Tech blogs that I miss dearly
Things can change in a heartbeat on the Internet. In the nearly nine years that I have published articles here on Ghacks I have seen sites come and go.
Back when I started out, I looked up to the guys from the Download Squad, Cybernetnews, or the old Lifehacker that published so many great articles, reviews, tips and links that it was sometimes difficult to decide what to write about.
The tech blogging landscape has changed a lot in the past two years. Great blogs have been shut down completely or were abandoned by their authors, while new sites were only launched sporadically and with little lasting success.
What you find now on the Internet are large corporate sites or at least sites with strong financial backing that write about tech topics among other things.
The issue here is that those articles are rarely good. Don't get me wrong, they are well written but they are too generic to be of much use most of the time. Still, those sites tend to rank better in the search engines than "smaller" sites.
Note that I'm not referring to hardware or "gadget" sites, but sites like mine that concentrate on software, tutorials and Internet services mostly.
Here is a short list of tech sites that I miss dearly. The list is far from complete, so feel free to leave a comment below to add sites that you miss to the list.
- Download Squad - This site was on the forefront of tech news for many years. Most of what I cover here on Ghacks was also covered on Download Squad. I was able to find new programs, web services or tips on the site on a near daily basis. It went downhill when AOL acquired the Huffington Post, decided to merge the site with Switched, to then shut it down completely. The Download Squad archive is still accessible on the Internet, but no new posts have been published since April 2011 on it. No link, as the main page links to the Huffington Post now.
- Cybernetnews - Well, the site has not been shut down, but it has not been updated since December 2012. Created by Ryan Wagner in 2005 (a good year for tech sites), it quickly became one of my favorite tech blogs to follow. A strong focus of the site were tutorials that Ryan posted on it, software reviews, as well as reviews of web services.
- Freeware Genius - One of the greatest freeware review sites of all times. Samer's site was hit hard -- and in my opinion unfairly -- by Google's Panda update. While I cannot say for sure that this is the reason that the blog is updated rarely these days, I can wholeheartedly say that I hope that this site recovers from it so that Samer starts to publish articles more frequently on it.
- Shell Extension City - Not a tech blog but a site that posted a handful of tech related links each day, usually to interesting software programs or web services. It is still online and attempts were made to revive it multiple times, but the posting frequency has been really low in recent years.
- Raymond.cc -Raymond's blog is also still around, but posts are made infrequently on it. The site offered great software tutorials and reviews, and was one of my go-to sites for these things.
- Rarst.net - Another site that has not seen an update in years. Rarst did not post much when he was active on his site, but when he posted something, it was always interesting to read. He had a strong focus on web technologies and programming, but did cover other programs and services of interest as well.
- Lifehacker - Well, the site is still active and maybe even more popular than it ever was. But, the contents have changed dramatically over the years. Tech is not the main focus of the site anymore, and while you find articles about tech on it fairly regularly, they most of the time link to other sites where those contents were published on. Used to visit this site daily, now I only look at it once a week maybe, if at all.
That's my short list of sites that I liked a lot. Have anything to add to that?
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Come on, yearS is harsh! I hadn’t posted in 2013, but it’s not like a decade had gone by. :)
I have slowed down when realized that I mostly drained my core pool of software to write about (there is only so much software that serves you well every day through the years) and I am facing writing fluffy reviews about software I am not invested or confident in, just for the sake of keeping posts coming. My professional occupation and landscape also changed, which de-emphasized how many users and how much software I encounter personally (much much less). When I honestly put it like that to myself the latter didn’t seem attractive or in line with how I ran the blog through the years.
However the site as my personal corner online is still important and not going anywhere. I am slowly tinkering on technical bits to swap my theme (which didn’t age well inside) and planning to re-balance my topics to be more in line with my current WordPress development musings technically and personally.
Will it ever be small opinionated software blog again? Probably not. But that’s life, something ends – something else starts. :)
Fair enough, still miss your posts ;)
These days, I just get sad when I visit Freeware Genius or Lifehacker. I’m glad you’re still doing what you do, Martin!
So true! Freeware Genius is all but gone. I couldn’t agree more about Lifehacker – tech hasn’t been the emphasis for a very long time now. It reads more like a “MacGyver How-To.” MakeUseOf is another one that’s dropped in quality – occasionally, a good tech article comes out. AddictiveTips and Softpedia are not too bad these days. But the best one still, after all these years, is Ghacks.net – but I don’t want to swell a certain guy’s head too much! :-D
You are a charmer ;)
Absolutely agree with Lifehacker. Have had them on my RSS feed for years .. its all I can do these days to just mark “all read” every time it updates .. gHacks on the other hand … wait .. wut? .. ah okay .. say no more, nudge nudge, wink wink
I hate that Lifehacker sold out. I hate that /. sold out even worse though. :'( Not technically a tech site as much as a forum, but still, I’m an embittered bitch.
MakeUseOf is pathetic. (Was it ever really that great though?) Shills there.
i agree with the old lifehacker. it’s just a bunch of kidiots and crap now. good thing i found this site…
I blame Steve Jobs. It’s the post-PC syndrome ;)
I’m in complete agreement with you on FreewareGenius, Shell Extension City, and Lifehacker. They each used to be prominent items in my “Favorites” folder on my desktop RSS reader (does that make me a dinosaur?). Now, sadly, ghacks.net is the only remaining feed in that folder.
Another thing about lifehacker that I’ve noticed recently is that 100% of their interesting tech posts are things that were covered on ghacks a day or two earlier. So much for original content. I guess poaching and linking are much easier.
Keep it up, Martin! If I ever lose ghacks, I’ll just have to go back to my old electric typewriter.
I try my best to keep this site up and running, even though Google seems to dislike it these days quite a bit ;(
Download Squad for sure; AOL dumped the site. Freeware Genius is still alive and well as is Samer; however, in a recent e-mail, he said he was taking a break because the site alone wasn’t paying the bills. Loss of revenue from ad blockers? I don’t know. Raymond.cc has a great search tool; one could learn a lot simply by reading the older posts. Rarst was too cynical anyway.
Lifehacker? Isn’t it a shame what can happen to a great site with a great mind (Gina Trapani) when the great mind leaves. Lifehacker now produces little original material and leeches off sites like Ghacks. At one time, the editor didn’t even bother to mention all the material was coming from other sites. (But they are getting the ad revenue clicks.) I mean, how many articles have been posted on “procrastination” this year? 50? 100? Monotony sells!
HowtoGeek–pretty much dead as well. AddictiveTips . . . Makeuseof . . . CNET tutorials make me wonder about the site (e.g. Today I will teach you how to right click your mouse. Before we get started, let me explain what a mouse is and why we use a mouse instead of a . . . go ahead . . . right click your mouse. Good. Tomorrow I will teach you how to left click your mouse.)
> Rarst was too cynical anyway.
You say it like it’s a bad thing! :)
You do have a reputation ;)
My first RSS feeds were Download Squad, the ‘old’ Lifehacker when it was being run by Gina, and The-How-To-Geek pre-fluff era. I was trying out all kinds of software left and right, tweaking everything with setting/registry hacks or automated scripts, and eating up afternoons playing the latest time killer flash game. Those were the good old days.
Now DL.Sq is long dead and buried, For tech, LH just regurgitates HTG which gets half their stuff from you, and the other half is just stupid stuff like “Hey, guess what the largest mammal is out of these 4 choices” or ridiculously noob stuff like “how to use gmail”. Kids today don’t know what they are missing.
[How old and bitter do I sound right now?]
Things went rapidly downhill when blogs became news aggregators instead of original content producers; ie. when they stopped wanting to be experts and instead became leeches with megaphones.
P.S. – Martin – You are one of the few original content tech producers left in the blogosphere that have managed to evolve while maintaining the essence of what’s important. If you ever sell-out gHacks, I’m going to fly to Germany and personally beat you with a halibut (or some other form of flat white fish). You’ve been warned.
Be warned, I train in Krav Maga ;)
I started a Facebook page in my native language that covers anything digital. The aim was to share and let friends share original ideas. Ideas that was gained through long experience. Guess what? It didn’t gain popularity. It’s traffic that sites are after; and because the audience is of a very young average age, the content producers have adapted accordingly.
By the way, I think Ghacks audience are of similar age/experience, I for myself, I’m of 386 generation ;)
Is the how-to geek that guy.. no, that’s lockergnome. n/m. I never liked that sellout lockergnome, even before he sold out. Trying to remember how-to —the cartoon guy with the spy coat site? Dammit help!
I miss these sites too, but I’d forgotten about most of them.
AskVG . it is still alive but the posting has been really low in recent months . update posts includes update browsers or tips about windows 8.1 only .
please Tell us about new sites that you find upldate and usefull .
http://makeuseof.com used to be good, nowadays not anymore. :(
Raymond.cc was one of two websites (Ghacks.net is the other) where I go to check for all things involving the computer and Internet. Unfortunately, Raymond.cc does not update on a regular basis. There is another guy, Hal who also helps out on the website.
Mr. Raymond is a personable guy with whom I have corresponded in the past.
He has a family now and so devotes his time to the members therein.
Nevertheless, whenever he or Hal updates you can be 100% sure that they present some good stuff!
Mr. Brinkmann I Appreciate you in the same vein.
I feel you really care about your subscribers and those who visit your website.
Please keep up the fine work that you do each and every day by presenting us with some of the best articles on the Internet!
Thank You,
TR
The Feels.
I stopped going to Lifehacker, when they started truncating their RSS feeds. gHacks, AddictiveTips and TechDirt are the only PC related bros in my reader.
Raymond.cc is one of two websites (Ghacks.net is the other) where I go to check for all things involving the computer and Internet. Unfortunately, Raymond.cc does not update on a regular basis. There is also another guy, Hal who also helps out on the website on occasion.
Mr. Raymond is a personable guy with whom I have corresponded in the past.
He has a family now and so devotes most of his time (and understandably so) to the members therein.
Nevertheless, whenever he or Hal updates you can be 100% sure that they will present some good stuff!
Mr. Brinkmann I Appreciate you in the same vein.
I feel you really care about your subscribers and those who visit your website.
Please keep up the fine work that you do each and every day by presenting us with some of the best articles on the Internet!
Thank You,
TR
I think the blogging landscape in general has changed over the years. In other content areas where I also follow blogs, the same thing is happening. Individual bloggers no longer have the time, energy, or money to continue their work, and superficial corporate blogs (5 Ways to …!) have taken over. It’s getting harder and harder to find blogs of substance. Keep up the good work!
I think it’s a combination of things:
1. The CPM ad market has dropped like a rock. This has made it very hard for smaller blogs to monetize their traffic and survive financially. I gave up running CPM ad networks on my sites and just use Adsense these days. Adsense sucks in some ways, but the ads load quickly and pay better than CPM ads from other networks.
2. Google has been continually tweaking its search engine algorithms in favor of bigger brands, thus cutting off an important source of traffic for smaller blogs. The articles of smaller sites seem to be getting buried while bigger brands sit at the top of the search results even if their content sucks.
3. The use of ad blockers has increased significantly, particularly on technology sites. I understand why readers use ad blockers, there are so many sites desperate for revenue that they clog their pages with obnoxious ads. But no revenue means that a lot of smaller sites focused on technology just can’t survive.
4. The awful social media button craze has also quietly resulted in readers using ad blockers and tracker blockers like Ghostery to their browsers to avoid having page loads slowed down by a zillion social media buttons loading on every page. I barked about this in a column a while back (http://jimlynch.com/internet/the-soul-destroying-pestilence-of-social-media-buttons/) and I think it has been a huge mistake for a lot of sites.
I make a few bucks from my sites, but I’ve had to focus on freelance work to survive financially. My freelance work takes up most of my time so I’m not really able to update my own blogs except once in a while.
I think all of this together has resulted in some bloggers just giving up or being forced to take offline work or work for larger sites. It’s too bad since it means less diversity in content for readers.
I agree with a lot you said and have felt the impact that you described under 1-3. In fact, the income from this blog dropped by about 50% in the last two years alone and it does not look like there is an end to the downfall yet.
Anyway that’s a lot of money, and I can attribute most of it to Google’s “quality” algorithms more than anything else.
For now, it is still feasible to run it, but if things get any worse, I may need to get more freelancing gigs.
Here, I decided to keep the buttons but make them static images instead. So, not that much of a slow down in terms of page loading times as only static images are loaded, and no third-party scripts.
Earlier tech blogs were like bbs’ing before the 1990s. It had a different type of person who was more involved in technology. There was less smoke and mirrors and more genuine interest is what was actually happening.
At the moment, ghacks is the only tech site on my rss fed start page on ighome.com, I don’t even have slashdot on there. They have become too darn political. :-(
Lifehacker has become super gay. I really don’t bother anymore. Any chance you could do an article on your best sites you most frequent these days? Seems like my rss feed is very bland.
“Lifehacker has become super gay.”
Isn’t everything these days.It’s getting to the stage where gaydom has to be almost worshipped right across the entertainment,sport & media worlds.Sickening.
In fact – post a new topic “Dear valued readers – have your say. Contribute to the ultimate list of top [tech] sites”. You could even break it down into types : eg Enterprise, portables, rss favs, linux, security/privacy etc – and then you could follow it up with something like “The People’s Choice: Top X Sites”
I’ll start with some random stuff in no particular order (some are just on my FVD Speed Dial, some are aso my RSS Feeds), and by no means is this all…
[also, just a comment – some RSS feeds lend themselves nicely to filter rules to weed out the cr*p – so that way you can skim over what’s left and pick a gem now and then :) ]
Portable
– http://www.portablefreeware.com/
– http://portableapps.com/
– http://www.winpenpack.com/en/download.php#portable-software
– http://www.pendriveapps.com/
Security/Privacy
– http://securityxploded.com/
– https://www.schneier.com/
– (not tech, more just reading) TechDirt, EFF, Rick Falkvinge (http://falkvinge.net/), TorrentFreak
– (util sites) TBG (http://tbg.iblocklist.com/), I-Blocklist (http://www.iblocklist.com/), BrowserSpy (http://browserspy.dk/), fingerprinting test (http://fingerprint.pet-portal.eu/?lang=en), Panopticlick (https://panopticlick.eff.org/)
– Wired (Threat Level rss feed = http://feeds.wired.com/wired27b)
– The Intercept ( https://firstlook.org/theintercept/ )
– Nullbyte ( http://null-byte.wonderhowto.com/ ) – some interesting articles – has become a better since one particular person has started posting – i visit once a month for a gander
Tech Related News / General Reading
– Ars Technica
– How-to-Geek (I know its a lot like ELI5, but somethings I like to recap some tech aspect in my head or just plain see what they’ll say)
– Wired
– ZDNet
– The Verge
– ReadWriteWeb ( http://readwrite.com/ )
– Cracked!!! :)
Amazing, your list is an exact replica of my “morning reading” sites up until a few years ago.
Meanwhile i’ve stopped reading them for the same reasons. The list of sites i visit every morning
has practically been reduced to one site…yours.
Lifehacker has posted two of your articles this past week. You should check your trackbacks.
They do so regularly.
Forums are where I tend to get info about new stuff like doom9, techPowerup, wilderssecurity, etc. There are some brilliant people out there who’s info and tools are invaluable. madVR, VBE (video bios editor) AppLocker, etc are appreciated by enthusiasts and the discussions that surround them are extremely informative.
My feed reader is filled with sites that echo each other or insight fanboy rage just to get page hits (ghacks being the exception). Forums really are my refuge these days.
I’m with you, I miss DownloadSquad so much!
How ironic it is to read your post this morning Martin.
The first thing I do when I startup my computer in the morning is quickly visit a number of tech sites which I’ve come to rely on over the years. Sadly, as you mention, many of them have been all but abandoned by their owners – with Raymond’s blog being a prime example, as it’s been many months since he’s offered any real new and fresh articles on a regular basis and, in fact, I had been considering deleting his site from my bookmarks.
There is one site, however, which is kept unfailingly fresh ad new every day by its owners –
The site is called “How-to-Geek” and you can visit their site at http://www.howtogeek.com/
They post useful articles every day, and there is an active forum of users who participate in many interesting discussions. I suggest you visit the site. You’ll need to register to participate in the forums – but that’s easy and you can say hello to me when you’re there. (I often mention and recommend Ghacks on those forums)
But the real point is Martin – that you have spoiled us all, because nobody keeps their tech site as fresh, up-to-date and helpful as you – and the hard work you put in is evident to everybody.
Another thing I particularly like about Ghacks is he friendly atmosphere you maintain. No snarky comments or put-downs – just considered opinions by a tech expert who really wants to help and share with everybody.
I am grateful to be able to visit your site every day, and look forward to it.
– Straspey
Yeah, I still miss Downloadsquad too. Back in 2011 it was like, coming home from school, opening the site, getting up to date with tech stuff… I wonder what the editors are doing today.
Still, Ghacks is a nice replacement, although I’d love Downloadsquad + Ghacks even more.
Sebastian Anthony is Senior Editor for ExtremeTech.
Martin, its Samer from Freewaregenius. “One of the greatest freeware review sites of all times”? — not so sure about that, but thanks for being so very kind. I think I just might quote you on that one on the site ;)
I miss posting; I have ideas for posts all the time and I still write them down and make notes, so don’t be surprised if one day my site might be relaunched.
BTW Ghacks is an accomplishment and an amazing site. I wish I was able to keep it going and keep publishing, and I am glad you are doing it.
Samer
I liked groovyPost.com but stoped visiting them. Erlier they used to post very good posts but now they rarely post any good ones. Ghacks is the only website I visit now a days.
Thanks for your posts.
I had delusions of having a good freeware site, attempts mostly failed. Martin (plus Samer and most everybody mentioned here) have done a great job without a doubt. Panda or otherwise hope they keep going.
As of today, Ghacks is the best to me. As I am involved in other things, I get less time in Tech related matters but it is always a passion for me. Martin, you are doing one of the best jobs in the industry. God Bless.
Thanks so much.
Downloadsquad & 1up.com still mourning both…
As a blogger myself, I agree with the points Martin put here in this post. But I also understand why some of the sites that used to be great but now are fading, falling, or failing. Running a blog is hard, in fact, it’s a lot harder than anyone outside the blogger business can think of. The hardest part in this type of business is that you don’t get to control your life. Therefore, many of the sites that used to be awesome have to bend their head and contribute the content in a way hoping Google will like. Then, quality starts to suffer…
GHacks is one of the sites out there that don’t actually bend his head, which really makes it stand out a lot among tech people.
Keep the good work, Martin. Even though we all hate and love how Google treats us, looking forward positively, this could be a way that washes off many who can’t be persistent. At the end of the day, you may be reward big by what you do. No matter what happens, you have a very loyal user base, me included, that stands by you. Isn’t it good enough?
By the way, I sent you a message via your contact form but never heard back from you. I guess maybe it’s ended in your spam folder? :)
Kent did you use this email address or another one? I cannot locate it. Can you resend?
I’ve just sent another one, hope you can get it this time. I just hit reply directly from my inbox.
Hey Martin – Times are definitely tough in the tech blogging world. I published an article not long ago discussing the impact ad blocking software is having on ‘smaller’ sites: http://www.davescomputertips.com/ad-blockers-a-blessing-or-a-curse/
I started off writing freeware reviews for Clif Sipe, back in the day when Clif (FreewareWiki) and Ian (Gizmo) Richards were the freeware gurus. I’ve been with DCT for over 6 years now and seen plenty of tech blogs come and go. We concentrate on presenting quality tech articles, news, and reviews in an honest and easy to understand fashion, but expanding our readership is a slow and often frustrating process… I can certainly understand why many tech bloggers finally give up.
I truly admire how prolific you are, I honestly don’t know how you manage it, but I’m surely glad you do. :)
Cheers… Jim
All the sites listed in your article and the ones mentioned by posters were once on my a.m. itinerary. I miss them all and after closely following Samer’s slow demise, I blame Google. But whatever the cause, I know I spend much less time on the internet. It just isn’t fun any more.
FROM THE ARTICLE: Freeware Genius – One of the greatest freeware review sites of all times. Samer’s site was hit hard — and in my opinion unfairly — by Google’s Panda update. While I cannot say for sure that this is the reason that the blog is updated rarely these days, I can wholeheartedly say that I hope that this site recovers from it so that Samer starts to publish articles more frequently on it.
MY RESPONSE: Amen.
FROM THE ARTICLE: Raymond.cc -Raymond’s blog is also still around, but posts are made infrequently on it. The site offered great software tutorials and reviews, and was one of my go-to sites for these things.
MY RESPONSE: Raymond slowed-down after having a kid (er… well… more accurately, his wife had one). He’s never really come back from that. Few of us ever do. [grin]
FROM THE ARTICLE: Lifehacker – Well, the site is still active and maybe even more popular than it ever was. But, the contents have changed dramatically over the years. Tech is not the main focus of the site anymore, and while you find articles about tech on it fairly regularly, they most of the time link to other sites where those contents were published on. Used to visit this site daily, now I only look at it once a week maybe, if at all.
MY RESPONSE: Agreed. I also find LifeHacker unnecessarily difficult to navigate and write comments on. It had been going through a spate of spams; and I was one of the biggest compainers about it. A few weeks before the big changes, they finally responded and said they were well aware of the spam and had been working on a whole new redevelopment of the site with a commenting system that would pretty much eliminate the spam. And then they did what they said was coming; and while I, of course, don’t miss the spam, I think they made everything worse. Pity. It was (and, in fairness, still remains, I suppose) a good site. Part of the problem, too, is Gawker’s ownership of it. All you have to do to understand the mentality that’s running LifeHacker, now, is read a couple dozen Gawker articles and it all starts to become clear. Gawker, in the end, is the problem.
I agree with the rest of what you wrote, too, Martin.
__________________________________
Gregg L. DesElms
Napa, California USA
gregg at greggdeselms dot com
Veritas nihil veretur nisi abscondi.
Veritas nimium altercando amittitur.
Hey Martin, thanks for mentioning us. I admire your dedication and consistency.
We are actually still working hard on the site and “new” content on a daily basis is not a priority at the moment.
We hope to get back on track with the daily posting some day but there are bigger things to solve which takes a lot of time and manpower.
Cheers.
Seriously .. I think this sums up Lifehacker
http://lifehacker.com/what-does-the-shape-and-color-of-my-poop-mean-1535648433
*sigh*
Well, people search for the craziest things, and since Google loves Lifehacker, they write about all kinds of topics to grab as much traffic as they can for as long as they can. This makes sense from a business point of view.
Not for Google in the long run though but they are probably too busy counting money over there as well.
I used to love DownloadSquad. I even blogged there for a while. When they went away, I turned to your blog for what I was missing. Webup8 is a good linux heavy equivalent for anyone looking. You are the only blog that posts frequently. Thank you.
Martin, you really nailed it with this article. Not having much time to focus on tech reading lately, I’ve still had the feeling something has gone very wrong when deleting those heaps of unread bs articles from my aged feed inventory. You have been the goto place for all tech in general since the dawn of ghacks times but now there seems to be no place else to turn to for the good stuff. I found it hard to write interesting and meaningful articles years ago and now with all that pressure coming from business-inclined search engines it must be even harder, therefore I really admire your persistence. The interwebs have become too bloated with useless shiny gimmicks and you are still here to push against the flow. Hopefully, your true cause will be rewarded with loyal readers who seek the real stuff rather than the shiny fluff.
Thanks for keeping it real against the odds,
Tobey
I started a new how-to blog / book earlier this year. It’s called Advanced Home Server. It’s unlike yours because I can’t think of enough things to write about daily. I doubt I will ever be as prolific a writer as you are here.
I chose to write a free on-line how to book for things that interest me. I have a home server and I do, have done, or was really curious about everything I wrote about. I have been adding pages to the many already there and will continue. Being my own blog, I also return from time to time and punch up an article if I think it can be improved. Suggestions are welcome and I used a couple of your blog posts for inspiration for a different slant on the topic.
http://advancedhomeserver.com/