Welcome to CNET Top 5, where each time we meet, we count down another
hot CNET list. I'm Tom Merritt.
Last year was a hard year for CNET Download's Seth Rosenblatt. Windows
7 reviews worked him hard all year. And he also took over the job of
finding the worst downloads.
So we're happy to report that Seth survived, and even happier to note
that he has finished wading through the drek of 2009 and passed along
his list of the worst downloads of the year.
He based his picks on which software was the biggest failure, and some
people are NOT going to be happy
Let's count 'em down.
At No. 5, FeedDemon 3. Seth points out FeedDemon 2 wasn't perfect, but
shutting down its online RSS manager NewsGator and forcing everyone on
to Google Reader did not improve it. Instead, it sort of showed that
FeedDemon is pretty much unnecessary.
Coming in at No. 4, Opera Unite. Part of me thinks Seth picked this so
that I would receive a month's worth of hate mail from Opera fans. The
other part knows that Opera Unite did promise to "reinvent the Web."
Sorry, it didn't, so Seth's calling it out.
Up to No. 3, IOBit Security 360. This one is more like it. Get accused
of stealing code from Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, then blame your users.
Not good form, no matter how good your program is.
Sliding in at No. 2, Digsby. A fine IM and social-media client;
however, it decided to use your CPU cycles when you weren't. That's
fine, but let me decide if I want that. And don't slide it in as an
opt-out during install, I don't care how clear you make it. As Seth
says, it's not a good idea to balance your books by installing crapware
on your customers computers.
Before we get to No. 1, time for another lame prize.
One big disappointment of the whole decade has been Real Player, nee
Real Media. They went from the dominant way to stream audio and video
on the Web, to the prince of crapware and annoyance. Its CEO just
stepped down.
Be one of the first 10 people to correctly identify his name, and you
could be chosen to win
This Chuzzle. It's cute enough to help you wipe the taste of all this
failure from your mind.
All right. Let's get to our No. 1. Seth Rosenblatt's pick for the
biggest disappointment in software in 2009--if anyone knows, it's him.
It's his job.
At No. 1, it's...Internet Explorer. Now Seth grants that IE 8 is an
improvement over IE 7, but he points out that as of the end of 2009, IE
6 still had more market share. Plus Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and even
the previously maligned Opera all grew their market share at IE's
expense. Sorry IE, Seth thinks you kind of suck.
Well That's it for this edition of CNET Top 5.
If you'd like to dispute Seth's list or win the Chuzzle, be sure to
visit the posting for this video at our blog, blog.cnettv.com
I'm Tom Merritt. See you next time.
