R.I.P. VersionTracker

[Makosuke]

Add me to the list of people who preferred VT to MU (despite VT's hideous, ad-strewn layout) but switched immediately after this. I'm actually surprised it took this long for CNet to screw up VT--they were quite speedy with taking about half the usefulness out of MacFixIt, although that site is at least a little bit useful still.

The feature I most used, when I wasn't searching for a specific tool, was a daily skim of the "bold" updates to see if there were any changes to major apps that I either do use or might consider, if new features were added/things fixed. The bolded apps on VT always seemed a little better chosen than those on MU, and VT was more consistent about floating the "major" updates to the top of the list at the end of the day--MU seems to be inconsistent about this.

Oh well, it's sadly proven fact that pretty much everything CNet touches turns to s***, no reason VT was going to be an exception.

I actually went to the trouble of using their "problem report" form to tell them they'd lost me, and while it won't make the least bit of difference, I suggest others do to, just for the hell of it.

 

[jasone6]

ugh. just spent an hour on the CNET substitute site for Versiontracker... what a POC! No preferences to speak of, no way to give feedback, ads all over the place, no easy links to developers' sites, complete crud. VT was a great site... sad to see it get mangled by these bozos.

 

[MacsRgr8]

I mainly used VT to find new software - any good app should already have auto-update ability.

Definitely switching to MacUpdate now.

+1

 

[Abstract]

I hadn't even heard of MacUpdate until those MU promos started coming out. I still stayed a loyal Version Tracker user though because that's what I was used to.

I won't say I'll miss Version Tracker. To me, it's 6 of one, half-dozen of the other. However, someone tell these big companies that buying a smaller company for X dollars isn't worth it when the userbase flees once they hear the news that you took it over. CNET probably paid a fair price for VT since it had a certain number of users, but with people leaving, CNET just paid for nothing.

In a way I'm glad they wasted more money, but they also had to ruin a perfectly good thing in the process.

 

[Kevenly]

Tragic.

I enjoyed my daily email of software updates from VersionTracker. The comments and ratings for each version of each app were a great resource.

In order to get any kind of daily or weekly lists from MacUpdate you have subscribe for $20/year. With all their ads, you'd think sending out daily email lists of updates would increase their advertisement impressions, as people clicked on applications they were interested in downloading the new versions for.

I'm really disappointed about VersionTracker's demise, and I never heard anything about it in advance. To add insult to injury, the versiontracker.com address took me to CNET's Windows download section. I detest CNET and will never be going there again. I salute them with one binary digit.