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Mac Freeware News and Views

An explanation of free

The March 2008 issue of Wired magazine has a good article explaining the explosion of freeware and free web apps in recent years. Basically it comes down to this: they may be free to the people who use them, but someone somewhere is somehow making money — they’re just finding new ways of doing it.

A case in point is the recent decision to make NetNewsWire freeware. The owners plan to make their money by selling data gathered from people using the program. The Wired article cites GOOG-411 as working in a similar way. People using Google’s directory assistance pass along valuable information that Google can sell.

Unfortunately, the article doesn’t seem to be available on the Wired website, but there is still hope that you can read it for free. Wired is offering to send a free copy of the March issue to the first 10,000 people who ask for it.

Update: Wired is no longer offering free issues, but the article is now available for reading at the above address.

[ Posted Mar 5, 2008 in ]

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