Let’s start with a quick rundown of file-sharing updates before moving on to PC World’s list of the 100 Best Products of 2005.

Bram Cohen, the founder of BitTorrent, reached an agreement with the Motion Picture Association of America. He will stop providing links to copyrighted films on his Web site. This is a small victory for the movie studios, as there will still be plenty of other sources to find links to download and movie studios are responsible for finding the links and reporting them to BitTorrent. However, it is still a step forward in the fight against piracy.

In other news, David Blackburn, a PhD student at Harvard, put out a paper on the effects of file-sharing on music sales. The flawed argument put forward by illegal file-sharers is that music sales have increased since the rise of piracy. However, this line of reasoning ignores any and all other variables in music sales – not exactly sound logic.

The study reports that file-sharing does indeed depress music sales, hurting those at the top of the charts the most, and actually helping those at the bottom of the charts. Basically, file-sharing gives exposure to lesser known artists and serves to boost their sales. However, it should be noted that the recording companies only have the capital to invest in new and lesser known artists because they make money on big sellers. If this capital is cut off, this effect may eventually be felt lower on the charts.

But, now, on to the list:

The top three spots are occupied by three products that are incredibly worthy of holding those spots.

Number one is Firefox, Mozilla’s web browser that absolutely shames Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. The actual market share of Firefox is still relatively low, with Internet Explorer still far in the lead. And it is doubtful that PC World recognizing it as the best product of 2005 will do anything to change that. The same niche of people that read PC World probably already realize Firefox’s superiority.

Part of the problem in spreading Firefox is many people’s fear of change. That statement may sound ridiculous, but my experience leads me to believe that it is true. Tell anyone using Internet Explorer about Firefox’s awesomeness, and they respond with skepticism and dismissal. It’s an uphill battle to convince Explorer users to try Firefox, but once they try it, the rest is relatively easy.

The second spot belongs to Gmail, Google’s free mail service that currently offers about 2.7 gigabytes of storage space. I’m sure we can all remember the time when Hotmail and Yahoo Mail ruled the web, offering 15 megabytes of space (which were filled up with spam in a matter of days). Of course, other email services have evolved over time to offer more space, but Gmail still offers the best service overall.

And the third spot belongs to Apple’s new operating system, Tiger. I’m still using Windows XP Pro here, but I have experienced Tiger and it is, of course, better. And it will probably be better than Vista when it debuts.

It’s important to note here that in this list of 100 products, there are five made by Apple; including Tiger, iTunes, the Mac Mini, the iPod Photo, and the iTunes Music Store. The only product that Microsoft had in the top 100 came in at 47 and was Windows Media Player 10. Apple’s counterpart, iTunes, registered at 34. To be fair, Microsoft focuses more on its operating system and software, and probably did not have as many products eligible for the list. However, their media player was trounced by Apple. And Vista probably should have been released by now, but has been repeatedly delayed. Had it been released, Tiger probably would have bested it.

Also notable: Google search engine at 16 and Wikipedia at 60. If I were to make a list of my favorites from 2005, those two and the top three would probably be up there, along with iTunes and its music store. Those seven items are my favorites of 2005. Now, to be fair, my experience with most of the other products listed is nonexistent. I’ve heard good things about Motorola’s Razr and Valve’s Half-Life 2, but haven’t actually used them. Others I’ve used on a limited basis (Opera) and recognize as good, and others I’ve used on a limited basis (NY Times On the Web, Google Desktop) and believe probably don’t merit a place on the list.

But the important thing to take away from this list is that while Microsoft’s competitors are on it (Firefox and Opera for browsers, Apple’s Tiger and iTunes), all Microsoft can answer for is the media player. And they lost even on that one.

John Ostrowski is a junior in communications. His column appears on Tuesdays. He can be reached at [email protected].