Best Free Stuff Online

As e-commerce takes hold and more Web sites begin charging for content that used to cost you nothing, good free stuff is getting harder and harder to find. For our third annual guide, we scoured the Internet, tossed aside the dreck, and found worthwhile downloads.

There's no such thing as a free lunch. You get what you pay for. Want something for nothing? Fahgeddaboutit.

It's a cynical world out there. Even on the Internet--the last refuge of the giveaway--it's getting harder to find good stuff for free. Want to visit Wall Street Journal Interactive or ESPNet? Get out your wallet. And as more Web sites figure out how to charge for their wares, the squawk of your modem may be replaced by the ka-ching of a cash register.

But all is not lost. There is still high-quality free stuff to be had--you just have to dig deeper and look harder. In this, our third annual collection of the best free stuff online, we did exactly that.

This year we focused on free stuff you can actually use, not just Web pages splattered with a little information and a lot of advertising. Our intrepid freebie hunters combed hundreds of sites and selected the best Windows utilities, productivity apps, browser plug-ins, and interactive games that money can't buy. Along the way, we uncovered some excellent shareware packages--software you can try for free and then pay for if you choose to keep it. We identified the best places to download drivers, sign up for free Web services, get free financial information, and talk back to Uncle Sam. We even uncovered sites that let you earn frequent-flyer miles or get a free can of baked beans, simply by surfing the Web.

Add it all up, and you've got the best of the Net at the best price: free. Even a cynic can appreciate that.