I found an old idea I had for a blog. This is somewhat ironic, as I'm generally casting about frantically for ideas come... every other Tuesday morning. I think Doonesbury did an entire week on lack of viable blog topics. Granted, the implication was this "lack of topics" stemmed from the desire to update on a daily or even hourly basis. Sadly, I don't even have that problem and I still have writer's block.

Imagine my light-hearted glee at seeing an entry squirreled away in my Google Notebook under "Blog Topic Ideas." It's certainly understandable how I'd missed it... It's about niche search engines. Basically, these are search engines that aren't trying to catalog the entire world's information, just all the information on a certain topic.

The idea of niche searches isn't really new. There's a lot of them out there, and, by the very nature of the term "niche," they don't get a lot of mainstream attention. Furthermore, most people still find general search engines adequate to the task of searching for whatever topic the "niche" engine attempts to target. I ran across one that targets one of my own little niches.

That would be: Gazerk. I am, among other "-er's", a gamer. If there's a "-er" noun form of "long-winded," I'm that too. Gazerk is from Ziff Davis, who doesn't seem highly motivated to promote it, judging by current traffic figures in Alexa. Granted, I hardly take Alexa as gospel, but it's useful for comparisons if little else. Though niche, it's a fairly large one, targeted to a more net-savvy group, so I would have expected a bit more.

At the front door, there's little question of your options. There's box with a "SEARCH" button. Unlike the recently rechristened "iGoogle", there isn't a lot there to distract you. Type in the game you want information on, or, anything, and the results are provided, divided into gamer-centric categories. Categories include cheats, walkthroughs, videos, screenshots, reviews, previews, forums, and blogs. Those options cover pretty much the main courses of online gamer enthusiasm, neatly arrayed for your enjoyment.

It is this categorization, and presumably some additional focus given to what sites the engine chooses to display, that provides the draw for their target audience. Categories are nice, but no matter how well-accomplished architecturally the site is, the results are what matter. My initial test query was for "Lord of the Rings Online," (henceforth referred to as "LOTRO") the current ravenous parasite of my free time. I play on the "Silverlode" server, and no, my avatar's name doesn't have "Apollo" anywhere in it.

The first page of results covered the major internet gaming outlets sites devoted to LOTRO, including IGN, Gamespot, and Stratics. The "official" website about the game comes in at #4 in the results. Not too surprising, since it might be difficult algorithmically to pick out "official" sites. One interesting element to the results is the common use of subdomains with the game title, abbreviation, or some synonymous reference in the URL. For larger gaming networks, it's a common way to separate coverage of different games, but it certainly has utility for search engine optimization.

The only notably "bad" result was the ninth, which was the homepage of IGN's Anarchy Online subdomain. The page referenced IGN's "latest site," the LOTRO portal. Generally the first three pages all provided direct information from various sources around the web on the game itself. Moving deeper into the results, I started to find some confusion in the results among other recent "Lord of the Rings" themed games, but the early results were solid.

The categorized information was hit-or-miss. Being an MMO, there aren't "Cheats" in the classic sense of the term, so the results here generally lead nowhere or more quickly confused other similarly themed games. "Walkthroughs" was equally empty, providing only 8 results of which 0 referred to the correct game. "Videos" faired only slightly better, as there were some trailers and gameplay footage to be found, but again there was confusion among other Lord of the Rings themed games.

Things improved with the "Screenshots," "Previews," and "Reviews" categories, where more direct links to the major sites were provided, though IGN's Anarchy Online site remains a popular choice for Gazerk's LOTRO query. "Forms" provided an odd result, claiming over two thousand results but only giving about 22. Most of them were links to major gaming forum sites, some without any categories for the game itself. Finally, "Blogs" provided only 9 results. Paltry number, yet Gazerk did attempt to provide links to actual blog entries about the game, instead of just major gaming sites with blogs.

Overall, Gazerk's categories, which seem to be the major draw, didn't fair exceptionally well. The main search did provide nicely relevant results, and would lead anyone to a variety of authoritative online gaming destinations to learn more about the game. Having some way to better identify "official" sites might do them well. Repeating the query with quotes around the title didn't change the results, which might have helped remove some of the confusion the engine experienced in differentiating among games with similar Tolkien-inspired themes and names.

By way of comparison, Google provides many similar results (IGN, Gamespot, Lotrmmorpg.com) for the same query, but it places the official Turbine site as #1 and (naturally) tosses in Wikipedia for good measure. Gazerk provides a couple more "obscure" but still relevant sites up front, while Google eventually starts serving up Slashdot and Digg posts, which only reference the game obliquely. Comparing the top 10 results, it's pretty much a tie, but I'll give the deeper results to Gazerk. Google seems easily led astray by authority sites.

Will I use Gazerk for all my gaming queries from now on? No, not really. Though I realize people always point to the fact that there's basically "zero cost" to changing search engines, I think they also overlook another factor- pure laziness. In the battle that ends with a draw, I'll stick with what I'm comfortable with.

Besides, if I'm annoyed by Digg, Slashdot, and Wikipedia clogging up my gaming search results I can always use Google Co-op. I still haven't figured out why it's called "Co-op," when "Google Custom Search Engine" would make me remember what it is a lot easier. As it stands, I have to search for the thing every time I need to remember what it is, and I always go "oh yeah, they called it 'Co-op'!" And I'm still confused...

Anyway, Co-op lets you pick a group of sites for Google to search. It provides results from only the sites you pick (and, of course, only pages on those sites within the index). One could go ahead and pick out all those big gaming sites, roll them into "Co-op" and pretty much do what Gazerk does, only without the "category" functionality. It's like the "site:" operator search evolving from the primordial ooze.

Other acceptable similes:

• It's like the "site:" operator search all gown up.
• It's like the "site:" operator search graduating from college.
• It's like the "site:" operator search getting a new set of wheels.

Personally, I'm more a metaphor man myself.

Another year, another blog in review. Good timing, too, since I'll be on vacation next week. Mostly reminds me that I'll have to write another on the day I get back. I'm sure there'll be tons of fodder for the Jan 2 blog, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

The Blog

In terms of the blog, the war on the spam claimed most of the comments section. For those of you wondering why you can't post comments to old blogs, it's basically because old blogs are magnets for comment spam. I discovered it's about 2 weeks, (ironically, how often I generally post) before the top post will start getting hit. So now I turn off comments in the last post when the new one goes up.

Not sure whether it's an attempt to be sneaky or some kind of brief detente with the 2 week window. I'm guessing "sneaky". Perhaps they don't think people will be as vigilant on older posts as newer posts. Anyway, if you want to comment on a post, you've got 2 weeks to do it. The folks who developed Gallery got in on it, and another Robotech fan. You can too. I don't discourage on topic comments in the least, it's just they need to get there before the spambots do these days.

Don't get your hopes up on a PR6 backlink, though, as the layout of the template I use doesn't insert the URL on the main page, only in the "permalinked" individual version. Those permalinked versions are taking a bit longer to accrue PR. The earliest entries have gotten around PR3, and that's a year-and-a-half ago. Interestingly, my initial, ever so salacious inaugural entry has not picked up PR. Sadly, I cannot convince the spambots their efforts are wasted. I can't excise the referral bots that make the Urchin logs for this subdomain a pointless exercise, either.

2006 Features

Apollo started the year with a couple feature updates, replacing our site builder and premium spam filter products with the shiny new Site Symphony and MailBoxCop respectively. Both products were significant improvements over the pervious offerings and have been going strong ever since.

Site Symphony is a easy way to get a good looking website, and that's something a lot of people like. I know the feeling, as being more intimately familiar with more complex ways to arrive at the same result; I can appreciate the convenience that Site Symphony provides. If you're primarily concerned with getting your message out fast, but with a good look, then Site Symphony can provide that quick fix for you. Upgrade and you'll have access to a wider variety of tools to really kick that message up the proverbial "notch."

Hard not to like MailBoxCop, as it defends my work email address. My address (which, no, you will not be seeing here) is about 5 years old now. Anyone in a similar situation, or even older, knows that, despite best efforts, you're getting spam, probably a lot of it. In my case, even without having this email plastered all over the website or anywhere else, still gets about an average of 30 junk mails a day. I know, some of you are saying "wow, you're lucky", and I probably am, but doesn't mean I don't appreciate not seeing the vast majority of it cluttering up Outlook every day.

In the fall we partnered with ScanAlert to provide PCI compliance scans for sites with an online store that take's credit cards. This service is required by the major credit card companies, to ensure a reasonable amount of security is provided to customers shopping online. The quarterly scans are provided free for a year and, going forward, at a significant discount. Those who wish to provide customers with a even greater since of security can enjoy discounts on ScanAlert's HackerSafe program, which also graces Apollo Hosting's website.

One of our more recent and largest changes was our new Control Series Dedicated Servers. These new servers represent a huge leap in terms of resources and power over our previous offering, at a far more economical price. Perhaps the latter is what the price minded will like most. The Control Series includes advanced features for which others charge extra, such as Plesk domain management software and advanced operating systems. If you don't fit the "off-the-shelf" models, we can even custom build a server for you.

Finally, we deployed Windows Hosting, which rounded out our product line by filling in something missing for some time. We want to provide as robust a selection of solutions as we can, and Windows had been, to that point, an omission on our part. Customers had asked about, and we now have it available. Toss in unlimited database with MS SQL Express, and you have a pretty powerful solution for all your ASP.NET development needs. We also include .NET templates and a few other goodies for no extra cost, to really push your development needs into overdrive.

2007 - What's Ahead

Actually, though I'd like to "tease", I really can't. I can assure all our customers that we will continue to bring you new features and services, just like in 2006 and in all the years before. Even now our developers and admins are working on some new features for the first part of 2007. Our focus will be on improving the customer experience by revisions both to our website and to our procedures, as well as adding value to our hosting plans, as we have been doing for some time now.

So, I'll close with the same, nice, safe "Happy New Year" that closed out the last Blog-In-Review. Oh, and don't forget some nice, shiny Gift Certificates for all your last-minute holiday shopping needs for those webmasters on your list.

Popular theory goes today is "street" for Firefox 2.0. Though I'm sure there's some leeway in whether this actually comes to pass, I'm posting this anyway. I doubt there'll be any significant change in feature sets between "RC3" and the final version. My comments here will refer to the RC3 version, just to make sure all those sticklers for detail are satisfied.

I have made mention in a previous blog my preference for Firefox as my primary browser. It might then surprise you to know that I only recently sampled the release candidates for version 2.0. My first flirtation came with RC2, when everything was pretty much "baked". It's been a bug hunt ever since, presumably. That and "polish." Man, do developers love to talk about "polish" before something is released. It's hard to read a pre-release article, especially in the gaming industry, where the word polish isn't thrown around. It's like they're distributing the code on wing-tip loafers instead of CDs.

When I started looking at the feature improvements for 2.0, I wasn't really all that excited. Nothing really grabbed me as an improvement that would significantly impact my personal user experience. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for the update, I simply haven't found myself in drooling anticipation for it. I ended up installing the RC2 version at home in order to get a feel for it. Ironically, I do far less browsing at home than I do at the office, so it was a less "mission critical" environment in which to perform a test drive.

One of the reasons that keeps me weary of an office upgrade is that nagging fear all my precious extensions aren't going to function with the "new" 2.0 version. Again, as I mentioned before, I have heavily panderered my Firefox. Wow, there's that word again. Honestly, never thought I'd use it ever again. In any case, with so many wonderful toys I've come to rely on, I don't really care for the idea that I'll have to do without for some indeterminate amount of time until some unpaid developer gets off his butt and does an update. An unpaid developer whom I loved right up until he didn't fix his extension for the latest release. Fickle, I admit.

Mozilla needs some kind of preinstall extension compatibility checker. The current compatibility check happens after you install 2.0 (like all previous updates), informing you of your results in the compatibility lottery long after it's too late to turn back. I did pretty well at home, but I haven't added much to the home install. Granted, you can always reinstall an older version if you truly can't stand to live without some version of an extension, but I'd prefer to be given the choice up front, with all cards on the table, instead of regretting the decision after I made it.

"This is it?" or "The New Features"

Let's check the list, shall we?

• Visual Refresh: Translation... glowing buttons. Did I say I wasn't really excited about 2.0? I mean, the top item on the list of amazing new features is "glowing buttons." I think they could have lead with something a bit punchier. That's just me, I'm in marketing though.
• Built-In Phishing Protection: Everyone seems to be racing to protect me from phisihing these days. I guess I appreciate it. I'm also reasonably well educated and know that my bank doesn't send me emails, and thus, no matter how amazingly reasonable the request for the updating of my "personal information" sounds, I should probably not click on that link that looks so plausibly like something my bank would use.
• Enhanced-Search Capabilities: Translation... Google Suggest. Only now it works on other engines too, and you can manage all those search engines "easily." I suppose this feature set is only "news" in comparison to whatever controversy Microsoft will be facing about their choice of Live as the default search in IE7.
• Improved Tabbed Browsing: Translation... annoying me. I'll say, thanks to Cutts' blog (like he needs more backlinks), that I know how to "fix" this now. This "improvement" was just annoying, trying to remember to go up to the individual tab instead of just sliding off to the top right of the bar and closing there. What's even better? I know now that if you "middle click" on a tab it closes it. Handy tip. I suppose I grudgingly admit the new tab system is more "functional", but this creature of habit just can't adjust to it.
• Resuming Your Browsing Session: Translation... sure, we crash, but we even crash better than Internet Explorer. Open up all those tabs and fill in that form data automatically when you restart after a crash. I've had to use this a bit more often than I would have liked on my home machine. I don't think it's Firefox, but the "NoScript" extension I have at home that seems to lend some major instability. Can't recall the last time I've had a crash at the office.
• Previewing & Subscribing to Web Feeds: Wow, I'd care if I actually used RSS with any regularity. Now you can add them to "Bloglines," whatever that is.
• Inline Spell Checking: Finally, something cool. Spelling and I have rarely been the best of friends, so the development of so-called "spell checkers" was a welcome addition to modern life. Granted, I started screwing up differently, and even screwed up the spell checking, which is a testament to the vast adaptability of mankind. In any case, this is a great feature for anyone who posts to forums, comments on blogs, or maybe uses some web based chat. Now people will flame you less for your bad spelling and more for your accurately spelled opinions. That's what the internet is really all about, after all.
• Live Titles: "Microsummarys?" Um, this really isn't going to fly, sorry to say. The idea only aspires to being a curiosity, or perhaps, at best, "neat". It requires a little too much effort on the part of the average site owner to actually implement. Judging from this "astounding" list of sites with Live Titles, it's not exactly catching on like "wildfire."

Let's see... Improved Add-ons manager... okay, I guess, the last one worked fine for me. JavaScript 1.7... whatever, I don't use the previous versions. Extended search plugin format... okay, bottom of the barrel, do you feel me scraping...? Updates to the extension system... right... SVG text... "Now on a curve!" I don't recall ever seeing a website with SVG text, period... New Windows installer... well, that's useful... once...

I suppose I should reiterate I love Firefox, despite the tone of this blog. We only viciously criticize the ones we love. I'm just a little disappointed in the new feature set. It didn't grab me. It seems I could have simply gone on with 1.5 and still have everything that makes me love Firefox. In fact, if I wasn't able to "fix" the tab "improvements" I may have done just that. The Inline Spell-Check is pretty much the only "must have" on the list, for me at least.

What have we learned? I love ellipsis. And Firefox, too. Only... maybe they should have just called this Firefox 1.75 and I would have had appropriately scaled expectations. Instead, it's "2.0" and I'm just a little unimpressed.

I almost downloaded the Expression Interactive Designer just to extend the streak, I really did. I read the site again, and realized, with zero frame of reference or experience, I wouldn't be able to do much of anything with it. The previous entries were firmly grounded in knowledge of similar software as well as knowledge of the "professional" demands that I would personally place on such software. To the best of my admittedly limited understanding, it seems the "Expression Interactive Designer" is something that builds flashy user interfaces.

Don't get me wrong, as a gamer I'm the ground zero target audience for flashy user interfaces. As for having any ambition to actually program one, I'll pass.

Checking around I couldn't find any other interesting toys Microsoft was giving away for free. Sure, I got Media Player 10 after a recent trip to Windows Update, but that ended up looking like the past four highly bloated versions of that software, and didn't really do anything new. There wasn't even a "what's new" section in the help file. I think the only change is the buttons are even glassier.

Again, don't get me wrong, I like glass buttons too. They are, after all, flashy.

Wait just a second, there is the IE7 Beta...

Talk about touchy subjects. Discussing hopeless attempts to topple Adobe's design monopoly is all well and good, but browsers... Now we're getting personal. It's funny, unless one is monstrously naive, you probably didn't pay for the browser you're using to read this. Design software, on the other hand, may cost you quite the prettiest of pennies. Despite this fundamental difference of economy, people are far more likely to act like they'll kill one another over choice of browsers than design suites valued in the hundreds to thousands of dollars.

I have the IE7 Beta because, in that most technical of fashions, I design websites for a living. It helps to know if all those websites will suddenly be broken when a significant portion of the population suddenly starts perusing the web via alternate means. Forewarned is forearmed, as someone famous likely said. Someone famous likely said it, but since it's an idiom, not a quotation, they don't get credit for it.

Don't kid yourself, a "significant portion" of the population will "get it." Be it when it appears by magic after a brief dalliance with Windows Update, or at that far off time in the future when Windows Vista actually arrives on store shelves, a large number of people will be viewing your website with it, your opinion of its usefulness not withstanding.

I'll admit it, Firefox became my main browser a long time ago. Once I got used to tabs, it was hard to function in an environment without them. The fact that I like pretty colors and am easily amused means the "themes" functionality is a big hit as well. I can make it look completely different every few weeks. Should I become bored of PimpZilla, Abstract PC is right around the corner to break things up a bit. There's a plethora of themes to keep even the shortest of attention spans rapt for moments on end.

Then there's the extensions. I'll try to clean this up a bit, but suffice to say, I have quite highly "panderered" my browser. Yeah, that doesn't really roll of the tongue, I agree... In any case, there is a wide assortment of completely free goodies to be found that can both amuse and add functionality to Firefox. The most useful I've found so far:

• Web Developer Toolbar : One of the oldest extensions. If you are a designer, it sits in the dictionary beside the "must have" entry. The features list is long and impressive.
• ColorZilla : At the heart, an eyedropper that picks up the hex value of whatever part of the webpage you select. Can automatically copy that value to the clipboard in a format highly friendly to Photoshop's own color picking dialog.
• MeasureIt : Ruler extension that measures width and height of the box you draw in the browser window.
• Palette Grabber : Handy little gem that creates a Photoshop palette file of whatever webpage you're currently viewing.

Those just scratch the surface of the developer tools available. There are also handy SEO related extensions that can quickly access "higher level" functions in Google and Yahoo, like backlinks and indexed page counts.

Playing with IE7 Beta after having all these wonderful tools at my dirty little fingertips was a disappointment. It works... and man, those are pretty glassy tabs. Unfortunately they take five times as long to open, and seem to cause the Google toolbar to think a pop-up needs to be squished. But it does work. None of my sites are broken in it, from the most standards compliant to the... well... least standards compliant.

And what's this..? IEaddons.com? Maybe there's hope yet for a serious amount of cool panderage. (Still not working, I know.) Well, I'll let you click away, browse, and return, moments later, dejected after finding a poor assortment of tools and addons, many of which you have to pay for.

Yes, it seems someone decided the only way take a great thing and make it better was to... make it cost money. Granted, I don't think it's Microsoft charging directly for these addons, but rather the companies offering them. Doesn't make it any more palatable. I have yet to come across an "IE Addon" that seemed like it was worth the money, or wasn't available in some other, freer form somewhere else on the Net. I'm sure there are, in fact, some that may actually be worth their price, but the lion's share don't even come close. The makers of "SERanker Pro" are obviously hoping people don't know about DigitalPoint.

Oops.

So, for the foreseeable future, I'll be sticking with Firefox. No, that doesn't lump me in with the standards zealots I've stated I disliked in the past. Heck, hardcore standards zealots probably have bones to pick with Firefox too, since even it isn't completely "standards compliant." I use Firefox because it's more useful to me than IE. If you're running FF without extensions, then maybe you won't mind IE7.

In terms of basic functionality, IE7 certainly represents a significant "catch-up" for Microsoft. For me, it's the extensions that will keep me firmly rooted in Firefox. If IEAddons.com blooms into something far more significant (and useful, and free), then maybe I'll come back full time. Hey, it is the Beta after all, and at this rate, we won't be seeing IE8 for a few decades, so it certainly has time to grow. For now, IE is just a tech tool I use to make sure my websites don't look bad when... most people look at them.

A little change of pace... again. A smaller change, in that the following article is a little gem not written by myself, but our stalwart customer relations contributor, Madison Lockwood. Yes, Madison is quite the talent, and writes on a wide variety of subjects for us. The articles site will be updated in the coming months to include the ones she has written as well.

Until that happens, enjoy this little version of "Apollo Consumer Reports." Be thankful I didn't write this myself, as I fear I would have been far less charitable in my assessments, and probably would have ended up simply screaming incoherently. Thankfully Madison is a more level headed sort.

After all, if she hadn't provided this update, I might be screaming incoherently about this instead. Nobody wants that.

Without further ado... Madison.

The MPAA Allows Movie Downloads- Are They Worth Your Dime?

What Are Movie Download Services?

Movie download services are exactly what they sound like: a service that allows you to download movies from the Internet onto your hard drive or a DVD. Though this isn't a new concept, it is relatively new to the legal world of consumerism. Though 'pirates' have been making free download of movies available for quite some time, movie studios are now getting in on the action and offering access to their movies for download the day they hit the stores in DVD format - for a fee, of course.

Who's Who In Movie Download Services?

In the relatively new world of legitimate movie download services, there are surprisingly many players, but only a few of them are major. There's Movielink and Sony's CinemaNow which offer old and new movies for purchase or 24 hour rental. Rental fees are comparable to the local video store but purchase is more expensive than if you were to buy the DVD. ClickStar, backed by Danny DeVito among other big names in Hollywood, is another up and comer in the world of movie download services, but this one's draw is that it will offer movies for download while they are still showing in the theater. It will also feature a streaming channel devoted to documentaries.

AT&T is teaming up with Vongo, another movie downloading site, to offer its DSL service in concert and duo promotions. Different from Movielink and CinemaNow, Vongo is a subscription service offered for a monthly fee which allows its members unlimited access to movies, videos, and a streaming Starz channel. Pay per view movies are available as well for an additional fee.

Movie Download Services: The Nitty Gritty

• Price - Ranging anywhere from $10-$20, the irony is downloading movies legally isn't cheap. In order to appease the retailers who make big bucks on DVDs released in stores, the online downloading services are keeping their fees in the clouds. Which of course, doesn't hurt their pocketbook, either.
• Availability - It depends. Different services have different deals with different movie studios. As for old movies, those are being added all the time. But the nice thing is, if they have it, you can get it - instantly.
• Space - You will need between 1200 and 2000 MBs of free space to store your movie. Depending on your system, this may be a lot or a little. Some services may allow you to burn your download to a DVD, but only if you're buying the movie and even then, most won't.
• Download Time - This is no time for dial-up, that's for sure. Anything DSL and faster should get you your movie in under an hour with an average of 35 to 40 minutes, and that's if you want it fast and grainy. If you're willing to wait a little longer, say, up to two hours, you can download a higher quality version. A nice feature that some services offer is the ability to start watching the movie while it's still downloading.
• Technical Requirements - At least Windows Media Player 10, fast Internet connection, Internet Explorer 6.0, Windows XP. You might be able to get away with older versions, but it isn't recommended. And yes, did you note - it's all PC and no Mac. That's right. PC users only, please.
• Computer Viewing Only - Currently, that's the state of things. That is, unless you choose a service that allows you to download it to some other electronic handheld device of your choosing, like PSP or iPod. Of course, you could always use an S-video jack to hook your computer to your TV and watch it on the big screen. Some services allow limited DVD burning, but they may restrict the DVD to playing only in the computer to which the movie was downloaded, allowing your fancy DVD player to gather dust.
• Buy Versus Rent - It's a strange situation at this point, but different studios offer different services different licenses to different movies. So, you may only be able to rent a title through one service that another is offering for sale. Other services may not have any access to certain titles while others do. There's no standard just yet, so it's a bit of a crap shoot.

What's the Benefit of Movie Download Services?

Convenience! Forget long lines at the theater, the video store being out of a new release, or waiting in virtual queue to get your mailed DVD through a subscription service. No more concern about court cases and legal fees for downloading movies illegally or spyware from file sharing applications that will slow down your computer if not cripple it beyond repair. Then, of course, there's the fact that you can watch the newest movies as many times as you like on your personal computer and instantly upon purchase - no waiting and no driving to the store.

What's the Downside of Movie Download Services?

At the moment, cost and restricted viewing access. You may not necessarily want to watch a movie on your computer when you just invested $2000 in a big screen HDTV. And you may not want to invest $20 in a movie that you can't even resell online if you don't like it. If you have a slow internet connection, the download time may be a bummer, too, especially if you're trying to use your computer for other things while the process slows your computer to a painful snail pace. And if you use a Mac, well, obviously, the downside is that movie download services simply don't exist. Then, what if a virus infects the computer where all your movies are stored? Yup. Have to buy them all over again.

Movie Download Services - Yay or Nay?

The state of affairs being what they are - that is, in their ugly braces and zits prepubescent stage - probably nay. Remember the first BETA machines? Or the $700 CD players back in the '80s? When movie download service lowers their prices and speed up the technology, allow for actual DVD burnings that include the extras and TV viewings as well as access to films that are still in theaters, then yay! In the meantime, sticking with higher quality DVDs that don't discriminate against Mac users and big screen television sets and allow for resale later on. Unless you have to see the movie This Very Second, movie download services are not yet the incredible service they have the potential to be in the future.