Giveaway of the Day
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| Operating system | Windows and Mac OS X |
|---|---|
| Type | Free Software Download Site |
| Website | http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/ |
Giveaway of the Day (often abbreviated GOTD) is a website that offers commercially licensed Windows (and occasionally Mac) software for free without software updates or technical support. Each software offered on the site is free only on a specific date, and protection software included with the download will only activate the free license if the software is installed on the correct date. Though the project prohibits commercial usage, individual software publishers may allow otherwise in the end user license agreement for their own software. The site was launched on October 24, 2006.
The site runs in several languages including English (original language), French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, Dutch, Romanian, Greek, Turkish and Russian.
Giveawayoftheday.com is ranked #938 in the world according to three-month Alexa traffic rankings on September 11, 2011. The site is ranked #1,182 in the US, where it is estimated that 19% of its visitors are located. It is also popular in Indonesia, where it is ranked #357.[1] Giveaway of the day project is ranked #968 in The 1000 most-visited sites on the web by Google.[2]
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[edit] Previous titles and charge on Giveaway of the Day
Categories of software on Giveaway of the Day include system tools, shell replacements, video and photo editing tools, office add-ons, file format converters, screen-savers and others. Software titles offered by Giveaway of the Day are free if downloaded from the Giveaway of the Day website.
[edit] User criticism
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There has been some user criticism, largely about giving away software which may have freeware or even open source alternatives. Users must install and register the software during a 24 hour giveaway period, with no right of reinstallation. Some users regard the software given away as trialware, due to the 'no-reinstall' restriction. There has also been some user criticism of the quality and origin of the software given away, owing to the high proportion of screensavers, format converters and other simple utilities, although there are occasional high-value giveaways from well known software houses, such as Bitsum Tech, Paragon Software Group, Wondershare, Iobit.
[edit] Mac Giveaway of the Day
At the end of the 2008 Giveaway announced in the blog their plans to launch similar project for Mac products.[3] Even though the idea was highly appreciated and supported by the users community the project team didn’t step forward with it. Сurrently GOTD occasionally offers Mac applications together with giveaways for Windows (usually by the same developer).
[edit] Game Giveaway of the Day
On December 11, 2006 a new site was launched, Game Giveaway of the Day, which gave away games each day. Later, these giveaways were restricted to weekends. Since 29 April 2009, the beta website has been giving away games on a monthly basis. When Game Giveaway of the Day stopped on weekdays, one user and his team on the forums (Whiterabbit-uk, wizzard_of_ozz2004, reverseOrder, and thewebmaster) have been posting freeware games. The team is highly appreciated for their work by the GOTD community.[original research?]
[edit] Interruption of service
Giveaway of the Day closed down without warning on 1 November 2010, displaying a parked page from the registrar directNIC indicating that the domain had expired. A day later, GOTD announced on Twitter that domain registration had failed to renew automatically, and stated that the site was back online. However, some users reported longer delays in the restoration of service.
[edit] References
- ^ "Giveawayoftheday.com Site Info". Alexa. http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/giveawayoftheday.com#. Retrieved 2011-11-09.
- ^ "The 1000 most-visited sites on the web". ?. http://www.google.com/adplanner/static/top1000/#. Retrieved 2011-05-10.
- ^ "Monday morning news and questions – Giveaway@Mac? Can we do that?". Giveaway of the Day.com. http://blog.giveawayoftheday.com/monday-morning-news-and-questions-giveawaymac-can-we-do-that/. Retrieved 2008-02-10.
