I have discovered a new compression algorithm called 7z, and the new app I've been using to create and manage 7z file is called 7-Zip.  I'd never heard of the 7z compression format so I thought it would be interesting to at least have one blog post about it on the Internet.

For testing I used the setup files for bp blog. I couldn't believe the compression difference when using 7-Zip over Winzip, even when creating a self-extracting archive (SFX).  Here are the results of my test:

Uncompressed:  1.06 MB (1,120,799 bytes)
Zip:  304 KB (311,814 bytes)
7z:  160 KB (164,704 bytes)
7z SFX (exe):  229 KB (234,848 bytes)

Even the SFX archive was smaller!

For now, I will have bp blog available as a download in zip, 7z and exe (really an SFX file), but in the future, I may go with exe and 7z and drop the zip b/c of the compression difference.  I only wish there was more usage of the 7z format and integration into the popular archiving programs like WinZip and WinRAR.

The only downside is the GUI for 7-Zip needs some work.  It looks like a Win95 app and doesn't feature drag and drop.  It's definitely going to be the app I use for compressing files for download in either 7z or exe format.  Download 7-Zip from the homepage and read other reviews on FileForum.  I grayscaled the screenshot for file size.