Major Changes on MajorGeeks in 2020
By Timothy Tibbetts |
Some of our long-time followers on MajorGeeks noticed that they see fewer listings on the MajorGeeks front page. You would be correct. Allow us to explain.
A Little History
MajorGeeks has been in business since 2000, and a lot has changed in technology and on MajorGeeks. Until eight years ago, the entire website content was handled by myself, Tim, and Jim's business. At that time, Jon came on to help with the files, allowing me to try out other ideas to keep MajorGeeks alive and relevant. They haven't always worked.
Back in 2007, the first iPhone appeared and changed everything. File download websites just aren't relevant anymore as many of our readers now carry their computers in their pockets and use their computers less, if at all.
To combat this, we tried adding more categories and files, and frankly, visitors to MajorGeeks, on average, didn't respond. We tried adding Android apps, which did OK, but we can't keep up. We continue to offer Android links when a Desktop app also has an Android app. We tried some Life Hack articles and still do occasionally because it's something I enjoy.
We're proud to be the only download website in the world that says, "stop downloading stuff." Unless you're a geek and using a Virtual Machine or Sandbox, downloading lots of apps will eventually trash your computer, and everyone should know that.
Going Forward
We have silently made some subtle design changes and significant changes to the files we list and what MajorGeeks does as a website.
We're also making small design changes to make the website easier to navigate. We now live in a generation of people who prefer to see memes, videos, and giant photos because reading is hard. We're still geeks, and every geek needs to read and understand what they're doing, so our website will always be a little ugly and a little cluttered, and we'll go down with the ship if need be.
Updated - 12-04-20
Minor changes, some grammar, and spelling fixes to this page. I trimmed back some no longer needed links—added Tutorials and Swag to the top navigation bar.
Web Browsers category is now called Browsers. We are renaming the Google Chrome extensions category to Extensions & Add-Ons. We can now offer extensions for multiple browsers in one place. This should simplify browsing extensions for Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Edge, and Safari users. Once completed, we will delete the Firefox and outdated Internet Explorer sub-categories. Check it out here.
We were showing three days of news on the front page. With about 60 updates a day, plus new tutorials, Way Off Base stories, and more, that meant someone coming to Majorgeeks got confused immediately due to the 200 links, and many didn't understand what to do or who we are.
Over the years, many files have changed. The Freemium model became popular, with many developers crippling features on mediocre apps. Then we have the Ad-Supported model meaning software developers try to install unwanted third-party apps, also called Potentially Unwanted Software. Greed has destroyed many formerly great apps over the past ten years.
That's why you see fewer files. MajorGeeks built a reputation by only posting the best apps, and we started to deviate from that.
Those days are over.
Also, we now have thousands of Tutorials and hundreds of YouTube videos that have been well received by our regular visitors and the general public.
We now only show fewer updates and two days of news on the front page instead of three. Every time we update a file, we bump it, meaning that it is updated with today's date and put on the front page for you to see. Now we backdate files one day that isn't worth your time, in our opinion.
Of course, some of our long time visitors want to see all the updates, and we understand. Click on page 2 to see everything we have updated:
Finally, you might want to know how we decide which files to not show on the front page. We do them on a per-app basis, and some reasons include:
Apps that update daily or multiple times a week to get front-page attention, yet nothing changed.
Apps that used to be much better and may no longer be worth your time.
Apps that our readers didn't like. An app that has been on MajorGeeks for 20 years and only downloaded ten thousand times tells us all we need to know. Exceptions to the rule include apps we still think you should know about.
Apps that were free and not worth the asking price.
Antivirus Definitions. They used to be a thing. We continue to update these every day.
As we update apps, all system requirements are now Windows 10, 8, and 7. While some apps will work on XP or Vista, we don't have these OS to test on, and neither should anyone else. At the time of this article, most companies are dropping support for everything but 10, 8, and 7.
In other words, we're going back to our roots and showing you the best of the best new and updated software every day while continuing to write new tutorials and create new YouTube videos. The main goal is to steer people to the best of the best and allow them to spot new tutorials while still letting our regular visitors find everything that's updated.
We hope you like what you see, and thanks for supporting MajorGeeks!
comments powered by Disqus
A Little History
MajorGeeks has been in business since 2000, and a lot has changed in technology and on MajorGeeks. Until eight years ago, the entire website content was handled by myself, Tim, and Jim's business. At that time, Jon came on to help with the files, allowing me to try out other ideas to keep MajorGeeks alive and relevant. They haven't always worked.
Back in 2007, the first iPhone appeared and changed everything. File download websites just aren't relevant anymore as many of our readers now carry their computers in their pockets and use their computers less, if at all.
To combat this, we tried adding more categories and files, and frankly, visitors to MajorGeeks, on average, didn't respond. We tried adding Android apps, which did OK, but we can't keep up. We continue to offer Android links when a Desktop app also has an Android app. We tried some Life Hack articles and still do occasionally because it's something I enjoy.
We're proud to be the only download website in the world that says, "stop downloading stuff." Unless you're a geek and using a Virtual Machine or Sandbox, downloading lots of apps will eventually trash your computer, and everyone should know that.
Going Forward
We have silently made some subtle design changes and significant changes to the files we list and what MajorGeeks does as a website.
We're also making small design changes to make the website easier to navigate. We now live in a generation of people who prefer to see memes, videos, and giant photos because reading is hard. We're still geeks, and every geek needs to read and understand what they're doing, so our website will always be a little ugly and a little cluttered, and we'll go down with the ship if need be.
Updated - 12-04-20
Minor changes, some grammar, and spelling fixes to this page. I trimmed back some no longer needed links—added Tutorials and Swag to the top navigation bar.
Web Browsers category is now called Browsers. We are renaming the Google Chrome extensions category to Extensions & Add-Ons. We can now offer extensions for multiple browsers in one place. This should simplify browsing extensions for Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Edge, and Safari users. Once completed, we will delete the Firefox and outdated Internet Explorer sub-categories. Check it out here.
We were showing three days of news on the front page. With about 60 updates a day, plus new tutorials, Way Off Base stories, and more, that meant someone coming to Majorgeeks got confused immediately due to the 200 links, and many didn't understand what to do or who we are.
Over the years, many files have changed. The Freemium model became popular, with many developers crippling features on mediocre apps. Then we have the Ad-Supported model meaning software developers try to install unwanted third-party apps, also called Potentially Unwanted Software. Greed has destroyed many formerly great apps over the past ten years.
That's why you see fewer files. MajorGeeks built a reputation by only posting the best apps, and we started to deviate from that.
Those days are over.
Also, we now have thousands of Tutorials and hundreds of YouTube videos that have been well received by our regular visitors and the general public.
We now only show fewer updates and two days of news on the front page instead of three. Every time we update a file, we bump it, meaning that it is updated with today's date and put on the front page for you to see. Now we backdate files one day that isn't worth your time, in our opinion.
Of course, some of our long time visitors want to see all the updates, and we understand. Click on page 2 to see everything we have updated:
Finally, you might want to know how we decide which files to not show on the front page. We do them on a per-app basis, and some reasons include:
Apps that update daily or multiple times a week to get front-page attention, yet nothing changed.
Apps that used to be much better and may no longer be worth your time.
Apps that our readers didn't like. An app that has been on MajorGeeks for 20 years and only downloaded ten thousand times tells us all we need to know. Exceptions to the rule include apps we still think you should know about.
Apps that were free and not worth the asking price.
Antivirus Definitions. They used to be a thing. We continue to update these every day.
As we update apps, all system requirements are now Windows 10, 8, and 7. While some apps will work on XP or Vista, we don't have these OS to test on, and neither should anyone else. At the time of this article, most companies are dropping support for everything but 10, 8, and 7.
In other words, we're going back to our roots and showing you the best of the best new and updated software every day while continuing to write new tutorials and create new YouTube videos. The main goal is to steer people to the best of the best and allow them to spot new tutorials while still letting our regular visitors find everything that's updated.
We hope you like what you see, and thanks for supporting MajorGeeks!
comments powered by Disqus
