1TO10REVIEWS

My Review: 3

I tagged this under Web 2.0, but really this a very Web 1.0 site and issue. I just tried logging into my online account for my credit card, provided by U.S. Bank. I got a message that said: “Internet Banking is experiencing high traffic volumes at this time. Please try again later.”

That is not acceptable. U.S. Bank is a major financial institution with millions of customers. They ought to be able to scale their servers well enough to deal with my traffic. It is not acceptable that I can’t check my credit card balance anytime I want, not in the year 2008. These are the kinds of FUBAR’s that cost companies their customers.

U.S. Bank’s website gets a 3 today, and they barely deserve that.

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UPDATE:

I have to say that as annoyed as I was with US Bank, I was not expecting much in the way of a response.  But I was pleasantly surprised and impressed.  I sent the tech support an email with my post, and I heard a prompt response:

“I apologize for any misunderstanding or inconvenience regarding this issue.  We are not aware
of high traffic issues on our website over this last weekend.  Your browser may have stored an
incorrect shortcut in its temporary internet files (cache).  Please clear your cache, delete any
bookmarks or favorites for www.usbank.com, close out of your computer and manually type in our
web address to log on with your current Personal ID and Password...”

The response goes on for literally 2 pages after that.  Their answer did not at all satisfy my issue.  I know that it was not a stored cookie issue, or anything of the sort.  I still think it’s ridiculous to have the site be unavailable, and because that is inexcusable, I am not revising my rating.

Nevertheless, this lengthy and timely response was more and better than I expected to get, and I want to acknowledge it.   It shouldn’t have happened at all, but they did try to respond to my issue.

My Review: 1

I regret to say that Couchville has apparently bit the dustbin. The web-based TV service (which I first heard about on Techcrunch) is no longer available.

SnapStream, the makes of Couchville are no longer able to support the service. For those who did not know, Couchville was a simple web-app that let you enter your location and receive a simple and straightforwardTV schedule. My wife loves it and is super bummed.

SnapStream is a Houston, Texas based company that produces both enterprise and consumer focused TV-related software. We’re sorry to see their handy little web-app go.

The SnapStream forums show that the decision to stop service was announced on the 18th of January. The founder got online and said:

“In the week or two, we’ll be taking our free TV listings website, Couchville (http://www.couchville.com/), offline. At least for now, this is the end of the road for any kind of a free TV listings website from SnapStream.

For the Couchville loyalists out there, we’re sorry to take the site away from you. If you’re wondering why we’re making this move, simply put, it doesn’t make business sense for us to keep the site running.

So thanks to everyone who blogged about the site, spread the word, wore the t-shirt, and, most importantly, used the site day after day. TV recording software for consumers (and now for businesses too with SnapStream Enterprise) has always been more of our ‘thing’ and that’s where we intend to keep our focus.”

The service actually went down on February 11th.

Couchvile itself deserved at least an 8 for simplicity and utility. Seeing it go is a bummer, and thus merits a rating of 1.

UPDATE:

Techcrunch posted today about Couchville joining the TC deadpool. Duncan gave us a shout-out. Thank you Mr. Riley.

My Review: 3

I like PayPal, generally speaking. They make Ebay payments simple and straightforward, and it’s convenient in a number of different web-related payment circumstances. But I had an issue today.

I bought an item that I found on Ebay. The seller made a mistake when they were listing though, and because of that mistake I could not use the Buy It Now feature - it was unable to process. So I wrote to the seller and told them what was wrong. They told me to just send them the PayPal payment and they would end the auction immediately. I’m not a moron, so I did call and email with the guy several times before I was comfortable to do so. I also reviewed their seller history, and it was impeccable. So I went for it. You got to have faith sometimes.

Everything went through without a hitch. He received the payment, ended the auction, and promised to ship the item the following day. One problem though. Paypal thought it was suspicious, and chose to freeze the funds and limit my account access.

Those measures are in place for my security, and I appreciate it. But I think I should have gotten a phone call. Someone, a person (human being) should have reached out to me and tried to help. Instead I received an email, which immediately makes me think it’s a phishing scheme. Secondly, I have to jump through several account-related hoops, including changing my password. That’s some bullshit, right there. I don’t want to change my password.

I finally called them, and spoke with Nicki. She was very nice, and very helpful. But she was insistent about the password. She went and spoke with a supervisor, after I insisted on it, and discovered that while I did indeed need to change my password, I would be able to later on (in an hour or so) change it back. Well that sounds all right, I guess.

I appreciate her helping me solve the issue. I think Nicki did a great job. But there are two pieces of feedback I have for PayPal based on this experience.

1. Call your customer to alert them, don’t make them change all of their personal information when they have been appropriately using your service. I appreciate the security, but there is an obvious flaw if I can’t use the service without shutting down my account.

2. Make sure employees and FAQ’s list little facts like the one that says “you DO have to change your password, but you may change it BACK if you so choose.”

I like PayPal, and this experience isn’t making me quit on them. But this whole account limitation system sucks, and I give it a resounding 3.

My Review: 7 

I have a confession to make.  I have been fuming for days about Skype and their customer service, but I really had no right to do so.  They’ve done a good job.  I am an idiot.

I wrote a long, long post about how they did a terrible job responding to my security concern.  After I finished, I proof-read it and in so doing re-read the correspondence between Skype support and myself.  When I re-read their very first email carefully, and then followed the link to the main Skype Blog page and read the content there, I realized that they had in fact addressed my concern appropriately from the very beginning.  If I had read it more carefully, I could have saved them and myself a lot of time.  So, instead of posting a rant in which the Skype Support team receives a rating of 2, I am still going to post a blog entry, but give them a well deserved 7 instead.  Sorry Timo T., and well done.

I am still posting some of the content I had written, and revising other sections to show Skype in a more appropriate light.  Revisions will be highlighted with bold text and lots of strikethroughs.

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I am not blogging here about the Skype service itself. I am a huge fan of Skype, and if you haven’t used it yet, you should. It is a free VOIP software service that let’s you make free phone calls over the internet to other users. You can also instant message with other Skype users, make inexpensive calls to regular phone lines, make cheap international calls, and even have video calls with other Skype users - it is really cool. Skype is free to download and free to use with other members of the network; they charge reasonable (read: cheap) rates to make outside calls to regular land lines.

But I had a virus / bug / attack / phishing scheme / problem and I received adequate and appropriate responses. It has pleased me enough to blog about it.

So, what happened is this: my contact list was hijacked. I went to lunch with my Skype open (I leave it open most of the day so I can send and receive chat messages) and when I came back from lunch I had two chat windows open.  Both were from people in my contact list.  Both had almost identical messages, asking me to click on links to pornography, and to download malicious files.  As it happened, I was using my Macbook so I was largely immune to the viruses these messages were trying to get me to download.  But it was pretty disconcerting.  Who has my contact list?  Why do they have the ability to send me chat messages as though they were my friends?  If I had been using my Windows PC would I now be host to some kind of malicious, hard-drive eating, identity stealing virus?  I am still pretty upset about it.

So what do you do when you have a security concern with a piece of software?  Who you gonna call?  (Don’t say it, and I won’t either.)   You call the manufacturer, that’s who.  So I went to the Skype Support page and sent them a message.  I also took a screenshot on my Mac with the chat windows open, so that they could see the content of the messages, and see that the chat windows were both from people in my contact list, even though my friends did not in fact send me those chats.  Here is that image:

I regard this as a huge security breach.  I think it’s a really big deal that strangers, posing as my contacts, can send me chat messages, ask me questions posing as my friends, and I might not realize until I have said something I shouldn’t.  I now know what Skype is going to do to fix my problem.  So far, the answer is a big fat “we’ve addressed the issue and released the answers on our blog.  Read about it here.”  Below I am copying all of my correspondence with the support team at Skype.    Please read for yourself:

First is the initial message that I sent to Skype Support via their website support email system:

Topic:      Abuse (harassment, fraud, scam, spam, etc.)
Subtopic:   Other abuse
Subject:    Inappropriate Chat Windows That Appear to Be From My Contact List
Message:
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I had two chat windows open up while skype was open - both appeared to be from my skype contacts
 list.  Neither of the chats was actually from one of my contacts, but they had the contacts\' names
 and images.  Both were trying to get me to click on links to pornography and other inappropriate
 material.  I think they might also have been trying to install a virus.  The links tried to
 download files with the extension \".scr\".

Neither of these people had actually tried to have a chat with me, both were fraudulent and had
 essentially the same content.  I took a screenshot of both of the chat windows, though I don\'t see
 anyway to upload an attachment here.  I will hold on to it in case you want me to send it along.

I know two other people who have had have had similar problems.  This issue makes me very
 uncomfortable becasue some malware, spyware, program, or malicious person has access to my account and my
 contact list, and can make it look like they are one of my legitimate contacts when they try to
 contact me.  I\'d like a response on what this scam means for me regarding my security using skype.

Thanks,

David

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Next is the series or emails and responses between myself and Skype Support:

First Response:

Hello David,

Thank you for contacting Skype Support.

Skype has learned that a computer virus called “w32/Ramex.A” is affecting users of Skype for
 Windows. Users whose computers are infected with this virus will send a chat message to other Skype
 users asking them to click on a web link that can infect the computer of the person who receives
 the message.  Please note that Skype users ONLY become infected after they have downloaded the
 link and run the malicious software. The chat message, of which there are several versions, is
 cleverly-written and may appear to be a legitimate chat message, which may fool some users into clicking
 on the link.

Skype has been in contact with the leading antivirus software companies about this worm, and we
 know that they are updating their software to effectively stop this worm and as well as its side
 effects. Currently, F-Secure (www.fsecure.com) and Kaspersky Lab (www.kaspersky.com) have already
 updated their antivirus products to detect and remove the worm.

We would like to encourage our users to ensure that they are running anti-virus software on their
 computers and to download the latest anti-virus updates in order to provide the best protection
 against this and other viruses.

More information can be found at heartbeat.skype.com

Best regards,

Timo T.
Skype Support

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My Reply: 

Hi, and thank you for the response.  I don’t think I fit into the category you described in your email.  I am using a MacBook, not a PC, and I never clicked on a link or installed a virus.  Someone, somehow, has access to my contacts list and can initiate chats as though they were one of my contacts.  I am attaching a screenshot here of the two chat windows that were opened.  As you can see both of them appear to be from my contacts, though neither of those people actually tried to chat with me.  The content of both of the fraudulent chats appear to be very similar.

It looked like the response you sent was a boiler plate that you send out to lots of people.  I’m sure you have lots of customers and lots of questions to answer, but I’d like a more personal response, rather than a cut and paste, addressing this issue.  I regard this as a very serious security concern, and I am considering switching to Jah Jah or Gizmo rather than continue without any answers.

If you need or want any more specifics about my system or the circumstances please let me know.

Thanks in advance for your help and attention.

David

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Their Response: 

Hello David,

Thank you for contacting Skype Support.

You are correct that this virus does not work on Mac.
These messages show that your contacts have this infection.

We apologise for the inconveniences and for being unclear.

Best regards,

Timo T.

Skype Support

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My Last Reply:

To: Timo - Skype Support <support@skype.net>
Subject: Re: GQW: Inappropriate Chat Windows That Appear to Be From My Contact List

Thank you for the response.  Can you please tell me what I should do?  Is there any danger or
 liability associated with this?

David

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Their Last Response:

Hello David,

Thank you for contacting Skype Support.

The only thing that you can do is  notify your contacts about this problem. As you are a Mac user,
 this virus can not affect your computer even if you visit these links.
If you have more questions please feel free to contact us again.

Best regards,

Timo T.
Skype Support

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Since that communication I have not heard from them, nor do I expect to.  There is no need since they gave me a good answer in the first place and I have been bothering them for no reason since then.  Once I finish this post I am going to send them another email with a link to it.  Not that I think it will have them quaking in their boots or anything, but maybe it will express my pleasure and chagrin in a more concrete way.  Maybe, just maybe, they will realize that I am pleased enough not simply to send them emails or smile to myself, but to also try and reach a wider audience with my words of praise and admiration for Skype’s support team.

What am I hoping to accomplish?  I’m not 100% sure.  I certainly don’t want to quit using Skype.  I like Skype.  A lot.  But I am so pleased by their communication, their response (or lack of it) and their willingness / ability to offer a solution.  I am not solely a Mac user.  In fact, I am writing this post on a PC.   So I could indeed have downloaded a virus; I am not immune.  What’s more, there is not even a mention of the fact that my contact list has been appropriated by someone who most likely has a malicious intent.  I can’t imagine that they have my best interests at heart.  How did someone gain access to my contacts?  Why can they initiate chats with me?  I now know what exactly is going on with Skype security, and that they have addressed the issue in good faith.

I would love any comments or thoughts from all you people out there in the ether.  Thanks for letting me squirm and writhe with chagrin at my stupidity.  Maybe something will come of it. :)  At the moment, and because someone kicked a little ass, Skype’s customer response gets a lovely seven, and they are probably deserve more to scrape by with than that. Grrrr. Hooray for Skype.

My Review: 2

I hesitate to even put this in a Web 2.0 category becasue it is patently not Web 2.0. However, it could certainly serve as an example of to avoid in making a modern website. And when creating a blogging tool, a way for people to record their great life events… avoid these mistakes at all cost.

Let me back up a bit. My friend Justin went on a trip to South America for one month. While there he wanted to keep an online journal, a web log (blog for short) to keep a record of his travels and share his adventures with friends and family. Sounds cool right? Well, Justin picked the wrong service (in my opinion.)

First of all, the UI (user interface) is terrible. The tabs are ugly, the font is ugly, the whole site is cluttered and hard to navigate. There are no page updates without a manual refresh of the entire web page (AJAX anyone?), the style is clunky, and nothing seems to flow well. Here is the site’s homepage.

Here is a shot of the screen for adding a new post. This is an excellent example of terrible user interface design and implementation.

But, their concept is still a good one. A blogging site, targeted at non-technical travelers who want to keep an online journal of their travels is a cool idea. Unfortunately, their execution is weak. The site, as mentioned, is clunky. But that’s not all. They cover all their users’ pages with large, high visibility advertisements. The ads are not generally contextual (meaning many are not related to the content displayed on the page, though they might be travel related.) And they are big and super obnoxious.

And lastly, let me explain my final criticism. Data loss and lack of security. As you notice in the screenshot from Justin’s blog, Travel Blog managed to lose the data they were holding for many of their users. What happened to backup? What happened to redundancy. A month’s worth of travel thoughts and written experience is lost. That is way, way not cool.

In my opinion, the triple whammy of poor user interface design, obnoxious advertising, and insecure data backup make this a loser of a site. Hence, a rating of two.

And I know that I said the last criticism was my final criticism, but what’s up with .org? Clearly this company is not a non-profit. Travel Blog.org is a weak, uninspiring offering.

Wordpress is way cooler.

My Review:5.5

So, Techcrunch (a popular technology and Internet blog) threw a party tonight (Friday July 27, 2007) and Sol and I snagged a couple of tickets. Their own post about the event was located here. This is sort of an important event for those people who work in Silicon Valley and engage in all things internet. Lots of people, sort of a ‘who’s who’ crowd was there; it’s a good place to see and be seen, and to network. But I don’t really want to expound too much on the “networking opportunities,” or the “chance to engage with “influencers.” That’s kind of boring.

Instead, let’s focus on the aspects that most people can identify with. Namely the venue, the food, the drink, the atmosphere, the company and the ambiance, the bathroom situation. All those myriad factors which, aggregated together, combine to form an overall level of enjoyment. That’s what I want to review. How fun was the Techcrunch party? How well did it come off?

To do this, I am going back to the highest level of statistical analysis which I can still safely claim to have mastery over. 5th grade level math. Addition, division, averages and means.

I will give each of the above named categories a score (out of 10, naturally). I will add these up, divide by the total number of categories, and that is the means by which I arrived at my score. How did I pick these categories? Well, not with any painstaking analysis or extensive research and polling. Nope. These are pretty much arbitrary and off the top of my head. If you have suggestions for some party factor or category that you think ought to have been included, please comment and I may revise the list (and consequently the score.) If you attended the Techcrunch party, please feel free to offer your own rating, either with my well-thought-out method, or one of your own choosing.

• Venue:7
• Food:8
• Drink:5
• Atmosphere:3.5
• Company: 6
• Ambiance:7
• Bathrooms: 2

• Total: 5.5

In summary, I have to say that the TC party was “pretty good.” They had good beer and terrible Margaritas, which is better than a dry party by far, but I would have been happy with a cash bar and as much JD as I wanted to buy. There wasn’t “dinner” so to speak, but the appetizers were pretty good (I liked the vegetable samosas and the mini ice-cream sandwiches).

The venue was nice, mostly the back porch of August Capital off of Sand Hill Rd. in Menlo Park. I was able to smoke a cigar with some friends, so that was sweet. However, there were over 500 people present, and only two bathrooms available. It seemed fitting to give that terrible oversight a 2 out of 10; this did not help the party’s average. I was pretty pissed about it - pun very mich intended. The bushes in VC land got a little extra watering on Friday night, from yours truly and many others.

The atmosphere at the party was more-or-less as expected: stuffy and self-important. Most of these people think their sh-t doesn’t stink, and those aren’t people I especially enjoy hanging out with. But, some friends were there, along with some genuine entrepreneurs who were trying to network as best they can, so the company overall wasn’t bad.

I think a 5.5 is fair, though I’m sure Mike and the TC crowd might have a different opinion of their party.

My Review:7

The Daily Reel is a cool… site, service, podcast? They are something of a content aggregator, sifting through lots of content on the web and using their site to let you know what you should be watching. Tens of people are sitting in Los Angeles right now, figuring out what you need to see on the web. They also generate some of their own content, podcasts, forums, blogs, etc. Based on their blog, they sift through the video content on the web (You Tube, et al) and let us know what’s best. The site is ad supported and has taken a small seed round (six figures) from Boston based Prism VentureWorks.

I actually found these guys on Blip.tv; I was bored and watched Felicia Williams deliver a podcast. She’s good looking, which is what got me engaged initially. But what I really like is user generated stuff. Some of it is great, some of it sucks, but it’s all empowering because anyone can contribute their thoughts, their message, or their perspective on life to the community at large. Daily Reel is helping to sort that content to give us time starved folks an edge on what content we should consume, and that’s a valuable service. So far, while navigating through the site, I have not been disappointed in what I’ve seen, and I’ve gotten hooked (in spite of myself) into several linked sites and discussions.

I call it an 7 because they’re doing good work and providing a useful service. The site is a little busy for my taste, but the target consumer will feel at ease in the mayhem.

Here they are on blip.tv: http://blip.tv/file/204741

My Review: 5

Lots of blogs are writing about Photobucket’s user generated videos being blocked on MySpace. Techcrunch wrote it up, and Om Malik did a great write up on Giga OM here. I think this whole thing is quite a big deal for the guys at Photobucket, though their CEO Alex Welch denies this.

Photobucket has 40 million plus users, and hosts billions of images (with a “b”) on sites all over the internet. Their foundation is in hosting photos, and they got their foot in the door with MySpace. Lots of sites have made a business hosting photos for MySpace users, but Photobucket is the biggest, largely (in my opinion) because they were the first.

An interesting theory was posited to me by a friend that this might be a bid/clamor for acquisition. Maybe Photobucket wants to be acquired, and maybe MySpace (Fox) is thinking about paying, but they don’t want to shell out all the money PB is likely to require/demand. This might be MySpace’s way of putting them in their place and quelling the price.

Video is a fast growing space, and PB has created a really cool Flash tool for user editing and generation. I think they ought to continue pursuing that course, but they should separate their products. Put the video tools under a different brand, a sub-brand operated by but separate from the Photobucket label. I think that a certain level of buffer, while transparent, would help them isolate their products, their users, and their business models.

There’s a lot of meat here, a lot of big ideas being discussed. Business models and revenue plans, social networking and personal customization, advertising, photos, videos and the world wide web. I think that this is a fascinating development in the technology world. I don’t think the fallout will be that bad though - call it a 5 of 10.

My Review: 7

Mp3tunes is a neat site that exists in a couple of different circles at once. They run with the online storage folks by offering a storage space called the Oboe locker, that lets you store your digital music online. They have a free downloadable piece of software called Oboesync (PC, Mac & Linux) that will help you upload your music to your Oboe locker. These files are then accesible from anywhere with an internet connection, and you can also download your music back to yourself from another machine. For a limited time, free accounts will include an unlimited amount of storage space, with a 10MB limit on individual files. $40 / year will net you a 5oMB limit on individual files, in addition to the unlimited storage. My suspicion is that in the near future only paid accounts will get unlimited storage. Currently only a portion of new signups per day receive an unlimited locker.

They also act as a streaming music service - your online Oboe locker lets you stream your music back to yourself, so anywhere you go that has an internet connection you can access your music. If you have many gigabytes of music, then your best bet is to turn on Oboesync and just let it run all weekend. They’ve created a stable effective uploader, but it still takes a while.

Mp3 tunes is a Michael Robertson company. Robertson was the founder of MP3.com, and is a veteran in the online music space. His other ventures (Beam-It from MP3.com) were “run out of town” by music labels for legal improprieties, but he is still vying to create an online music solution, and MP3tunes does a good job.

Online storage is useful and people like being able to access their music from anywhere. The ability to stream my music back to myself is great (I’m on a borrowed wireless network using my laptop and listening to Johnny Cash streaming back to me from my Oboe locker right now.) Also if I am a mobile user, or someone who turns over machines a lot it is nice to be able to store some music centrally and download it to myself again and again.

I think these guys have created a useful website and an effective piece of software. In theory, people could easily use this to trade and share music by sharing password information, but I don’t think MP3tunes is going out of their way to aid or abet piracy. They are offering an effective tool to backup, stream, and move personal content, and Ithink they’ve done a great job. I rate it a seven of ten, and I’m excited to see them succeed. MP3tunes is based in San Diego, CA - not really sure what their funding situation is like. They have usership in the tens of thousands.

My Review:8

Today I am reviewing a website called Picnik. Picnik is an online photo editing site, and it offers a variety of really useful tools. And it’s free.

Right from the get-go these guys did it right. Without even logging in or signing up you can immediately upload a photo, run a variety of both basic and advanced effects on your photo, and then download the edited picture back to yoursef. The site is all done in Adobe Flash, and it is both fast and responsive.

A whole host of cool features are available, from basic (crop, red-eye, and rotation) to advanced (soften, sepia tone, vignette, rounded edges, etc.) Everything works rapidly and smoothly. Once you finish your edits, you can save a high quality version of your finished photo back to your computer. Here is a picture I started with, and then cropped, turned sepia-toned and whose edges I rounded. The process took me approximately 1 1/2 minutes.

This company has done simple online photo editing right. Many web applications, though interesting or useful, are frustrating because they are slow or inefficient. But Picnik offers a free, useful and effective product. They do offer a registered account, though since they are still in Beta that registration does not yet offer many extra benefits. Look for paid subscription services in the near future (storage and advanced editing features will probably be included.)

Currently it does not store photos online, though a registered user’s most recent picture will persist; additional features like storage may come with paid upgrade accounts in the near future. Picnik does not offer advanced, layered photo editing (like Adobe Photoshop) - nor to my knowledge do any other free web apps currently. Adobe does plan to unveil an online version of Photoshop in the next 6 months or so.

Another great aspect to Picnik is its general connectedness to the world of web 2.0. You can pull images (your own or general content) off of Flickr, edit them, and post them back out to Flickr. Picnik also integrates with Picassa web albums. (Picassa is a Google built downloadable photo application.) Picnik also integrates emailing and printing features for a number of popular sites like Photobucket, ImageShack, Wal-Mart, Costco, Flickr, and others.)

There are a number of players in this space, including:

Fuaxto,

Pxn8,

and Preloadr

to name just a few. Techcrunch has a great article outlining these and other players, including Picnik - find that article here. Thus far however, Picnik offers a significantly better interface, feature set, and overall package. Picnik is based in Seattle, Washington; I’m not sure what they’re funding situation is like at this point. Great 8.