shovelware

Noun

shovelware (uncountable)

1. (derogatory, slang) A haphazard collection of software assembled in terms of quantity rather than quality.
   • Internet vanity broadcasts may be nice for station owner egos or 'WKRP' wannabes without a real transmission tower … But this is essentially audio shovelware, no better than dumping videos or books without interactive elements onto a CD-ROM or the Net.1997, Robert H. Reid, Architects of the Web: 1,000 Days that Built the Future of Business, New York, N.Y.: Wiley, →ISBN, page 86
   • If you're going to buy eBay software, buy eBay software. That is, don't buy a CD with everything else in the world on it. CDs with everything in the world on them are known in the industry as shovelware. […] Anything offered as part of a shovelware package is suspect. If the eBay software seems to...2007, Joseph T. Sinclair, “Choosing Auction Management Software”, in eBay the Smart Way: Selling, Buying, and Profiting on the Web's #1 Auction Site, 5th edition, New York, N.Y.: American Management...
2. (slang) Traditional media content, such as printed news reports, republished hastily on the Internet without considering the needs and capabilities of that medium.
   • The importance given to ‘original content’ for instance comes from the general notion that the online newscast is a new medium and therefore requires original content instead of supplying the user with mere copies of its print version (‘shovelware’). Though this may be a valid opinion, the...1998 December 7, Mark Deuze, “The WebCommunicators: Issues in Research into Online Journalism and Journalists”, in First Monday: Peer-reviewed Journal on the Internet, volume 3, number 12, Chicago...
   • Perceived by some as a disparaging term, it is used to describe content moved wholesale from one communication medium to another with little or no alteration or adaptation for style, appearance or usability purposes. An example would be moving stories from print to the world wide web without taking...2005, Bob Franklin, Martin Hamer, Mark Hanna, Marie Kinsey, John E. Richardson, “Shovelware”, in Key Concepts in Journalism Studies, London: SAGE Publications, →ISBN, page 243
3. (derogatory, slang) Video games of low quality
   • It also had to make it clear it would not allow publishers to simply port PC titles to the Xbox and pollute the platform with "shovelware."2002, Dean Takahashi, Opening the XBox: Inside Microsoft's Plan to Unleash an Entertainment Revolution, Prima Lifestyles
   • We're a jaded bunch used to movie-licensed shovelware […]2008, The Official Xbox Magazine

   Synonyms:

   slop