Now you could take up lessons to improve your language skills but I think it’s an excellent opportunity to work on your skills while you’re reading or writing something. There is a big gap between just learning and really mastering a language and this is one of the things that can help achieve great results. I actually used to have a Notepad file with some of the words that I have looked up over time, so I can review them once in a while. It’s a time-tested way of improving your language skills. I will show you how to use Google Translate and the new Google Dictionary for this.

Google Translate has existed for quite some time already and you probably know it or have used it. It can be used to translate words, paragraphs or whole documents or webpages. This is especially useful in my case for reading news or blogs, which sometimes have an option to translate the page so I can understand what it’s about better. If the page does not have this built in, you can always copy and paste the text to Google Translate, but there are also browser plugins to automatically translate a page. A good one for Firefox is gTranslate.

While this will help you understand foreign texts and therefore help you improve your language skills, the core of the system I’m proposing today is repetition. Review the words you didn’t know before. If you’re just going to see them once, you’re not going to know them well enough to use them yourself. This is where the new service Google Dictionary comes in.

Dictionary used to be a part of Translate, but is now a stand-alone service. This is another one of those examples of Google giving away a service for free where other companies will charge you, show advertisements or both. Google Dictionary also very much puts the genre of dictionary websites upside down. We’ll probably benefit most as end-users so let’s welcome our new Google overlords in this.

Google Dictionary supports 12 languages with a dictionary and 16 more languages which can only be translated. Now just start looking up any word of which you’re not sure what it means. Even when you think you know what a word means, but not what the translation is exactly, look it up. Google Dictionary makes it easy to save (or as Google calls it “star“) any word you have looked up.

Then review the words you have saved periodically, maybe once a week or every month. The words are first displayed without their meaning so you honestly check whether you know the meaning of the word. When you find that you have memorized the meaning properly, you can remove the word from the list.

As soon as you have trained yourself to look up any word you don’t exactly know by heart, you are starting to improve your language skills. This principle of continuous improvement, which the Japanese call “Kaizen“, can be the basis of great change. It belongs to the same category as the drop that hollows out a stone over time or a great journey that is made step by step. Are you trying to master another language than your native one? Please share your best technique and resources with us. Let us know what works best for you.

Image credit: sxc.hu

One of the improvements you can make is to have iTunes synchronize its library with your music folders. This can be done in two ways. You can let iTunes do it for you when you have it managing your music automatically already or, alternatively, you can have a program called iTunes Folder Watch (Windows only) do it.

After years of waiting for it and criticism from users, Apple has finally added the feature of auto adding music to your library in iTunes 9. One condition however is that you have to let iTunes manage your music. This means that you can’t have your own music folder structure but instead you have to add any music to iTunes and let it do its thing. This is fine for most people except when you want to keep using your own folders or file formats iTunes doesn’t support (which are more than you’d think).

The automatic way does work very easy though. All you need is iTunes 9. It already comes with the feature installed, many people just don’t know about it. Of course Apple would prefer that you get all your music from the iTunes store, that’s probably why they aren’t giving it much attention. There is a folder called “Automatically Add to iTunes” in your iTunes Music folder (called Media Folder starting from iTunes 9). Just place any new music there and iTunes will import it the next time you run it or right away if you already have iTunes opened.

Here’s more information from the Apple website.

This way iTunes handles everything for you. If you prefer to have more control yourself you can use an application like iTunes Folder Watch. I normally prefer freeware, but this does most of what we need in the free version. It allows you to pick a folder to synchronize with your iTunes library. The paid version does this automatically, but with the free version you have to do it yourself.

You point the program to a folder on your computer with music and it will compare the files in there with your iTunes library. When you add some music to the folder you can have it update your iTunes library automatically.

An alternative to iTunes Folder Watch is iWatchSyncer. It does more or less the same but has a few less options, but it’s good to have alternatives.

My favorite alternative by the way is to ditch iTunes altogether and start using MediaMonkey. This program has all you need from a media player and even more in the gold version. We have written in the past about it and has all the folder syncing you need. It has just released a major update in version 3.2 and is compatible with many MP3 players and phones, but in the past Apple has slammed the door on any software that synchronizes with the iPods and iPhone with their next software update.

What software do you use for managing your music and filling your iPod or iPhone? Are you using iTunes and had you already discovered the auto adding feature?

The free version of Flickr is also nice but really lacks if you want to use it as your main photo storage. Only the last 200 photos will be shown for instance and you don’t get to view and share images in their original resolution.

Let’s try to get all those benefits for free with a review of the online photo sharing sites that challenge Flickr.

Picasa (Web Albums)

Picasa is Google’s take on a photo site. It’s clean, it’s free, it’s fast and reliable. Picasa is especially known for its desktop application that can organize and edit your photos. I can recommend this software whatever photo sharing website you’re going to use.

For more information on the desktop software have a look at our Picasa articles here on MakeUseOf.  Jim has written an excellent 5 piece guide with Picasa tips.

The free web component offers 1GB of space for photos and videos and unlimited bandwidth. A feature that you’ll not find quickly somewhere else is facial recognition. The only paid advantage that you can get is a storage upgrade that you’ll be able to share with your Gmail account. Yearly prices in dollars or euros (they’re the same, oddly enough) range from 5,- for 20 GB to 4069,- for 16 TB (yes, that’s terabytes). I’m not sure who’d have four thousand dollars to spend on photo storage, but I guess they’re the same people who have 16 terabytes of photos.

Share.Ovi

Ovi is the portal of Nokia. Their photo sharing site is inconveniently named “Share on Ovi” or “Ovi Share by Nokia” or something. What’s important however is that anyone can use the site for free whatever mobile phone you have.

The latest Nokia smartphones do come with an easy way to synchronize their photos to Ovi Share however. Nokia bought the company Twango in 2007 and rebuilt it to Ovi Share, which opened to the public in February 2008. Earlier this year however Nokia announced they will not improve the site much further due to disappointing usage numbers. This excellent site will remain live and free though.

Ovi actually comes closest to the features you get with a paid Flickr Pro membership. Unlimited storage and bandwidth and a very nice clear interface.

Zooomr

Zooomr is a very complete photo sharing website, more geared towards social sharing. You get practically all of the features for free, a paid account only frees you from ads and lets you know who faved and commented on your images. There is a page called the Zipline which shows all the latest photos and activity of your contacts. Also, it’s possible to make a profile for yourself.

Zooomr also offers unlimited storage space and bandwidth, but doesn’t support videos. As it focuses more on social interaction you get profiles, an overview of activity and people tagging and geotagging.

Snapixel

Snapixel is a very clean photosite. So what’s special about Snapixel? It’s a photo sharing site and marketplace in one. You can use it to sell and buy stockphotos, but also just use it as your photo storage. There is a free version and a $9.95 / year Pro version.

It’s geared towards professional photography and therefore offers 5GB of space but a limited bandwidth. Another limit is that images must be .JPG and have to be wider than 665 pixels. It is nice though that selling your images is very accessible, so it’s great for any semi-professional or starting photographer.

Guess what, there is a coupon code to get the first year of Pro for free. Click here to sign up.

Photobucket

Another well known photo site is Photobucket. The free version is very similar to the free Flickr when you look at the figures. Many people use it for small images such as avatars and images and videos shared on social networks. But it’s also possible to store your photo collection there.

They have just lowered their amount of free storage space however to 500 MB. But that still holds quite a lot of photos. You will not be able to see the original size though like on Flickr. So use this if you’re looking for a no-hassle photo and video site and have a small sized collection.

Migratr

When you have picked a photo sharing site, you can easily migrate your photos to it using Migratr. This application downloads all of your photos to your computer and then uploads them to a site of your choice. It’s really easy and the best thing is, it also exports all of your metadata such as titles and tags.

You can also just use it as a backup system for your photos. A bummer is that you will not be able to retrieve any photos over the 200 limit of Flickr if you don’t have the Pro membership. It doesn’t support Ovi and Snapixel yet, but you can make a Flickr backup with Migratr and than use bulk upload on your new site. Snapixel does support adding tags and titles to images by IPTC.

So please give me some advice. Should I transfer my photos to another site? Will I choose the dependability and clearness of Picasa, the complete features of Share.Ovi, the social functions of Zooomr, the marketplace and professional setup of Snapixel or the easiness of Photobucket? Or should I just invest in another year of Flickr Pro membership? Or do you know another even better photo sharing site?

Image credit: murilocardoso

Facebook attracts all kinds of people and connects people from all over the world. From your old high-school friends to your colleagues or even your parents (unfortunately).

Now, as any Windows user can tell you, with size and high market share come risks and attention from people with bad intentions.

So what are the main Facebook risks you need to worry about while staying connected to your friends or growing your crops?

Facebook Risk #1: Remember Who Your Visitors Are

When you receive friend requests often, it might be tempting to accept them all. You might be thinking the more the merrier or you don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, but you should really remember who you have friended over time.

There are multiple examples of people who have said too much on Facebook and have got in trouble for it. If you call in sick for work or school make sure you haven’t posted photos from the boozefest of the night before, or the citytrip you’re making today.

Also don’t forget that one of the first things employers do when looking at job applicants is Google them and trying to find them on Facebook.

The way I see it you have to make a choice between writing everything you want on your profile while restricting the people you allow very much and choosing your words and photos very carefully and allowing everyone.

For more information on how to safeguard your Facebook privacy read this article by Mahendra. He explains things like lists, photo privacy and application use. When you do friend your boss, co-worker or anyone else with whom you don’t want to share everything with read this article by Tim.

Facebook Risk #2: Protect Your Private Information

That sounds pretty straightforward right? Keep your private information to yourself because it’s private. You wouldn’t give your credit card number or street address to any stranger in the street so you have even less reason to give it to any stranger on Facebook. You should also be careful because other than your own private information you can give individuals or applications the possibility to access the information of your private friends and even talk to your friends in your name.

Because of this it is important to mind what applications you use. I say use and not authorize because every application you use, you also authorize.

You can keep an eye on which applications you have authorized by going to “Settings” and clicking “Application Settings“. Then, on the “Show” dropdown menu select “Authorized” and you’ll see the applications that can access your data and are allowed to post and view information from your contacts.

You can also completely remove applications here or even block them from contacting you, so you’ll never get superpoked again. It’s also wise to have a look at your own stream now and then, just click on your name at the top of the page. It may be a bit narcissistic but just view it as taking a look in the mirror to see what you’re presenting to other people.

You can control which friends or other contacts can see what information when you go to the “Setting > Privacy Settings“. There you can also have a look at your profile the way other people see it. Beware that networks are usually authorized, but can be very large. Many people are, for instance, members of the network of their city or country which can be millions of people. When you go to “News Feed and Wall” you can also deauthorize Facebook to show your name to your friends in social ads. This can happen when you’re a fan of a page. It is not true that Facebook uses your photos in ads. Read more on the Facebook blog.

Facebook Risk #3: Treat Strangers As Strangers

You don’t know a person right away when you meet them in real life, but online it is even more difficult to get a feeling of who you’re dealing with. Some people make a sport out of exaggerating or making up their life or persona. Even worse, some people make it their business.

People only need a little of your personal information to take over your identity and apply for store cards or even commit crimes in your name. Social engineering, the process of tricking people into giving information has always been around, but is especially useful on Facebook. Ryan has written an excellent and controversial post on how to trick people on Facebook in giving up their data. It might help you protect against these kinds of attempts.

Some people use Facebook precisely to meet strangers, in the form of dating. While this can of course be fun you should treat strangers as strangers. Even when you’ve known people for over months online and connect spiritually, you still don’t know much about them.

Pictures also don’t prove much. Never send money to people asking for it. Don’t give out your home address. If you want to meet in real life just meet in a public place with lots of people where you can leave within five minutes if you smell something fishy or the date is just disappointing. It’s OK to check some of the claims a person makes, like by calling the company he or she works for to ask if that’s true.

Facebook Risk #4: Internet Addiction

It may become increasingly attractive to wander around in the virtual world. This of course counts for anything online that’s entertaining, but Facebook lends itself very well to sucking you in and keeping you there for hours on end. There are so many things to do, chatting with friends, looking at photos or posting your own, playing a game or searching for old classmates.

It’s not good when this starts to become a large part of your life and gets in the way of other things that need to happen or activities that are fun like hanging out with friends in real life. Just try to keep an eye on the time you’re spending there and take a break now and then. You can use Facebook as an reward after useful things are done. Remove a game that is taking up too much time or maybe take an entire break from Facebook for a week or so. The harder that is, the bigger your problem.

It might look as if I condone the use of Facebook and try to say that behind every avatar there’s some pervert that’s trying to scam you out of your money. This is of course not the case and you should use Facebook as it’s intended; hanging out with friends and having some fun. It’s just that online relationships are different from relationships in real life and when love or money are involved strange things may happen.

Images credit: Todovisual, Sappymoosetree

I think this might sound convenient to some of you who have suddenly shown up on Facebook on that photo some kid made at a party where you tried to set the world record for beer bong drinking. Ouch. As you know there are too many examples of people getting busted calling in sick for work. But Flickr has implemented this well and it could be a really nice tool. Both for organizing your own photos and the people who are in them and finding other people’s photos you are in.

So how does this work? The new feature is called People in Photos and it lets you add any Flickr member to a photo. But it’s also possible to highlight people who are not registered on Flickr, although they have to give their permission by email. You tag someone on the photo by typing in their name, just like you would with a Flickr tag for the photo. For Flickr users who are familiar with notes, it should be easy to draw a face boundary on the photo.

People in photos is hooked up to Your Activity, so you’ll always know who has tagged you in other photos or when other people have added faces to your photos. The Flickr team has done a lot of work on all the privacy preferences. You can allow certain people to add you to photos or add other people to your photos. You can even decide per photo if you want to be on it, so that’s good news for that one embarrassing surprise photo when you were just waking up.

Of course many people use Flickr as their photo storage or at least have a Yahoo account which you can use for Flickr. But even when they’re not a member but appear on your photos they can be invited by e-mail. They then have the same level of control as Flickr members have over on what photos they want to show up.

To learn more about People in Photos have a look at FAQs provided by Flickr:

• What is People in Photos?
• How do I add a person to a photo?
• Who can add me to a photo?
• How can I remove myself from a photo?
• How will I know when I’m added to a photo?

The complete People in Photos FAQs are available here.

Up until now Flickr is mostly used for more professional arty photos, while Facebook or a Twitter service like Twitpic is used for quick snapshots, perhaps made with a camera phone. Do you think this new feature will change this? Have you been waiting for this or do you use it on Facebook?

For more information on a way to use Flickr more for sharing on Twitter read this article on Twitpic and Flickr2Twitter. More Flickr tips and tricks can be found here.

Image credit: allyaubry

But before you order the protein supplements and pre-pay a three year membership to your local gym, you could try to start getting in shape by using the OneHundredPushups method. The pushup workout program is based around your regular standard old push-up, but as it turns out it’s quite a good exercise.

So what is OneHundredPushups? Actually it’s a very basic pushup workout program in which you do a fixed number of push-ups every other day for 6 weeks. In the end, you should be able to complete 100 push-ups in a row. It doesn’t really matter how fit you are beforehand, since you can follow certain tracks with more or less repetitions. If you’re able to do more than 20 push-ups during the initial test, you’re even allowed to skip to week 3 (Anyone? Start bragging in the comments).

The geeky part is that they have a really decent website with an explanation of the pushup workout program where you can keep track of your progress with the Pushup Logger and there is even an iPhone app (it isn’t free, link to iTunes Store here) that helps you reach your goal. Another cool thing is the printable schedule that you can fold into a mini booklet. They call this booklet a pocketmod and it can be found here.

So you’ve printed the booklet, signed up at the pushup logger and maybe even installed the iPhone app. Now it’s time to actually do something. You start out with an initial test that determines how fast you should start in the program. If you don’t manage more than 20 continuous push-ups you start at week 1. You will do three sessions of push-ups a week. You are supposed to reach the final week and do a hundred pushups after six weeks, but in reality you keep doing exhaustion tests that tell whether you should redo a week.

In my experience, it is a simple and easy to follow program. Of course you’re only doing one exercise, but I’ve found that it really trains many muscle groups. A good-form pushup is known to train almost all muscles of your upper body. I noticed my progress pretty fast, even though I already train (somewhat) in the gym. Especially when you stick to the rules and keep doing the push-ups three times a week you will see progress. I’m not sure everyone will reach the hundred continuous pushups, but you will see progress. I think when you really want to make a sincere effort of working on your health you should also start doing cardio workouts and pay attention to what you eat. This program is very good for beginners and others with limited free time because it only takes 30 minutes to an hour a week.

Let us know in the comments if you’ve started the OneHundredPushups pushup workout program. It helpt to share your results and goals with other people. You can also have a look at this Friendfeed group for instance. If it goes well you can also try the Two Hundred Situps program or Two Hundred Squats program. Good luck!

One innovation over the last couple of years has been the e-reader, which should solve some of the problems of reading off the computer screen. While these look very promising to me, they’re still in the early stages of adoption and above all, they are still quite expensive. And many of you already carry around a perfectly good e-reader substitute in your pocket, in the form of an iPhone or an iPod Touch. I’ve been using my iPod Touch and I’ll tell you how to read documents such as PDFs or even MS Word documents on your iPhone’s native apps as well as a third party application.

Using your email

The easiest way (and quite usable) to read pdf files on your iPhone is to email yourself the PDF as an attachment. This is simple and you don’t need to install any app to do this. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to organize your emails in folders, so it really is best used for something simple to read. It does have a way to read in landscape mode. It works for MS Word, MS Excel files and most images. The attachments are saved on your device after loading them once so you don’t need a connection the next time you want to read it.

Using Files lite

Files lite is actually the best free app to read documents and PDF files on the iPhone or iPod touch. You create a virtual folder on your computer into which you drag and drop the files you want to read. You can create folders in the application or the virtual folder, so it’s easy to manage a lot of books and articles. I tested this on Windows 7 but it should also work on other version of Windows, Mac and even Linux. I’ll quickly show you how to set it up so you’ll have an idea of how easy it is. The app also comes with a good guide too.

1. Download the app.
2. Setup a network folder using WebDAV. It’s very easy and can be read about in their tutorial.
3. You can setup subfolders in the application or on your computer.
4. Now drag your files to the network folder, make sure that your iPhone is connected to the same Wifi network.

It’s that easy. Now you can carry around your documents and read them wherever you go, without having dying forests on your conscience. And you read it correctly, you don’t need any cables to synchronize the documents. If only iTunes would work that easy when syncing your music!

Alternatives

There are many apps in the App Store that can perform similarly to Files lite, but that you have to pay for. One restriction of Files lite is that you only have 200 MB available to play around with on your iPhone, but that can hold many PDF files. The other apps differ from each other mostly in the way you transfer files, such as over the air, via USB, FTP or downloading from a web address. A good paid app is Good Reader ($0.99) and another is Stanza (free), which is more a complete e-reader which has a PC suite to manage your books and the possibility to download many free e-books.

Do you find reading from your iPhone as comfortable as reading from paper? If you like the e-reader apps, then you don’t really have an excuse to not read your articles and books.

Image credit: nxb

These messages can be customized. You can for instance add the RSS feed of your favorite blog or news site or add favorite quotes or other wisdom. For more information on what RSS feeds are see this article.

It could become a bit of a distraction, but I think it’s a nice variation for your inbox. For people who practically live inside their Gmail inbox, this is nice and it could even make you smarter by displaying trivia (or look smarter if you memorize the quotes).

They work like a mini one line RSS reader. You can click the link to read the article. You’ll see from what source the link is and how long ago it was published. Click the arrows < and > to browse through the different sources and links. Customizing is easy:

1. Sign in to Gmail.
2. Click Settings at the top of any Gmail page, and open the Web Clips tab.
3. Browse popular clips by selecting a topic link along the left. Search for feeds by entering topics that interest you – use this feature like you would Google Search. Or, enter specific feed URLs.
4. Click Add next to the clips you’d like to see in Gmail.

You can add specific feed URLs by entering them in the search box on the left. The feed URL of MakeUseOf is for instance http://feeds2.feedburner.com/Makeuseof. Which you can copy and paste into the search field and your favorite tech tips will scroll by in your inbox. Another interesting one is the feed of our Geeky Fun collection: http://feeds2.feedburner.com/GeekyFun. Gmail web clips add these to a list.

From this list random items are chosen to display, together with some of the advertising that is already there. You’ll see the list under “My Clips“. You’re not stuck with the web clips Google has already chosen for you. If you’re not that much interested in cooking or one of the others, simply click remove on the right. Having a small list makes every source come up more often.

Some other cool ones are quotes or trivia such as TIME.com quote of the day,  Quotes4all, TriviaTidbit and Funny Quote of the Day (right-click and choose “copy link“). Enter a word you are interested in in the search box and see what they have.

Of course you already know about the themes that Gmail has enabled to further customize your inbox. After rocking Terminal for a couple of days myself I have been using Ninjas to my full satisfaction.

For some more very convenient little Gmail tips you might not know about, see this article on MakeUseOf and everything else on Gmail. And of course let us know if you have found some cool web clips that are not in the suggested lists yet.

Doing my research for this post (yes, it’s almost like real journalism here at MakeUseOf), I was surprised to read the first version (1.0) was released only five years ago, in November of 2004. Even with the recent extra competition brought on by Chrome from Google, Internet Explorer and Opera, it kept gaining popularity. Mozilla Firefox now has a market share of about 22%.

Alright, enough with the history lesson. Many people like to take Firefox with them on a USB drive to college or work so that they can use their personalized settings and plugins. A lot of these places still use Internet Explorer 6 or something like that, so using a portable version of Firefox seems like the smart thing to do. Installing is easy when you use the portable version PortableApps, but updating Firefox portable is not so easy. If you don’t have a portable version of Firefox installed yet, read this article on how to turn your USB drive into a fully functional PC or just go to www.portableapps.com to install it. But if you want to update a portable Firefox app, you can’t just click the auto-updater button that pops-up when there’s a new version. You have to install a normal version of Firefox, with some special settings. Here’s how.

Download the regular setup file

You can download the regular setup file from Mozilla. The latest version at the time of writing is 3.5.2. So if you have a previous one, it’s wise to update because Mozilla keeps plugging security holes all the time.

Start the installation

Double-click the file you have just downloaded. Click ‘Next’ in the first window. Now pay attention as it goes a little differently than usual. In the second screen, select “Custom” and deselect the check-box next to “Use Firefox as my default web browser”.

Click ‘Next’ to continue.

In this screen, click “Browse” to search for the folder where your portable Firefox is installed on your USB drive. Select the “DefaultData\Firefox” folder so the location ends with “\FirefoxPortable\DefaultData\Firefox”. This way, you overwrite the files from the current installation but keep all your settings and plugins. Click ‘OK’ and ‘Next’.

In the next screen, deselect the options to create icons since you already have icons from the previous installation. After this, you can click ‘Next’ to check the summary and press “Install” to do just that.

There you have it, your portable Firefox is updated, all secure and future-proof. Until the next update anyway. Click “Finish” with the checkmark in place to check out the newest version of the open-source browser. You can take Firefox with you to your school or office. It’s also a great way to try out the newest alpha versions without endangering your stable version. You can find the latest test versions here, but as Mozilla themselves claim it “might delete all your files and cause your computer to burst into flames”.

If you’re new to the portable apps, I recommend looking around at their site Portableapps.com. There is a suite of the most used software that you can start with. Some apps to check out are OpenOffice.org Portable, Pidgin Portable and FileZilla Portable. Here are some more portable app suggestions.

Do you use portable apps? How do you update them to the latest versions? Share your technique in the comments.

Kazaa used its own sharing network and soon grew larger with many people sharing music, but also other kinds of files. But Kazaa got in legal trouble of its own. The company was sued by all kinds of different organizations around the world and users were also sued and fined, with rather high fines.

Eventually Kazaa decided to change their service. They went the way of Napster and started a paid service, where you pay a monthly fee to receive unlimited access to music. The problem is that you can only play them on three computers and no portable devices and since there is a digital rights management system involved, the music never really becomes yours and you’re reliant on the service being continued by them.

There is a spin-off called Kazaa Lite English which continues to operate in the same way Kazaa started out. This was also called K-lite ++ or Kazaa lite tools or Resurrection in some versions. An overview of programs can be found here.

Here are the top 3 reasons Kazaa Lite English is better than Kazaa.

1. No spyware or adware

First of all Kazaa was always suspected of containing all kinds of spyware and adware. This meant your computer got slow when it was installed, you received pop-ups from programs you didn’t install and your connection was used for other things than sharing files.

Even after the website displayed a “No spyware/adware” badge these problems remained present. Kazaa Lite English and its later versions don’t have this problem. They are spyware and adware free. It’s of course still important to be careful and take good care of your computer. Read this MakeUseOf article on how to keep your computer secure.

2. Improved download behavior

Kazaa had introduced a feature called “participation level“. This measured how much you uploaded compared to how much you downloaded. If you didn’t upload enough, your download speed would be throttled. Kazaa Lite strips this feature by always giving you the maximum participation level.

Another way of increasing download speed is by allowing you to download from more sources simultaneously and  having a better way of resuming downloads.

3. The same sharing network

Kazaa Lite still uses the same sharing network as Kazaa used to use, so there is no difference. By using this program you get all of the benefits without any of the drawbacks. A trusted site to download Kazaa Lite is my-k-lite. You should never pay for a version of Kazaa Lite or another version of Kazaa.

It has to be said there are nowhere near as many users in the Kazaa network active as there were some years ago. Many people have switched to other forms of filesharing. Good alternatives if you want to share music are Limewire and Ares.

A guide to using Limewire without getting a virus can be found here.

An article about a great client for the Ares network can be found here.

A good alternative for movies or other files is the Bittorrent network. An excellent guide about the different kinds of filesharing networks and methods has also recently been published on MakeUseOf here.