such as Version Tracker, and, unbeknownst to the developer, post unauthorized descriptions, links, and screenshots.
Awards given by Softpedia
- 100% Clean - Award given to software products that Softpedia labs have tested to be free of adware, malware, spyware or viruses.
File:Softpedia clean award f.gif
- 100% Free - Award given to software products that Softpedia labs have tested to be free of adware, malware, spyware or viruses, while having a license of "freeware".
File:Softpedia free award f.gif
- Editor's Review Badge - Badge given to software products which Softpedia labs editors have personally reviewed. The badge reflects the rating the editors have given the software product.
File:Sp editor poor.gifFile:Sp editor fair.gifFile:Sp editor good.gifFile:Sp editor very good.gifFile:Sp editor excellent.gif
- Pick - "Awards are given to products that we think are excellent and above average in their category." - Softpedia labs.
- User's Choice - Award given to software products that have won the weekly or monthly Softpedia poll.
Softpedia Users' Choice award winners
- August 17th, 2005 - Operating Systems - Windows XP
- September 5th, 2005 - Instant Messengers - Yahoo! Instant Messenger
- September 12th, 2005 - Internet Browsers - FireFox
- September 19th, 2005 - E-Mail clients - Mozilla Thunderbird
- October 20th, 2005 - Future gaming consoles - Playstation 3
- December 6th, 2005 - Antivirus Software - Norton Antivirus
- January 6th, 2006 - Media Players - Media Player Classic
- January 30th, 2006 - Image Viewers - ACDSee
- February 28th, 2006 - Archiving programs - WinRAR
- April 10th, 2006 - Antispyware Software - Ad-Aware Personal
- May 9th, 2006 - Firewalls - Zone Alarm
History of major changes
- October 2003 - Name changed from SoftNews.ro to Softpedia
- October 2003 - New site design.
- September 2004 - Added Softpedia Klip for Serence Klipfolio.
- September 2004 - Introduced Mac section.
- September 2004 - Introduced Mobile section.
- September 2004 - New site design.
- October 2004 - Began awarding deserving software products with 100% Clean and 100% Free awards.
- October 2004 - Began providing high-quality screenshots taken by Softpedia labs of tested software products.
- July 2005 - Added counter on index page showing count of total programs and total downloads.
- July 2005 - Added Download Basket.
- July 2005 - Added screenshot thumbnail on download information pages.
- July 2005 - Added "Send update information" link.
- July 2005 - Changed top downloads at bottom of the index page to shown 40 programs/games instead of 90.
- July 2005 - Introduced Linux section.
- July 2005 - New index page design.
- July 2005 - Placed "Report Spyware" button on download information page.
- September 2005 - Started publishing editor reviews of Windows software.
- September 2005 - Began awarding "User's choice" award to the program that wins the most recent Softpedia weekly/monthly poll.
- October 2005 - Started publishing editor reviews of PC Games.
- November 2005 - Started publishing editor reviews of Mac software.
- November 2005 - Started publishing editor reviews of Playstation Games.
- January 2006 - Started publishing editor reviews of Linux software.
- February 2006 - Added "100% clean" or "100% award" awards text on the download pages. This is the same information as seen when clicking the icon for the award on the download information pages. For those softwares which include spyware or adware, and therefore do not have a 100% clean award, this space shows a warning and a list of possible undesirable products included with the software.
- February 2006 - Started listing legal torrent download links on program download pages.
- February 2006 - Started listing localized downloads (i.e. Spanish, French, etc.) of programs on download pages.
- February 2006 - Started publishing full, appendable changelogs, or "Version history"'s, on the download information pages. (Appendable as in future version changelogs will appended to the current changelog document)
- March 2006 - Changed "Send update information" link to "Send us update information"
- May 2006 - Introduced Handheld section.