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TechnographFirefox, Gmail top PC World's list of 100 best computer products of 2005
By John Ostrowski
Posted: 11/29/05 Section: Features
Let's start with a quick rundown of file-sharing updates before moving on to PC World's list of the 100 Best Products of 2005.
Bram Cohen, the founder of BitTorrent, reached an agreement with the Motion Picture Association of America. He will stop providing links to copyrighted films on his Web site. This is a small victory for the movie studios, as there will still be plenty of other sources to find links to download and movie studios are responsible for finding the links and reporting them to BitTorrent. However, it is still a step forward in the fight against piracy.
In other news, David Blackburn, a PhD student at Harvard, put out a paper on the effects of file-sharing on music sales. The flawed argument put forward by illegal file-sharers is that music sales have increased since the rise of piracy. However, this line of reasoning ignores any and all other variables in music sales - not exactly sound logic.
The study reports that file-sharing does indeed depress music sales, hurting those at the top of the charts the most, and actually helping those at the bottom of the charts. Basically, file-sharing gives exposure to lesser known artists and serves to boost their sales. However, it should be noted that the recording companies only have the capital to invest in new and lesser known artists because they make money on big sellers. If this capital is cut off, this effect may eventually be felt lower on the charts.
But, now, on to the list:
The top three spots are occupied by three products that are incredibly worthy of holding those spots.
Number one is Firefox, Mozilla's web browser that absolutely shames Microsoft's Internet Explorer. The actual market share of Firefox is still relatively low, with Internet Explorer still far in the lead. And it is doubtful that PC World recognizing it as the best product of 2005 will do anything to change that. The same niche of people that read PC World probably already realize Firefox's superiority.
Bram Cohen, the founder of BitTorrent, reached an agreement with the Motion Picture Association of America. He will stop providing links to copyrighted films on his Web site. This is a small victory for the movie studios, as there will still be plenty of other sources to find links to download and movie studios are responsible for finding the links and reporting them to BitTorrent. However, it is still a step forward in the fight against piracy.
In other news, David Blackburn, a PhD student at Harvard, put out a paper on the effects of file-sharing on music sales. The flawed argument put forward by illegal file-sharers is that music sales have increased since the rise of piracy. However, this line of reasoning ignores any and all other variables in music sales - not exactly sound logic.
The study reports that file-sharing does indeed depress music sales, hurting those at the top of the charts the most, and actually helping those at the bottom of the charts. Basically, file-sharing gives exposure to lesser known artists and serves to boost their sales. However, it should be noted that the recording companies only have the capital to invest in new and lesser known artists because they make money on big sellers. If this capital is cut off, this effect may eventually be felt lower on the charts.
But, now, on to the list:
The top three spots are occupied by three products that are incredibly worthy of holding those spots.
Number one is Firefox, Mozilla's web browser that absolutely shames Microsoft's Internet Explorer. The actual market share of Firefox is still relatively low, with Internet Explorer still far in the lead. And it is doubtful that PC World recognizing it as the best product of 2005 will do anything to change that. The same niche of people that read PC World probably already realize Firefox's superiority.
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