Search results display on the left of the screen, whereas the search box, which lets you filter out spam or restrict file sizes, sits at the top right. We found BearShare's search results respectable and quick, especially when we looked for popular artists, such as Britney Spears and Madonna this was similar in scope to LimeWire's results, although it brought fewer returns than KaZaa did.

Unfortunately, we found that BearShare sneaks in audio ads, which we heard while searching, including one that calls out 'Yahoo!' and sounds vaguely like moo-ing.

BearShare asked permission in previous apps as well, and we wish more apps (that means you, KaZaa) would follow suit.

If you don't want them-and who would?-simply uncheck the boxes. Install BearShare, and you'll discover a rarity among P2P apps: the installer actually asks your permission to install three adware or spyware apps, which send information about your surfing habits to ad companies that would like to send you more pop-up ads. Use it as part of your assortment of P2P apps, but stick with LimeWire for your bread-and-butter files. Unfortunately, BearShare falters at its primary purpose: it's dog slow downloading files and is often unreliable. Running on the Gnutella file network, it returns results quickly, and it now comes with a built-in chat client and an ad-free paid version. After a complete redesign for version 4.0, BearShare takes its place as one of the most attractive, least cluttered file-sharing apps around.

Download bearshare free