This software changed (hijacked) my IE homepage. Stay away!! I noticed only now because I normally use Firefox.

#Rich
You have to create a new database so the feature to be enabled. Press the new button and then you can use the functions. I've made the same mistakes myself.

Years ago I had a nearly perfect bookmark manager called Compass but unfotunately Compass didn't work with the Windows XP operating system and it has never been updated since September 2001. For most of eight years I've been looking for a bookmark manager to take the place of Compass. Advanced URL Catalog seems to offer the same features as Compass so I was really looking forward to trying it. Unfortunately after properly installing Advanced URL Catalog, all the features were grayed out and didn't work. I tried reinstalling it but again found that nothing worked. I've tried lots of programs thanks to Giveaway of the Day. Advanced URL Catalog is the first one that didn't work at all.

PS to my earlier comment at #18 -

Despite using Revo Uninstaller's strongest setting to uninstall this software, after using XP's System Restore to roll back, and a subsequent reboot, I found Advanced URL Catalog splattered all over my Windows XP registry.

If you don't know already know how to edit your registry, then ignore the following information. It's easy to break your operating system if you don't know what you're doing.

If you know how to edit your registry, to remove this software manually, search for "adurl" and then "advanced url", with keys, value and data ticked, and use your judgement on which folders to delete.

What a $#*%ing piece of crap. I've recently been looking for a good bookmark manager/organizer to clean up my 5000+ firefox bookmark database... so in spite of the comments here, I decided I'd try this one out. Shot a quick image of my system so I could undo any damage by the Jordysoft malware, installed it, and immediately proceeded to attempt to open my firefox bookmarks. This POS software does one of two things: crashes and shuts itself down (when trying to select "all files" to open Firefox's native json bookmarks file) or imports zero items (if opening and exported HTML of firefox's bookmarks.) Either way, it will not import Firefox 3 or 3.5 bookmarks (for the record, NO, my database is not corrupted, no errors in Firefox, and it exports and opens in other programs without incident.)

Don't waste your time.

And if anyone knows of a good, clean organizer good for tagging and filing bookmarks, I'd love to hear about it... though I suspect this comments thread is dead at this point.

Not a useful bit of software…Thumbsdown…

It set my IE home page to it’s product Home page (Jordysoft.net) without even informing me; which in today’s world it seen as a Spam/Adware/Malware or whatever malicious you want it to call…

Morever, the software is not much a big deal that we can’t do without it being there in the market…

I use Tiny Favorites instead. Hope fully, GOTD wll publish the Pro version of Tidy Favorites soon.

-Vipin

Changed my IE8 homepage without notification or authorization. It checked for and removed duplicates, hopefully correctly.... since it didn't show me what it found or what it deleted. Help file doesn't say how to use program, it goes to the JS homepage, where you can buy the program, but still not learn how to use it.
Very unprofessional program.

Although I appreciate Giveaway of the Day, I delete most of the software that I download and install, because I never use most of the programs and the ones that I have tried that are written to load when Vista boots typically have not been tested by the developers for compatibility with User Access Control AND Windows Defender (which is bundled with Vista -- although I used it with XP Professional -- and is actually a useful security supplement (and it has not conflicted with my security software).

The brief description of Advanced URL Catalog was enticing, because Firefox has been my browser of choice since Version 1.0, and I use Internet Explorer only when I must, mainly to validate my Windows Vista license in order to download files from Microsoft's Web site. I do bookmark Web pages on Microsoft's site, especially the MSDN and TechNet sections, but I often forget to create those "favorites" as Firefox bookmarks.

Advanced URL Catalog seemed like a promising tool that would allow me to centralize my bookmarks/favorites.

After I provide this feedback, however, I will be uninstalling Advanced URL Catalog for two reasons.

First of all, for aesthetic and productivity reasons (caused by limited vertical space on the display of this notebook's display), Advanced URL Catalog automatically triggers my "reject meter."

JordySoft.com, for reasons that escape me, has chosen to imitate the horrible "ribbon" GUI of Office 2007 (a trial version of which came with my notebook and one of the first items that I deleted).

Advanced URL Catalog insults my sense of aesthetics with its ugly and, often, eye-straining, "skins"/themes. I set program's properties not to use visual themes, but programs that use skins -- and IOSoft is another offender that comes to mind with its black or white only hard-to-tolerate skins -- do not make use of system visual-style/themes.

The vertical pixels wasted by the Advanced URL Catalog GUI are too precious for me, and I cannot afford an external display, for financial reasons, even though I have the hardware resources and RAM to support two external displays and would love to have at least one.

Second of all, JordySoft.com "hijacks" Internet Explorer's home page (which, in my case, is a file on my hard drive that I hand-coded in XHTML and has links that I find useful). "Browser hijacking" is, and has always been, a standard, signature behavior of malicious software.

I have configured my system so that the JordySoft.com site, and links to JordySoft.com, are automatically blocked -- "blacklisted" as potentially risky and definitely "crossing the proverbial line for me."

I appreciate the vendors who monitor feedback about their products on the Givaway of the Day comments page -- especially vendors who try to assist users with installation or usage problems (for example, programs that install with no errors, but fail to launch or cause problems for some users); of course, giving away a fully functional copy of a program AND responding to users' comments on the Giveaway of the Day Web site are excellent marketing strategies.

VirusTotal's results for Advanced URL Catalog are no cause for alarm. McAfee's heuristic engine flagged the application, but McAfee statistically generates significant "false positives" -- but NO security software offers full protection -- and the best way to help keep system secure is to use good judgment and common sense -- such as being cautious about the Web sites one visits and in managing e-mail (and attachments).

On the other hand -- because I learned right from wrong -- I do not pirate or "borrow/share" software licenses; by the same token, I do not wish to deal with software publishers who violate my trust -- and JordySoft "blew it" by hijacking Internet Explorer's home page. I am certainly not implying that Advanced URL Catalog is malicious software, but JordySoft did "crack" my system.

Finally, although Giveaway of the Day's offerings are free and licensed software products, GAOTD users know that they are not entitled to product support or upgrades, but Advanced URL Catalog's hyperlinks to its "tutorial" and "documentation" simply reload JordySoft's Web page that summarizes the product and offers a link to a screen shot (of an empty application Window). Users who want "support" from JordySoft -- especially if they paid for a product license -- are instructed to access a forum on JordySoft.com, in which users of Advanced URL Catalog are expected to support each other.

This comment is my first, but Advanced URL Catalog and JordySoft.com "pushed my hot buttons," although I continue to be grateful for GAOTD and vendors who choose to offer free versions of their software -- and such "test drives" (although they do lack support) are an excellent marketing tool, but users do not hesitate to mention if a given program is unstable, minimally useful (or duplicates respected free and/or open-source programs), or if publishers make the mistakes that JordySoft has made with Advanced URL Catalog.

Cordially,

David

Reviewers - thank you ALL for your fantastic comments. I'll give this one a pass - it looks worthless at best.

GOTD Staff - thanks for trying. They can't all be winners.

Anyone looking for alternatives - I use a couple of link managers - both very good. Check out "Bookmark Buddy" and "Acqurl" as other options.


Web Wanderer

#64 - Bigun.

The program you mentioned isn't really freeware - and nearly all of the useful features are missing from the crippled free version. See the feature list for yourself. http://gettransmute.com/download/

For those wanting a program does quite well what “URL Advanced Catalog” advertises that it does and also supports the “Google Chrome” browser, I suggest the program “Transmute”.

Transmute can be installed on a computer's hard drive or it can be used as a portable application on a USB key drive. The hard drive application and the portable version are listed as freeware. The programs can be downloaded from http://www.v3.co.uk/downloads/ and a number of other sites. You will need to search v3.co.uk for Transmute, but that should prove to be simple enough.

Bigun

When I first read the description of today's Giveaway, I was hopeful. I have many thousands of bookmarks, so many that I have them manually arranged in categories to try to organize them. BUT, I always check the thumbs up/down percentages and read available comments before installing anything.

Seeing such a high percentage of thumbs down, I read through comments and I decided to pass and keep searching for a really good bookmark manager, hopefully portable so I can create one well-organized bookmark file to sync between my pcs.

Todays Giveaway's behaviors clearly are malware behaviors! A little research turns up a few interesting things such as:
http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Network_and_Internet/URL_and_Bookmark_Managers/Advanced_URL_Catalog_Download.html
Some our users reported that Advanced URL Catalog is Malicious. You can download it at your own risk from the Jordysoft homepage

BTW when you see developers claiming their software has received awards, high ratings, recommendations, etc from sites such as PCWorld, etc, it's quite interesting to go to those sites and look for proof of those claims. Quite often you will find NOTHING at the site who supposedly has given the rave review/award/high ratings/etc!

For anyone interested, here is a link to the jordysoft.com "about us" page-

http://www.jordysoft.com/files/about_us.aspx

Ironic that the "about us" page has a "Pure Professionalism" logo at the top.

I think I'd rather stick with the windows version of Apples Safari browser...Stores what I want/need...

-100/10 for providing nothing at an insanely priced piece of garbage..!!..

GAOTD, why did you post this of all things..??..It's the worst offering on here since for-ever..!!..

Thanks for the reviews, I'll pass.

I use Firefox primarily, IE if need be (rarely, if IE tab addon doesn't work). I have just under 6,000 links in my collection. Suites that do everything for you are nice but I have evolved a workable set of tools and manual processes that work well for me. I use 3 installed tools to help manage my links:

- AM-Deadlink has already been mentioned. Does a great job of looking for nonfunctional links and duplicates. I run it every month or two.

- Plain Old Favorites is a FireFox addon. It allows FF to use IE favorites directly by adding a "Favorites" item on the FF main menu. Eliminates need to manually synchronize the 2 browsers under the current userid

- Search Everything, http://www.voidtools.com/, is a file name search tool that hooks directly into the Windows File System, no separate DB to compile and maintain, almost instant (as you type) file name search. Since IE Favorites are separate files, Win Shortcuts in fact, Everything searches and finds them.

- I have compressed the Favorites folder to reduce space wasted by the many small shortcut files

- when I go to another PC, I just use XCopy to copy favorites to/from a USB drive. I have a couple of batch files setup to synchronize the USB and HD on the common files/folders I carry on the USB.

IT is rather useless becauz it's not supportin google chrome. :(

Kudos for GOTW as always, showing us software houses willing to give their product away for a day to get some traffic. Keep up the good work! Even something everyone hates is better than nothing at all. :)

One comment I had to reply to directly...

#42, @hawaiianbrat96

> Why use the space when there are several websites out there
> that have add-ons or extensions in FireFox that uses online
> server space for FREE?

Because!
- I don't trust what information those 'other' places can find out about me, based on where I browse
- I have no confidence that the places will BE there in X years
- I cannot necessarily GET to a given place from every location I'm at

Perked up my fingertips at the content, but the comments here have me looking elsewhere for my solution (multiple machines, multiple browsers, doesn't leave tracks where I use it, has an initial mode to grab bookmarks from various browsers/locations and preferably portable).

I do like the 'I just put my bookmarks in a Word Document' one. He probably doesn't have thousands of bookmarks like I do. ;) No solution right now from me, looking at what everyone has suggested, finding great places.

Thanks again to GOTD team.
But I think I'll pass today, based on all the list of user's comments.
Not need to experience myself all of those cons.
I undertand not every piece of software you offer have to be excellent. Today's offer it is not.

See you again tomorrow.

This is a definite thumbs down. First off there are freeware alternative that don't hijack your home page. Enough said on that. The game side is just as poor. It offers a game that installs junk even though you opt out. I thought GAOTD/GGOATD offerings were supposed to be virus free, spy ware free, malware free, etc. Looking at these offerings I would say that is not the case. Don't get me wrong, I understand that providing free programs each day and games on the weekends is not an easy task. All of us users love the site and will remain loyal and visit every day. Please don't accept junk like today's offerings. Both suck and both will be passed by most users.

Why bother with something as suspect as this .... esp. when Firefux does most of it already? And without any drama

Linkman Lite is a great bookmark manager too, but the resource usage is rather high for me, & the software size different is huge 7.9 Mb (Linkman Lite/Pro installer) > 619 Kb (Linkstash portable Zip).

Anyway, just an update, here is a simple feature list I made for anyone who is interested in LinkStash.

=Website=
http://www.xrayz.co.uk/linkstash/

=Performance=
* Small in size 1.2 Mb (installer)/619 Kb (portable).
* Low system resource usage after minimize (hide).
* High performance when handling large database
* Support lots of browser, some even not listed.
* Easy to manage, all bookmarks are kept together in one single file (database file)

=Handling=
* Auto complete password field (with master password protection).
* Import/Export to lots of browser support, some even not listed.
* Export links to a HTML file.
* IE and Firefox integration (installer version only).
* Synchronize bookmark (IE only)
* Dead link checker.
* Duplicate link checker.

=Browse=
* Highlights, tags, comments, notes, ratings, date added/last visited.
* Bookmark info tip.

=Search= (trust me you'll need this when you have lots of bookmark)
* High speed searching.
* Search when typing.
* Search result folder
* Locate bookmark after search.
* Saved search

=Security=
* Auto save and auto backup.
* Password protect direct to the database file with strong encryption.
* Small size database file with selectable compression method (I had 3000 over bookmarks with comment & notes the database size is only 200 Kb ++).

=Mics=
* Easy to use & user friendly.
* Highly customizable user interface.
* Hotkeys.

Well, based on the comments, I don't think I will try it out.
However, also based on the comments, I think it is safe to assume that it is most likely a rebranded version of something else.
Personally, also, I find my browser's own bookmark manager sufficient for my purposes.

The silence from the developer and GAOTD is deafening.

Jordysoft.com redirects to Jordysoft.net and appears to be a downloads aggregator with no mention of original software that I could find. The site has a slick front-end in the style of several other large download sites, embellished with scrolling links to other people's proprietary content, as Grant noted. The claim to be the largest download site on the net is enough to make me back off. All I do is download freebies and in all these years have never once run across a link to them. Gwebtools.com reports an average 413 visitors daily, which is not a huge presence in the realm of big download sites.

Jordysoft.com was registered in 1994, Jordysoft.net in 2008. The sole contact listed is a Romanian gentleman who can be reached at jordysoft@yahoo.com if you feel the need. I don't...

bem

They actually charge for this crap???

Hi Folks,

#18 Julia .. fascinating that Kaspersky was so informative. Historically I've had some difficulties with them but that is quite impressive !

#2 Bubby .. yep, this character is a master of bait-and-switch .. see below.

#27 - Grant .. spot-opn thanks for the plagiarism headsup. This "developer" is a lawyer, so we should not be too surprised at sleaze and lack of ethics. "One million lawyers .."

#29 - Andy .. thanks for the heads up on the uninstall disaster. If they don't fix it .. another possibility other than your manual uninstall .. a reinstall using ZSoft (free) or Total Uninstaller (last freeware version is available) and then letting them do the uninstall. (Revo would like to piggy-back on their uninstaller, which will probably give the same problem.)

#31 - GOTD fans .. try Linkman, free or pro . great program, the only one that carried on the Powermarks concepts fully and properly, imho.

#43 - Mike .. thanks for the headsup on more unethical stuff

#48 - Bazza .. here is a bit about this "developer" ..

A lawyer . "Iordache Daniel" (Jordysoft likely comes from Iordache) a 23-year-old Roumanian lawyer (Linked-In). He posts his programs on SourceCodeOnline .. and then does not post source code, instead a redirection back to his site. Sleaze. No indication of any software background so the lawyer is very possibly fronting for a software writer unknown.

Shalom,
Steven

I have noticed that they are very good at hiding the contact information and the link to the forum on the site is empty,
So for all you people wanting to ask them questions i have done a little digging
comments can be left at blog.jordysoft.com
and you can email them at download@jordysoft.net
For security reasons the other information gathered will remain private.

In what way is this application 'Professional'?
Charging $30 does not make it professional!

I have 1,526 bookmarks and have no trouble organising them within IE8 or FireFox.

I dont need this software even if it is 'professional'!

I use Returnil on my computer and that pretty much takes care off adding and managing booksmarks with the browser. They will just disappear with a reboot.
So I recently started using Link Collector 3.0, which was offered here before and got quite a negative rating as well(http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/linkcollector-pc-30/#comments).

Comparing both apps they both do pretty much the same, however Advanced URL Catalog is portable. It also has some pre-defined fields for entering user names and passwords, but neither one offers password protection for your file. Today's app. also minimizes to the task bar and can grab your current URL from the browser, which is kind of neat. Switching from one to the other was extremely easy, just export to HTML and import in the other app.

Now I've read all the comments and Returnil will deal just nicely with the hijacking and uninstall issues, but going just by the features, having a portable bookmark manager on hand ain't nothing bad.
Pura vida, AlexSj

Is there ANY reason someone would want this at all? Realistically, this program is completely pointless, since I have never seen a browser that lacked adequate bookmarking functionality. Thanks, but no thanks...

Hi, sorry GOTD friends, normally I don't review without trying the programme, but today even I was deterred by the appearance of this developer as I saw the website; BuBBy's comment just strengthened the first impression.
Nevertheless, Andy Halford made me happy again, I downloaded the FF extensions, installed them (without problems) and now I know that I have 6803 links - not counted the bookmarks stored in other folders, have already deleted 11 empty folders and am going to check all my links.
Thanks BuBBy I hope you will be happy too :) with these tools.
graylox

1st time I've ever been scared off trying a program on GOTD by the developers' site... Appearing next to their link for today's app was a link to a *free* Microsoft Live OneCare download. The scripted link [you could not read the address till you got there] led to another domain name where OneCare was absent. Microsoft won't allow anyone else to host their programs, & while a free, limited feature A/V app is in the works from Microsoft, it is not OneCare [which is still payware & supported - just no longer sold].

While I'm sure that Advanced URL Catalog is a legitimate product, that sort of behavior [the prominent link, with hidden address to free but missing pay-ware] is most usually associated with scammers & spreading mal-ware, using the promise of illegal software (&/or free porn) as a lure. Those kinds of sites are dangerous enough, that even the groups dealing with illegal software steer/warn you away from them.

Trusting GOTD, I highly doubt that jordysoft.com is run by bad guys... but there's no denying I think that they value self-promotion more than user safety -- not a great trait if you're trying to interest me in your software.

Wow, from what I have been reading, back away now!

Otherwise, why in the world would I keep my bookmarks on my computer? Why use the space when there are several websites out there that have add-ons or extensions in FireFox that uses online server space for FREE?

I prefer Google bookmarks since I can access from any computer. Very useful if you have a computer at home and a computer at work that do not sync.

But you can also use delicious, Digg, kirtsy, and other social bookmarking sites.

It would be nice to hear a response from Jordysoft with a statement regarding all of these points or even a comment from GAOTD.
I always give the developers the benefit of the doubt and install and test things myself, and today i am disappointed with the software, all of the above negative comments are correct!
Download this at your own risk!
GAOTD should remove this software immediately.

#34 Hampty

LOL, nope, I grew out of my romper suit years ago.

You are correct, I then used the windows add remove. Then deleted the folder and finally let CCleaner scan the reg.

Based on the previous reviews, I decided to download the software and read the EULA to see if they mentioned hijacking the home page. They didn't which removes any mitigating excuses for this practice. I also noticed that the EULA was for the evaluation version of the software not the full paid for version. Refusing the EULA does not appear to have done anything to my computer.

I can't believe this is being offered. What a waste of disc space. Anyway, thank you GAOTD for being here for us, but ya, won't be downloading this. Thumbs down.

with only 18% thumbs up, it is wise to steer clear, plus anything that alters your home page is junk!

Not so much a recommendation - but a suggestion for users running Firefox to consider - A developer Andy Halford, has written a number of extensions that appear to have a similar (or even greater) feature set to Advanced URL Catalog.

If you visit his website, you will find

* SyncPlaces - sync bookmarks and passwords on your own web or ftp server (between installations - like home and work)

* SortPlaces - This plugs a huge gap in Firefox 3 which doesn't have any decent bookmark sorting facility at all.

* CheckPlaces - It checks that your bookmark URIs are valid and can optionally check if the pages still exist, if there are any duplicate bookmarks, and if you have any empty folders. You can also use it to restore favicons that have gone missing.

* SearchPlaces - allows you to create and edit the bookmark queries introduced in Firefox v3, using the new Places API.

and "Total Validator" (which has nothing to do with bookmarks - but a fairly comprehensive HTML validator (and more).

I've only just found the site, so I'm making no promises, but if these do what they say... Happy BuBBy -> :)

http://www.andyhalford.com/

#29 Andy Pandy (You got a blue 'n' white suit and a silly hat? Sorry, couldn't resist asking!)

Use Windows Add/Remove - it does take it off, but the built-in "uninstaller" gives you that notice. You may need to remove the folder from Program Files and I haven't checked the registry yet.

A 100% Freeware option (in light of today's GiveAway problems) is Linkman Lite


It works with IE, Firefox, Google Chrome, K-Meleon, Maxthon, Sea Monkey, Opera, Avant Browser, Neoplanet, Netcaptor, SlimBrowser, and is compatible with Win 7, Vista, XP, 2003, Me, Server 2008, 2000, Win NT, Win 98.

By the way, thanks much to everyone for your valuable, helpful comments.

you can get all of these features with xmarks and a few firefox extensions.. i like my thumbnail tab viewers..

r.

This my choice of choosing Bookmark Manager:

1. Anyone should use this kinda software if you had lots of Bookmarks to manage and keep (eg. a few thousand bookmark).

2. Multi browser support for import/export, synchronize, open bookmarks etc.

3. The software is: Portability, stability, proper update form time to time, user friendly for basic/advanced user, small footprint, database encryption, auto backup, etc.

4. I would like to keep this kind of software always on my taskbar then I can use anytime, so extremely Low System Resource usage is important for me.

5. Personally I don't like online bookmark manager cause I can't use it safely in Internet cafe due to mass trojan, virus that will snag my user name and pass when login.

For 5 years, I found only one program called LinkStash can satisfy almost all my needs (except not so good looking, haha!), luckily LinkStash is not so expensive, I bought a family pack license (for 5 computer) only for 50 bucks, 10 for each a fair price for me.

P.s. - is there any free Bookmark Manager that has all the feature similar LinkStash? Please do recommend some, thanks.

Who needs a program like this anyway? For years I’ve just copied my favorite Urls to a running Word document and placed their names before the Urls. Simply hold Ctrl + left click on any Url and I’m there. It’s really easy to manage my Urls this way. Keeping them in alphabetical order is easy also.

Hi,
Installed and activated ok on 32 bit XP Pro sp3 using Firefox 3.0.6

On program start up it defaults to full screen, I resized it and shut it down. On the next start up it again defaulted to full screen and not my preferred size and position. That is a bit irritating as it is nothing in terms of coding to simply remember a users preferences and we all have our favorite places for particular programs.

Also, you would think that it would detect you browser and automatically import bookmarks the first time you used it. No, you have to create a new 'database', then import bookmarks manually. Not very intuitive.

That aside, I imported my Firefox bookmarks. This program missed most of mine. Why I don't know. I then tried to import bookmarks from IE, to my surprise it imported all of my Firefox bookmarks yet I never use IE, ever.

Here are the screen shots:-

Screen shot of my Firefox bookmarks
http://my.jetscreenshot.com/demo/20090711-oodm-45kb

Screen shot of this apps imported Firefox bookmarks
http://my.jetscreenshot.com/demo/20090711-kapm-38kb

This clearly doesn't work for me, yet I'm no different from your average internet user. I save my bookmarks all over the place so I thought this might be useful.

At this point I decided to removed this software, and to my utter horror received this little gem of a message..
http://my.jetscreenshot.com/demo/20090711-jilw-21kb

No thanks and thumbs down. I will now have to manually remove this abomination.

Having spent ages setting up my computer how I want it the last thing I would put on my computer is this type of intrusive software. Looking at the other reviews it would appear that nobody else is happy with it. I use Firefox 3.5 and use Speed Dial for my regularly visited sites. It shows thumbnails and you can adjust how many you want on a page and also allows groups as well. As I have well over a thousand bookmarks I put the others on Delicious and group them accordingly. The advantage with that is that I can access them anywhere I can get an internet connection. For this reason I save some bookmarks in both Speed Dial and Delicious. Apart from them both being far superior to todays offering they do not try and take over your computer, there is real help and they are not trying to sell you anything else. A big thumbs down for today but thanks anyway.

I love this site and all the free licenses, BIG thanks to GotD team for one of my biggest web addictions! :-)

(Er... while I'm spouting off - more plain text serial numbers would be very, very nice! And redo Linkman Pro & DogWaffle, pretty please???? But not next week, I'm away! :)

And thanks, of course, to this community for the raw, UNBIASED reviews and all great alternatives - open, freeware and commercial.

BUT as Bubby said, while today's offering sounds like a very interesting product, J's brand-new(?) portal turns out to be pretty self-serving, at the very least. Their bookmark manager listing includes only one product - guess which one? Who gives it 4/5 stars, themselves??

It's possible this lack is because they're just starting this portal and it's not very well populated etc. - very obvious since the forum is empty, as is the blog. However, it's impossible to tell how many programs are actually listed, since there's no item count displayed in any given category! Also, [blech!] - the "fully reviewed" products are each given one sentence pro/con/summaries. Woot. Better reviews in the Comments here!

----------------------
Oh, wait.... NOT GOOD. Not only do they have very excessive, annoying and irrelevant (even worse!) pop-up balloon advertisement linkage (just how is "Microsoft officially announced" at ALL relevant to any hair care products?!), Jordysoft also plagiarizes news articles, don't even edit the content, and don't attribute them.... Copyright infringement, while not equal to stealing, is close enough in meaning for this highly improper usage.

1. What caught my eye: Ah ha! "MS releasing an Anti-virus, finally?!"

http://www.jordysoft.net/frmDescriptionDetailsNews.aspx?TopMenuId=11&LeftMenuId=233&SubMenuId=0&ContentId=15" (URL all one line)
However, in the second last paragraph, the news article "Jordysoft" published, really, actually reads "One last thing Ars [emphasis mine] discussed with Burch was the...." which gave me a double-take. "Ars? Is this from Ars Technica?!"

A quick Google search reveals: http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/06/microsoft-announces-free-antivirus-beta-this-tuesday.ars

Bam! Is the rest of "their" news also in copyright violation? Let's try the Windows 7 pricing article, it's over 2 weeks old, plenty of time for any corrections...

2. "With the cat officially launched from the bag today by Microsoft, we now know the pricing of Windows 7 as it applies to consumers looking to purchase the operating separately."

"... we now know..."? Hmm....

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/windows-7-price-upgrade-retail,8144.html

Sure enough, 0 for 2... looking bad...

3. "NASA Partners With California Space Authority" - let's try that. An official government news item, surely they will.... but no. Completely unattributed, out-going links stripped, as well as all sources! Unlike other reputable news sources, publishers and reporters.

On the web, rress release at:
http://media-newswire.com/release_1093737.html

UPI feed to Lexus-Nexus:
http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100019545&docId=l:997646391&isRss=true

and the actual NASA site:
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/news/releases/2009/09-71AR.html

Bah. This is direct contravention of the extremely liberal NASA copyright/permissions (basically, only attribution is required), found here:
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelines.html
Paragraph 3: "NASA should be acknowledged as the source of the material except in cases of advertising."

Restrictions, item 2,
"It is unlawful to falsely claim copyright or other rights in NASA material." Under the copyright laws, publishing ANYTHING is an implicit claim to copyright unless otherwise stated.

and the same restriction spelled out, for example, on http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/policies.html

But no, even NASA gets ripped off. And to add insult to injury, not only stealing words, J is now explicitly claiming their own copyright as well as removing sources, copyright notices and permissions of others: bottom of every page: "Copyright © 2009 Jordysoft.net. All rights reserved"

Very, very sleazy.

That's 0 for 3...You're OUT! Busted, Jordy. And boycotted. Makes me wonder where you pilfered your code from, too.

Sorry this got so long, but dang it, GotD, they should be slapped down, hard and possibly banned. And reported!

(To be explicit for Jordysoft: This posting copyright 2009, D.G.Ebel and free to use, source attribution required!)

A comment from “our” developers:
At this time XXXXXX can’t work with Google Chrome because Google developers don’t provide with appropriate programming interfaces to integrate products like XXXXXX, but we’ll working on a way, how to make XXXXXX working with Google Chrome.

So the problem with not wanting to talk to other programs is likely Googles fault and not the “other” program.
Can’t wait for the release of XXXXXX ;)

To be honest - that _is_ Google's fault. Chrome will support plugins in the future, but for now it doesn't.

Except for the attempted IE homepage hijack, and automatically starting with Windows (not at all unusual, you can change that), I found the installation to be clean, although there were a couple of registry changes I'm not too sure of. This is a completely manual tool which doesn't integrate with your browsers. About the only thing it does is search your combined favorites/bookmarks, and it can verify them (I didn't test that, it doesn't normally request Internet access, although it apparently sets up to auto-check all of your imported URLs at intervals, so I blocked it). There are some UI quirks. I don't really see the point, and it should be freeware. There are tons of other cross-browser bookmark managers. See BuBBy's comments about this product if you haven't already. Actually, I voted it down even before installing because the link at the top of this page doesn't take you directly to the product, there's very little information about the product on the product's webpage, and all three of their screenshots are the same and pretty illegible. So my overall impression is that this is harmless but pretty useless, as well as being cumbersome.

Thanks to posters here for very helpful comments.

I will not be downloading this as a result.

I don't want my browers or home page hijacked

and life is way too short to waste with the

idiot issues this software looks likely to create.