Buyer beware: pointless text file wins 16 software awards

September 5, 2007 by admin | 10 comments

Anyone who likes to download freeware and shareware tools from the Internet should read this cautionary tale about the value of “five-star awards” from sites that aggregate and mirror downloads.

Andy Brice, a UK-based software developer, had grown suspicious about “awards” ascribed to freeware and shareware programs that he knew lacked functions and features of rival offerings. So he invented a program named AwardMeStars. It didn’t run; in fact, it wasn’t actually a program. It was a text file comprised solely of the words, “This program does nothing at all,” and renamed as an executable (.EXE). He had a third party submit his file to just about every software aggregation site; then he sat back to watch the results.

His non-operating, do-nothing program won 16 awards. Various cites labeled it “Certified 5-Star,” “Editor’s Pick,” and “Cool Discovery.” All of them, obviously, from sites that didn’t even bother to note the blatant name of the program, nor try to run it even once.

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10 Comments »

Comment by Bucky
2007-09-05 08:55:44

Interesting to say the least. The best source for honesty (IMO) is speaking with other people that have actually purchased / used the product.

 
2007-09-05 09:00:06

Wow. Those are some reliable awards. (That said, I wouldn’t be too keen on running every .exe that people sent me either. ;) )

 
Comment by Mackenzie
2007-09-05 09:55:25

Hey this is old….wasn’t it on Digg (I think?) like 3 weeks ago?

Comment by Kiltak
2007-09-05 10:05:34

Maybe, but I’ve only stumbled on it today.. thought it was interesting enough to post :)

 
 
Comment by Jrtcs
2007-09-05 10:24:38

But it downloaded so quickly. Doesn’t that count for something?

Comment by Binary Assassin
2008-05-16 05:34:38

LMAO! It counts for sure if you are on dial up!!

 
 
Comment by Tish
2007-09-05 13:47:50

Unbelievable. Maybe I should pull out that old tic tac toe game I created when I took Intro to VB. Maybe I can get rich! ;)

 
Comment by Steve Savage
2007-11-15 09:43:54

Just ask somebody on slashdot if its good software. They hate everything so if they say its good…

 
Comment by waldo
2009-07-02 00:13:32

That sounds interesting but what are some of the sites that gave the awards. Is there somewhere that i can see this?

 
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