What’s Beta Marker and Who’s Behind It?

BetaMarker.com is a place for people that love software. Software enthusiasts come to Beta Marker to share and download great software but also to let off steam and report crappie software. In Beta Marker you’ll find software early adopters, looking for their daily dose of cutting edge new software, mainstream users who need the best software for a specific task and creators of freeware and shareware, hungry for new users and feedback about their software.

What’s different about BetaMarker.com is that unlike other software-download-websites, Beta Marker is governed as a pure democracy. The users, software enthusiasts around the world - you, decide what goes on the site and if it stays on. Beta marker members can submit any software they like to the site. The software may be in alpha, beta or final development stages. It may have a large software company behind it or a one-geek team. This way, great but low budget freeware and open-source software can get just as much “air-time” as software of key players in the software industry.

All software is voted on by other Beta Marker members. If the software rocks, it will be voted for by many members and be promoted to the home page where it will be shared with all Beta Marker members. If it sucks, members will vote against it and it will be removed. Marking software releases has much more to it than saying “thumbs up!”. It lets the system know you like this software so as soon as a new release comes out you’ll be the first to know and download it. And, it signals to other users on the site that you have the same “taste” in software and that the two of you can be friends and help each other discover new software.

There are software recommendations, video tutorials, changes logs and plenty more. But instead of me telling you about it, dive in, start marking and you’ll discover what the software world looks like when it’s ruled by users.

Who’s Behind Beta Marker?

Eyal Yaakov and I (Maya Elhalal) are internet entrepreneurs and web applications developers. On an average day we login in the morning, code, design, edit, analyze, email, chat, buy and sell. About fifteen hours and fifty applications later, we log out and call it a day. Software is our most important work tool and it’s a hobby. User experience can make me want to kiss the screen or throw the computer out the window.

The problem is, we’re early adopters at heart and soul. Those of you who also suffer from an incontrollable urge to install new software as soon as it comes out, know that this addiction doesn’t come without a price. After one blue screen too many and hours wasted tracking new releases of software we use, we decided to build BetaMarker.com. Our goal was to create a place where people can share their passion for software, help friends discover new software and download software (even in alpha or beta) that’s safe to use.

Maya and Eyal, on a good software day…