Whys and Wherefores
October 20, 1999
You don't have to pay a fortune to build a cool web site.
There's an enormous amount of free stuff available on the web,
which you can use to 'spruce up' your image, or offer entertainment,
or provide useful services, etc.
They say that anything free is worth what you paid for it,
but there really is some good, worthwhile stuff on the net,
offered for free or almost free. What's the catch?
In many cases, there's no catch at all - believe it or not,
there are some genuine altruists. This was easier to see in the
early days of the web when some people 'gave back to the net', in the
form of software, graphics, tutorials, link lists, etc.
In one sense, most of the web is one 'free lunch', in that
you don't expect to pay for access to it
(with some well-known exceptions).
Often the software was developed as a programming exercise,
and the programmer or artist is happy to share it with the world.
Perhaps a little name-recognition is enough reward!
Sometimes the freebie is 'linkware' - you are asked to give
a link back to the author's site, so that they may get some
recognition and traffic.
Sometimes the freebie comes with advertising.
Another common reason is that the software needs testing - the so-called
'beta' versions. It can be next to impossible to test software under
all possible conditions of use, 'in-house', and so the web community
can be used to provide early feedback under widely varying conditions.
This was how the web browsers and servers started life - and some even
stayed that way so as to publicise the vendor's other products or web
sites...
When I started building EncycloZine,
I planned to start in prototyping mode, using free graphics and applets,
and later, as my ideas about the site solidified, I planned to
commission specific components for it. But it turned out that some of
the free stuff - especially the games and puzzles - were of sufficient
quality that I had less need to spend money on custom components.
Sites such as Java Boutique
were a great help, and I'll be illustrating some of my best finds
in this and future articles.
Talk to me!
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These articles will show you some of the places where you can get
free stuff for your web site, and how to use it.
The web is so humongously huge that nobody can tell you even a
fraction of all the free stuff that's available; certainly I can
only scratch the tip of the iceberg. However, we can put the
'free stuff' philosophy to work for us: in return for any benefit
this article might bring you, please let me know
of any other good free stuff not mentioned here,
and I'll mention it for the benefit of other readers in a future update.
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In our survey, we'll also include some "almost free" items, such as
shareware or programs allowing download for evaluation before purchase.
You can perform useful work with this software,
while deciding if the product is one you'd like to buy.
Before we plunge in to the free stuff, however,
let's step back and look at a few issues.
How to Take Free Stuff
Much of the original 'free stuff' was developed under the wings of
organisations such as CERN, NCSA, and NASA - notably web browsers and
servers.
The web itself (e.g. HTML and HTTP) was originally conceived as a
means for scientists to interchange data across heterogeneous
systems (multiple platforms).
Since tax dollars (as well as tax pounds, francs, marks, etc)
had funded the stuff, there was no need (or desire) to sell it.
Indeed, its unlikely the web would have been noticed outside of
academia if people couldn't have simply downloaded Mosaic and the NCSA
web server for free.
Since then, commercial interests have realised the power of
'free stuff'.
One of the main reasons that web sites offer you free stuff to put on
your site is that they want your traffic.
Heck, I'll give you some free pictures if you'll link them to
my site!
For example, some sites offer 'free news', which in fact usually
means 'free news headlines' -
your visitors have to click on them and be taken
to another site, to read the story. And then they might not come back.
Another reason is to put up advertising;
sites that offer free services such as search engines, web polls and
surveys, etc, usually do this.
You have to decide if these issues bother you or not.
In this sense, TANSTAAFL is true: if the free stuff comes from a
commercial site, they want something in return - that's business!
Not to frighten you, but it's a good idea to read the legal blurb
they ask you to accept as a condition of downloading the freebie,
just to be sure you understand what your (and their) obligations are.
How To Build a Web Site with Free Stuff
How To Build a Web Site with Free Stuff Table of Contents
How to Take Free Stuff
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