August 14, 2009
GAOTD teams up with Software Informer
Hello everybody!
We’re happy to announce GAOTD cooperation with another great company Informer Technologies and its project Software Informer in particular. From now on while activating new giveaway you’ll be opted to install Software Informer Client on your PC. It’s up to you whether to give this nifty utility a try or don’t even bother trying.
What Software Informer can do? Well, first of all this version of siClient (one that you’ll be opted to install) will notify you about new Giveawayoftheday offerings. No need to browse through web-pages – just a quick look at the Giveawayoftheday Notification section and you know nearly everything about new offering. One more click – and you are on the current giveaway’s web-page, just one step away from download. Also Software Informer Client will help you to keep track of your software, notify you about existing updates for any of your installed programs, as soon as those updates become available on the Internet and help you to solve any problematic issues you have by connecting you to power users of the same program.
More info about Software Informer you can get after jump or on the software.informer.com web-site.
Software Informer is a utility that has been designed specifically for those users who care to keep their applications functional and ready for any task that might arise. Its primary aim is to give you up-to-date information about the software you actually use. For that purpose, this program will make a list of applications installed on your computer, and later on will check their versions for obsoleteness by connecting to software.informer.com, the expanding server with a huge and constantly updated list of current application versions. Whenever a more recent version of any program becomes available, Software Informer will notify you and offer a link for downloading the update.
Software Informer will provide you with a centralized interface for gathering relevant information on all the applications that might interest you. Almost every program has a neat review, describing its features and drawbacks, and is linked to similar software by means of a tag cloud, encouraging you to explore and find just the right utility for your demands. Allowing you to keep track of comments and questions on corresponding software, and remaining nevertheless incredibly easy to use, Software Informer makes the process of obtaining the desired information and tools completely free from tiresome search and disappointment – and thus, makes the whole process pleasantly usual.
Regards,
GAOTD
awesome program as it helped me update a lot of programs I had I never checked for updates on, especially useful for the free programs I use all the time, thanks
While it’s great to keep all your software current, and running the latest and greatest versions – remember that updating software that you obtain from GOTD will likely invalidate your license or revert the software back to a 14 day trial (or similar).
Would be nice if their integration with GOTD extended as far as recognising giveaway versions – and not suggesting that users install updates as they are released.
Another addition to our system’s load…let’s leave the checking of updates to the individual program. It would just be redundant to use this.
So, will the software informer inform us of updates to the programs we installed from GiveAwayOfTheDay, which part of their limitation is not to be upgradeable?
And if so, does that means, it will just spam us with notifications about program updates which we cannot upgrade, unless we suddenly buy them?
That should be pretty disturbing.
Also –
And two extra clicks to activate\install the software – that is also annoying.
And all of the clicks to make the setup\activate programs not create bookmark\permatab\favorite entries – that is really annoying.
Maybe remember our choices so we could just click OK (still have a button for the informer, if you wish, but the rest, make it remember our choices)?
Thank you.
I have to agree with #2 and expand somewhat, along with updating Giveaway programs into trials – many program updates will break the program or conflict with other programs. Blindly updating without checking is likely to do more harm than good.
GOTD is set as my browser’s homepage, so I always see today’s offering when I start my PC, and can determine if I want to click 1 more time to go to the download page or not. For me, SI does nothing helpful in this regard.
Having read through all 103 comments at the SI site, the vast majority seem to be very simple,glowing praise from folks who can’t spell or type, and of the 8 awards they display on their awards page, 4 they gave themselves, 3 are merely for being “clean”, and the award from Download3000 “5 stars rating” – Download300 has SI info in a Google ad spot, and no stars or rating system that I could find.
The addition of this software to the GOTD installer does not seem to be a well thought out decision in my humble opinion.
This excerpt from their Terms and conditions page is one of the reasons “Terms
Software Informer provides its service to you subject to the following Terms of Use (“Terms”), which may be updated by us from time to time without notice to you. By visiting our website or using our service you automatically agree to be bound by the Terms, though you are not asked to click on “I agree” or follow any similar online consent mechanism.
Changes to software.informer.com and terms of use
We reserve the right to modify or terminate the SI service or to modify these Terms from time to time for any reason without notice or any liability to you or any third party. You are responsible for regularly reviewing these Terms to check for possible changes.”
GOTD seems to be helping this company to spread their program to GOTD user base with any download we decide to try out, which seems unreasonably intrusive. Even IF SI is the greatest thing since sliced bread, this distribution method isn’t one I as a GOTD user and long time fan, can agree with.
I don’t mind going to the Giveawayoftheday website. I don’t usually go there for the free software, anyway. I like being able to learn what other people are using, and get tips to enhance my own computer experience. Plus, I have no need to bother with updating software I rarely use. I check on the stuff I use frequently myself.
i got this software a few weeks ago. works fine except as an example it lists pacific fighers up to version 7 well thats not correct i had version 1 and found out i could go to version 4+ something. the version 7 us for il2 and a combination with pf . many listed programs updates were like that and had to be investagated. perhaps because i run a media center xp from 2003 . joeyw
It seems to me that there ar emore clicks involved by using this software. Where is is saving me time.
I click once on my GOTD bookmark and I am there. Makes no sense to me.
I don’t like the fact that it monitors every program on my computer. If you accidentally click on an update and forget that it was a GOTD program, then say goodbye to that. Unless I am missing something this is a major negative for me to download anything here again. I know it says you can opt out but if you make a mistake and accidentally download this you are screwed.
I guess time will tell how everyone evaluates this.
Good Luck!
These free giveaways do not update free of charge. Only the original giveaway is allowed to be used free of charge. Any update you get to these free initial installs reverts back to a trial run using the “new update”. You have lost any advantage of the original free to use, full install of the program. I hope it is truly an opt IN and not one that is by default already selected for you to install which makes it an OPT OUT!
Software Informer, opt in or not, is really not needed. Personally, the email I receive from GAOTD is more than sufficient to tell me of the current offer. Additionally, you could set the GAOTD page as one of your home pages upon browser load. You can have more than one so just use that function. I see no use for this with all the other more important programs that need to use computers resources.
I have to say I’m not exactly thrilled by the idea GOTD bundling any non-GOTD “stuff” inside their installer.
It’s fair enough that there are directly GOTD-related items bundled with the installer, such as the option to make GOTD your browser home page. I can even live with GOTD endorsing products like Advanced System Hoozit: GOTD has to make its running costs somehow, I guess … LOL!
What bothers me is the concept of the inclusion of a third-party non-GOTD utility in the GOTD installer. It reminds me of the earlier versions of Adobe Reader which shoved the Yahoo! Toolbar into your browser unless you noticed and forbade it.
I really do appreciate the time, effort, and ultimately, money that GOTD puts in to allow us all the chance to check the chrome and kick the tyres of software we might otherwise not encounter, and even to KEEP the software we like (well, until our next full-on system crash, that is!). I’ve kept some really excellent little curios that Ive found here, probably the best of which (for me) is the SoThink DHTML Menu Builder … but I digress.
I for one will not be installing Software Informer any time this side of my deathday. Almost every piece of software I own has at minimum a “Check For Updates” button, if not an auto-update option. Hence I really don’t see why I should bother with SI?
I can’t help thiniking that the actual purpose of SI is to entice you to their site for whatever reason (I’m thinking pecuniary rather than nefarious here!). But whatever it is, sorry folks, but count me OUT.
I clicked “NO” when asked whether to install this software. It installed anyway, when I activated today’s giveaway. Then it did not uninstall completely when I got rid of it. Not nice, GOTD.
How can we do to don’t install it?
It’s the main question from the Italian forum.
Thank you.
Please allow us option of not installing this software. I don’t know about others but I don’t wish to install this memory eater when I can simply browse to your website.
Thought this was a great program until I started updating and my computer caught 3 hijackers and my spybot was destroyed so it couldn’t catch them. Reloaded spybot but new version isn’t finding hijackers. Did system restore and lost software informer. Not game to try it again.
Sounds exciting. I will use this for my other programs, but agree that if this doesn’t have the functionality to pick up on giveaways updatability then it may be more of a nuisance than help. I will definitely download though. Thanks guys!
GAOTD licensed software always claims: NO FREE UPDATES!
So why should we bother to use this useless (for GAOTD software) tool?
If you want to keep your system current I suggest using the Personal Software Inspector which only lists software with known security flaws on your system. Check http://www.secunia.com for details.
Oh, and PSI is free for noncommercial purpose.
To avoid accidental install of the Software Informer (i.e. by forgetting to uncheck or “opt out” every time)I suggest to put their domain into your HOSTS file.
it would be good if we could get ESET smart security coz i got a demo of it and it is really good, also some kind of music making software would be nice as well.
Not happy with this at all. I already use a sofware checker wich I’m quite satisfied with: Secunia SPI.
Why not offer it on your webpages like you already do with Advanced SystemCare? That’s far less intrusive and if people are able to download the giveaway software they are certainly able to download SI if they like. I very much dislike developers that try to push or force you to download their software. It doesn’t spell anything good for the future. For me it is cetainly a reason never to install SI.
A more modest approach would be very much appreciated and install more trustworthiness.
Also, for me Giveawayoftheday is already an one click option, so there’s definitivly no reason whatsoever to install SI.
Tried it and don’t like, the update info is wrong on many of the software versions that were identified.
BUT, it will stay on my computer unused just so I don’t get the nags to install it again.
There’s a backlog on moderating the comment section as I write this, so I’ve only seen one comment saying that this tripped off their AV. I was hoping to see more, to see if it was common. Still….
One comment said it set off the heuristics in Avira Anti-Virus which is quite popular. I also have it. That will mean that users will have to get used to a repititive hit on Software Informer and have to learn to identify that hit versus any hits off of that day’s software. Of course, there may never have been a confirmed virus hit on GOTD software, but a lot of newbies aren’t going to know or believe that or take people’s word for it. Maybe Software Informer needs to get hold of Avira and others whose heuristics will hit on this, and there may be no way to avoid it, anyway. I think you’re going to have a steady loss of newbies over this. I hope it’s worth it.
I think for me it’s not important to use Software Informer, because I can’t buy upgrades to the earlier free softwares. I like your free softwares, because they are/were free.
And what about free games? When I first visited your site I did it to get a new FREE GAME. Later I found many usefull tools to my PC but the main reason was: Free Games.
Later you changed your practise and we got only 2 free games a week. I didn’t ask why, but now I ask it.
Why can’t we get new free games every day, or twoo free games a week at least?
Thanks.
The heuristic malware detection from Avira is caused by the Software Informer toolbar bundled with the Giveaway Activation wrapper. The Software Informer inspects the version numbers of the installed software, dials out to the Internet, compares the information with its database and generates a report. Such activities by unknown software is indeed suspicious. Thus, Avira is working properly, and this is a legitimate false positive situation.
Avira, though a good (speed & detection) and recommended anti-virus package (free & paid), does have one problem: When the detection pop-up occurs, you are given the option of “Ignore”, however, this action is not perpetual – you end up with an (almost) endless stream of pop-ups to which you must select “Ignore.” This can create a situation whereby your system hangs when you miss a single Avira pop-up as you proceed with GOTD’s SETUP.EXE – you can only power down. Thus you must temporarily disable Avira when installing a giveaway – definitely not an ideal nor recommended situation.
Perhaps Giveaway of the Day should directly submit their wrapper to Avira so that an exclusion rule may be created…
Perhaps Giveaway of the Day should package the toolbar as a separate installer file in the ZIP. The revised wrapper can easily launch the independent toolbar installer, without completely ruining your reputation by indicating that every single application is infected.
The separate toolbar installer file option is a good idea from another perspective: I’ve noticed that when dealing with a large SETUP.EXE (e.g. the recent Paragon applications), older & more limited systems can run into some strange problems (e.g. sluggish response, massive page file swaps, drive space / quota issues, timeouts, orphaned file handles) due to the long time it takes to unwrap these large files. This results in an “Unable to Connect to GiveawayOfTheDay.com” error, and you cannot install the giveaway, though you should be able to get it to work with repeated attempts at running SETUP.EXE. By adding more bulk to SETUP.EXE, you are increasing the difficulties people face, especially on slower connections.
Please do not discourage users of this site by increasing complications.
Bad idea. More spyware, more useless bloatware. More crap to have to click NO to in every installation. What exactly are you trying to achieve with this?
my concern with this software is that it is a snooper and will gather information from our computers and send this information to software informer. It’s bad enough that Microsoft is doing this with the so-called “Windows Genuine Advantage.” This software informer smells just like another piece of spyware, mining information from our computers and sending it to someone we don’t know, and are supposed to trust. No thanks! Because of this new snooper, it is unlikely that I will ever download from GAOD again. And frankly, most of the stuff I have downloaded from GAOD has been buggy beta software. Thank goodness for system restore to clean this unstable software off my system.
Is typing in giveawayoftheday.com really that hard? Plus we get to read all the awesome comments.
My question: malware or false positive?
please read Ashraf’s critique:
http://dottech.org/gotdreviews/8377
Not good for giveawayoftheday at all.
I found Software Informer through Iobit & Advanced SystemCare, and yes, it’s a great program…Just a word of warning for everyone who has downloaded programs from Giveaway of the Day…If you try to update some of them you’ll lose the registration if you attempt to update them.
Here’s what happened to me…I forgot I’d downloaded a great program called Almeza MultiSet from Giveaway of the Day, and when Software Informer said there was an update, i clicked on it and downloaded the update. Instead of updating, it took my registered version and replaced it with the 30 day trial version. I’m pretty upset about it because i bought this computer from a friend and didn’t get recovery disks with it…no software at all.
Almeza MultiSet creates recovery disks for Windows, and all the other software installed on your computer, so for me it was very important. The only way I can access the software that came on this computer is to use the Almeza program to create recovery disks and use them to repair or reinstall the software that came with this unit…especially Windows, Microsoft Office, and the Lightscribe program, i can get most of the other stuff one way or another, but those are pretty important.
Soooo…If you’re like me and try some of the really great software offered for free on Giveaway of the Day, be really careful not to try to update your programs via Software Informer, lol, all the ones i’ve gotten there have a disclaimer that states you cannot get updates or tech support for them because they were given to you…which is really ok by me, i just wish i hadn’t messed up the one program that would allow me to repair or reformat this sweet little laptop.
I hope this comment helps some of y’all :D
Janie
Nice one. I only recently tried to re purchase a subscription to something similar, but they don’t accept PAYPAL, now you have this for free……brilliant. Installed and already reaping the benefits of the program……9 out of 10
to joe, true you could lose some programs, but then again if I really think a giveaway program is useful I’ll buy it. Im always one to support the software developers community.
The benefits lay in the ability to update all those programs you’ve purchased, which for me is a lot. :)
Thank you once again to the giveaway team.
This could easily have been included as an offical giveaway. :)
Many false positives with anti-virussoftware due to this extra software in the download. This will definitly scare people off.
Publishing your complete installation to some unknown server only to know if there are upgrades possible for your installed apps. Who wants that. I like to control this per app. and I can do this from within most apps.
I certainly don’t need extra software to do that.
Newer is not always best! (Many times true with drivers but also with apps.) GAotD are not to be upgraded!
The good thing is that you do have the option to not install the extra.
The Bad thing is you have to download (dial-up users won’t like that) and your anti-virusscanner may go into alert.
How to discriminate between real virus alert and the false positives.
Does GAotD make extra garanties?
For me this is a very very big thumb down !!
I’m not very happy with this at all. Especially the way GAOTD describes it as being for our benefit, when it is of no use to us. At the very least, it should be opt-in and not opt-out.
What a shame this add-in is stopping me from using any GOTD programs, as Avast now reports every download as Malware. It’s a shame this was not checked before adding to it GOTD. Please consider making this program an optional download.
Just to inform you that the GOTD crew has changed the software wrapper.
People now have a clear option whether to install ‘software informer’ or not by means of a button.
End of discussion,I suppose…
Dropping Giveaway of the Day
I like the idea of reading about software opinions and actually installing uncrippled versions. I have bought several upgrades of softwares that I like but I do not want a snoop software to tell me when.
I do not like tricky questions that install software when I think I am removing it or not installing it
My first computer was a K-PRO portable in 1984.
I have about 100 computers that I support and I write application
You have done to far… or fix the installers
Bye bye…
Avira doesn’t like it. Submit it to them so they can remove it from their database, as I can no longer participate in GOTD’s if this software is added to the wrapper.
I hope that there is an ‘opt out’ in all of this. Perhaps one that you need to only opt out once and not with each and every offer. I know that other software bundles offer such and wouldn’t think that it would too difficult to be included. Also, if it is added in on each offer it could potentially slow down the download time. Not enough for those on broadband or the like, but thinking of those still on dial up. I know that some offers are hard to get finished with on the allotted due to this. With the extra of this software added in each time it might make that much more a difficulty for them. Maybe even have this an option to download with it if you are interested instead of mandatory.
ibwebb
This is a fantastic Partner to team up with and you should be proud!
No more! Download doesnt work (because they havent activated it) but now its a lot more simpler!
thanks
I’ve tried Software Informer twice. It’s totally unreliable. It has a long list of updates where there are no updates. You have to go through the long list just to find if any are real. Simple alternative? You bet! Update Checker by FileHippo.com It only list actual updates after it briefly scans your computer. I can swear that it has NEVER had a false update. All were factual. The one mentioned above is worthless.
I’m sad, this inclusion of SI just seems to me a waste of time as I for one prefer to check my software updates myself! Puzzled why GAOTD would burden their fan’s with extra size of download of the GA’s as there are still many out there that still only have a dial-up connection! Why not put an opt in/out next to the GAOTD link so if we really want it we tick the box or have the choice to download just the GAOTD without the baggage?
Do not trust Informer.com, i will say no more besides if you bundle their junk on your system your a fool.
If you really want a clean and above board update checker: http://cleansofts.org/view/update-notifier.html
As for GAOTD goodbye and thanks for everything, i will no longer be downloading anything from here.
Well I will be removing the GAOTD links and banners from all of my websites…. I will not be subjected to…or will I subject my sites visitors to this type of intrusion.
with that said.. goodbye GAOTD.. it was fun while it lasted
I predict that the GAOTD site will cost them much less after this stunt(fewer visitors = less data transfer costs) when they realize the damage they have just caused themselves… and to think that they would believe any reputable software company would want to associate their name with such decieving behavior that is being displayed by GAOTD… so long and best of luck GAOTD
(GAOTD: might as well remove my sites from your lists, for I have removed all reffrences to this site)
With Informer.com on board GAOTD, I am gone, forever. Someone else will rise to replace you if they already have not. This stinks. Period. Goodbye. Period. Broken trust is a bad thing. Blah, blah, blah….
This is a bad thing! Shame on you GOTD for including crapware in your files!!
GOTD, it is a sad day to see you guys getting greedy! Including this in your software within software is tactic to fool the novice EndUser into installing junkware on there PC.
That is why I use a Junk install of VMware to install GOTD software. I will not let you guys send adds or data-mine my real PC….. EVER!!
I do not like it at all
I just want to remind all you who complain about this new option that GAOTD is a commercial service which of course receives someting in return for the exposure they give to software companies. And the same software companies/vendors of course hope to get new costumers by giving away samples of their programs. No more mysterious than that. So if someone by accident updates a free program it is more than ok for GAOTD as well as for the software vendors. Just think of it as another marketing strategy like all the newsletters we are offered when installing a new program.
Big problems with this lil proggie. Seem to find mystery updates that do not exist. Good case for me was some of the planesoft screensavers I use. It was telling me about versions that do not exist. Even went as far as to check with planesoft itself and the reponse that I got back was, that they did not exist. Makes one wonder just what software inform is installing. No thanks. and I will take a pass on your services as long at it is present.
It just installed on me without any prompts or anything. NOT NICE , gaotd, to slip in software the user is not looking for.
Even if it’s great software, I’m un-installing because I don’t like the way it was slammed onto my system.
This junk installed itself without giving me an option. Sadly, I’m now going to eliminate GiveAwayOfTheDay from emails, RSS and so on. A shame as I’ve happily used valuable freebie downloads in the past.
I tried the software and I like it. Anyways, no one has a right to complain, you’re getting free software from this site… :/
I was excited, at first, because the 1st program that was listed did, in fact, require an update. Unfortunately, the next 2 or 3 programs that were listed were incorrect. I already had the current version. It was too unreliable so I uninstalled Software Informer. Although I was disappointed that it didn’t perform as I expected it to, I actually felt a little relieved when I uninstalled it because I was a little nervous about this program being so intrusive . . . being able to tap in to so much information about my computer. There’s always an element of risk that you take for convenience when it comes to software like this.
I, also, find it less than honest, even when given a choice as to whether or not to install something additional *as part of the installation process.* A separate download link for this purpose shouldn’t be a problem to provide. Installers should be *clean,* in other words, installing only what they say that they are installing. Even if it is mentioned upfront before using the installer that you will be prompted to accept the terms and installation of a 3rd party, I still think that a separate download link for this 3rd party installation or additional software installation over and above the base program should be available and not part of the installation process of the program.