|
The purpose of this
page is to introduce our site and the concept of Internet freebies.
FreebyWeb.com was
launched in 1999 with an aim to review only high quality freebies.
From the outset, it was destined to be an international freebie
site with a global, English-speaking audience. Today,
FreebyWeb.com receives thousands of daily visitors from all over
the world, making it a firm favourite for Web surfers. Our
international reach means the freebies we review are available
globally. Freebies specific to the UK are given as much priority
as U.S. and Canadian offers. And when quality Australian and New
Zealand freebies are brought to our attention, we also review
those.
The simple design,
quality reviews, regular updates, along with highly maintained
categories have earned FreebyWeb.com a large number of awards
since its launch, making it the largest and most significant
UK-based freebie site, and also one of the Web's elite freebie
sites. Here at FreebyWeb.com, we're 100% family friendly and
never send out unsolicited e-mail to visitors. You don't even
require an e-mail address and password before entry. Just surf
right in!
Unless you've landed
on this page by mistake, you'll probably be wanting to obtain some
free stuff. Even new Internet users (commonly called
"newbies") should find requesting freebies fairly
straight-forward. Before you start browsing through our site, what
we'll do is explain the difference between "real"
freebies and "digital" freebies.
A free sample of
toothpaste is a real freebie, since it's a real-life item. Digital
freebies are things like free fonts, online games and free Web
site creation tools. These have no cost either, but can only be
utilised online (i.e. they don't arrive through the letterbox).
Here at FreebyWeb.com, we separate each type of freebie by
category. Real freebies are available from our home page and are
categorised as "Product Samples". The rest of
FreebyWeb.com is concerned with digital freebies, and these are
clearly accessible via the other homepage hyperlinks.
There are, however,
some sections that are sub-categorised, like free software, free
e-mail, free contests, free sounds and free Webmaster tools. From
the home page it appears as though we have 25 categories, but in
reality there are many more. You just need to delve deeper into
the site! Now you've been explained the basics, there are a few
other things you should be aware of.
1)
Be aware of spam (junk-mail).
The Internet is full
of junk-mail senders, commonly referred to as
"spammers". If you fail to protect yourself against
spam, you'll find yourself receiving dozens of advert e-mails.
Unfortunately, companies giving away freebies sometimes ask for
your e-mail address, along with your postal address. Although
providing your delivery details is vital for receiving, say, a
free product sample, e-mail addresses aren't treated with as much
care or privacy. They are regularly sold on to other companies,
who sell them again. Before you embark on a freebie-requesting
spree, be sure to set up a secondary junk-mail account. You can do
this by choosing any free e-mail address provider. Some of them
have been reviewed here
and are accessible via the Web. Generally speaking, if you request
a freebie over the Internet and they ask you to supply your e-mail
address, you should expect to receive spam. Here at
FreebyWeb.com, we take this issue very seriously and have
rounded-up some tools that will help you combat the spam menace.
Our free
e-mail programs category has some applications
designed specifically to protect yourself against junk-mail.
2)
Get a compression or archiving utility.
Software providers
regularly serve up their free programs in a compressed format. If
Microsoft Windows is your platform, these files will usually have
a ".zip" extension. This is to reduce space and help
speed up download times. If you're using Windows XP, then you're
already set for decompressing files, and you needn't download a
utility. People using other operating systems (e.g. earlier
versions of Windows), may find our free
zip utilities section useful. Here, you'll find a
selection of freeware compression utilities, which allow you to
open, modify and extract archived files. Freeware software has no
restrictions and is completely free to download.
Most popular
compression utilities can handle various compressed formats, not
just .zip extensions. So, if you stumble across a ".rar"
or ".tar.gz", you (hopefully) shouldn't find yourself
stuck. Having said that, there are still many programs that don't
require decompressing. But if you already have an archiving
program installed, whenever you come across a compressed file,
you'll be well prepared.
3)
Be aware of pop-up and pop-under advertisements.
In recent years, many
Webmasters have jumped onto an Internet bandwagon and started
including irritating pop-up adverts on their pages, attempting to
generate more money. After the initial onslaught of pop-ups, other
adverts appeared on the scene: pop-unders. These adverts, which
are similar to pop-ups, cleverly conceal themselves behind your
main browser window. At FreebyWeb.com we realise the Internet is
a constantly changing environment and that eliminating these
adverts is a seemingly impossible task. However, we try very hard
to keep our directory free of these annoyances. Our actual Web
site pages do not contain such adverts. However, when visiting
some of the sites we list, you may from time to time, encounter
the occasional pop-up. Some useful programs for combating these
adverts can be seen below. Both are highly effective.
Mozilla
Firefox - Our Web browser of choice, which includes a built-in
pop-up advert blocker.
Google
Toolbar - A useful add-on for Internet Explorer, with a pop-up
blocker.
4)
About legitimate freebies.
All the freebies
available at FreebyWeb.com are checked beforehand to ensure
they're legitimate. However, on occasions, a sample you've
requested may never arrive, even when your friends have received
theirs. Companies offering free samples over the Internet
regularly underestimate the demand for their products. As a
result, they tend to run out of freebies very quickly. At
FreebyWeb.com, if we don't receive a freebie, then the offer is
removed fairly rapidly to avoid any disappointment. In any case,
requesting freebies early will ensure you get first pick.
Other than the above,
there really isn't any more you need to know at this stage. If you
have any comments or suggestions about FreebyWeb.com, feel free
to contact
us.
To
suggest a freebie for inclusion, complete one of the forms here.
Notice: you don't
have to run a Web site to suggest a freebie. If you find a free
sample on the Internet that we haven't listed and wish to share
it, please send in the details!
To
keep our index accurate, please report any dead, incorrect or
outdated links here.
To
return to our home page and start browsing the freebies, click the
link here!
|
