Best Free* Stuff Online (*Get 'em While You Can!)

Free Stuff's Hidden Hitches

Caveat freeloader! The Web's wealth of free items has its share of catches. Here are a few things you should be aware of when grabbing the gratis goods:

Obtrusive ads: Many free sites and services support themselves by dishing up banner ads. Some do it more subtly than others, but you might not want to use a free program or service for your business if it covers your screen or e-mail correspondence with ads. (Some services offer ad-free versions, for which you pay.)

Annoying e-mail: Many sites automatically sign you up for e-mailed newsletters and product ads, or let "partners" bombard you with e-mail. Feel free to uncheck any default opt-in box for these "important messages."

No privacy: Free sites also make money by selling your personal information to advertisers. Look for a TRUSTe seal or a privacy policy if you're concerned about what will happen to your info. Don't provide any data you think the site has no need to know.

Massive downloads: Many free downloads are multimegabyte files that take a while to grab (especially over dial-up connections) and hog hard disk space. The best sites warn you about a file's size and transfer time before you click Download.

Disappearing sites: In these days of dot-com fallout, many free Web services are here today, gone tomorrow. You can't count on any service being around forever, so think twice before relying on any of them for crucial business or personal needs.

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