the best antspyware product on the
market at the moment is probably Counterspy 2.0:
http://www.sunbelt-software.com/They're light years ahead of most of the competition.
as
for the free offerings, sadly spybot, spywareblaster and even ad aware are (to varying degrees) stuffed with regards the newer threats. The one man band type of products
especially either have to sell up to a bigger company or just give up and burn in flames.
anti virus is all much of a muchness. most AVs can't keep up with
malware and newer attacks, they're just rolling along in whatver direction they've always rolled in. most (if not all tests) can easily be fiddled to make (insert
company name here) come out on top anyway. Many attacks are a one-time only thing; launched from sites that are now dead, or auto generated just for you. If your weapon of
choice doesn't flag the attack upfront, then adding detections after the event won't make you any safer. However, the tool flagging more bad stuff upfront, without
adding a ton of outdated, never to be seen infection files to their detections will look like it sucks in the testing.