Download Squad Week in Review

by Brad Linder Dec 1st 2007

If you've spent the last week looking up good recipes for leftover turkey, here are a few of the yummy stories you may have missed on Download Squad.

Google removes thousands of malware sites

Google has removed more than 40,000 sites from its index. This is a good thing, because many of those sites were pretending to offer useful information and instead viciously attacking your computer. Keep in mind, those sites are still out there, it's just that Google has removed them from its index, which hopefully means you're less likely to find them accidentally. But make sure you always download the latest security updates for your computer and web browser.

What's your favorite program launcher? - Ask DLS

Launcy, Rocket Dock, Object Dock, FARR, Quicksilver, and SlickRun are just a few of the excellent program launchers Download Squad readers use. If you're looking for the fastest way to launch applications on your Windows, Mac, or Linux computer, make sure to check out the recommendations in the comment section of this post. We're always amazed at the wealth of knowledge our readers possess.

The Squadcast #04 - How to be social

Everything you ever wanted to know about social networking and more. This week Grant and Christina teach you how to make friends and influence people with help from Facebook and Insomnia Radio's Jason Evangelho.

Open Web Awards: Call for nominations

Download Squad is proud to be participating in the first annual Open Web Awards, an event to honor excellence in social networking. We're collecting nominations through Tuesday, so get your entries in now!

Check out our awesome new commenting tools

This week we rolled out an updated commenting system, complete with threaded comments, rankings, profiles and history. If you've been lurking in the shadows, come out and join the Download Squad community. We don't bite. Well, not usually.

Other hot topics this week:

Tags: comments, malware, open-web-awards, program-launchers, social-networking

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

John said 12:43PM on 12-01-2007

How can it be deemed 'good' that Google has removed any sites from its index? Much as I agree that they were sites one should never visit, where do we now set the line for Google to determine what is or is not acceptable. DANGEROUS precedent !!

michael said 5:54PM on 12-01-2007

The news that Google removed them is pretty lame.

Who's not to say that Yahoo!, Live, and Ask.com don't regularly keep malware sites off its index?

I think there's feedback to report spam links if you find one for every web search engine.

Google's feat is not impressive. Lame.

Featured Time Waster

Civiballs is a beautiful, soothing physics puzzle Time Waster

I have an absolute weakness for physics games, and while Civiballs isn't the strongest physics-based game, what it lacks in the physics department it makes up for a few times over in style and fun.

In Civiballs, you are presented with a few colored balls, and your goal is to get those balls into the same-colored urn on the level. The "civi" part of Civiballs is that there are 3 sets of levels to play, each representing a different civilization. While the civilization doesn't affect gameplay, the artwork for each level is beautifully themed to it's appropriate era.

To play the game, you are given only one tool - a sword with which to cut the chains that are holding the balls. The puzzle part of the game is in figuring out what order, and with what timing to cut each chain. Do it right, and all the right balls end up in the right urns, with no stray balls entering an urn (a no-no). Do it wrong, and you get to start over again.

Civiballs is not terribly deep on gameplay; the entire game can be completed in about 15 minutes. But if you enjoy this type of game, it will be a very enjoyable 15 minutes.

View more Time Wasters