What does it say about you that you measure your worth by whether or not a web-site graces you with a red heart every week?

www.download.com is the number one software download site; the site all the cool guys rave about; the site that is supposed to make or break a small software company. Every Sunday, the total number of downloads are added up for each product, and those with a sizeable number are awarded an image of a blood red heart to signify their huge popularity and general worth. No doubt suicide rates amongst the ranks of Shareware authors peak on a Sunday evening.

And what does it take these days to be popular? When products such as SpySweeper and Winzip regularly notch up six digit figures each week you’d be forgiven for assuming the bar to the heart would be great indeed. You’d be wrong.

Twenty downloads. Twenty clicks and this download site amongst download sites flog their good opinion and recommendation to all and sundry.

They’re a cheap date and I’m not impressed. Thankfully I gave up relying on download sites months ago, but I still feel I should be jumping up and down every week over my bloody red heart.