Old doesn't mean over-the-hill
One of the reasons SnagIt does so much is it's been around so long. This product is 16 years old. It first arrived on the scene back in June of 1990. It was used internally for documentation and wasn't named SnagIt until released on CompuServe's Winshare forum. Yeah, CompuServe. Remember CompuServe? I do.

I generally don't like products with too many features. Usually, the addition of features costs in terms of smoothness of operation. Programs bulk up and get slow. In fact, we're seeing this now in our OutlookPower Magazine coverage of Outlook 2007, which has turned into a veritable disaster of an upgrade.

But, for whatever reason, SnagIt just works. The basic screen capture functionality is easy to get at and all the other features somehow generally fit. We're going to give SnagIt five stars because this is how a program is supposed to be done. In fact, if you're a developer and you're wondering why you didn't get a five-star review, take a look at SnagIt and ask yourself if your product is anywhere near as good. It's not just the bajillions of features. It's that the bajillions of features don't make it suck.

We're looking forward to version 9.0, when reliable sources tell us SnagIt will clean your bathroom and flatter your mother-in-law.

Oh, and in case I forgot to tell you, it's only $39.95. Just buy it. It's bound to have five or fifty features you'll need.

OUR RATING: 5 of 5

David Gewirtz is the author of How To Save Jobs and Where Have All The Emails Gone? For more than 20 years, he has analyzed current, historical, and emerging issues relating to technology, competitiveness, and policy. David is the Editor-in-Chief of the ZATZ magazines, is the Cyberterrorism Advisor for the International Association for Counterterrorism and Security Professionals, and is a member of the instructional faculty at the University of California, Berkeley extension. He can be reached at david@zatz.com and you can follow him at http://www.twitter.com/DavidGewirtz.