What's the best software tool you've bought lately

Open up your Webmaster Toolbox

[Freedom]

I hope this is not going to turn into an endorsement post, because I don't like doimg that so I will speak in generalities.

I recently taught myself how to make first class banners, animated gifs, etc., and have practiced a lot at this lately.

BUt I needed a tool to compress the kbs of these gifs to reduce load time. So I picked up a Gif Optimizer (won't say which one) and it was well worth the $30 I paid for it. My download time is much faster as my gifs have reduced in size from 10 to 90 percent .

Best tool I bought in years.

Does anyone else have a something in their Webmaster toolbox they find incredibly useful? Whatother tools or software are user endorsed that I could be missing out on?

Thanks,

Freedom

[moltar]

I also got Roboform Portable that I carry around on a Thumbdrive, so I am kinda forced to sync my data regularly. Backing up is really easy. Just go to options, press backup, select a folder and it's all done for you.

There is also a neat feature where you can do a hard copy backup. You can print out all your passwords on paper. Roboform formats it all nicely and sends it to the printer.

[Reid]

I don't buy software much but I've been playing with some cool free stuff.

analog- a GNU based logfile analyzer, learning curve high but very configurable. Command-line based. You can build your own specific anylysis of your logs. You can have different analyzers that you've built and run them on your logs and you can run it in real time if you have a unix box. I download my logs and run it on my windows 98 box.

HTMLKIT- free WYSIWYG editor. Lots of options (don't try HTML tidy - makes a mess unless you configure it) I just use spell-checker and turn everything else off. Lots of advanced options - geek approved but no documentation. there is a forum though, but I've never been there.

SAMSPADE - great for whois and tracroute. also a 'source browser'. You can actually browse the web via source.

POODLE PREDICTOR - Not a program - a web tool - simulates googlebot (sortof) excellent botview analyzer.