Can an Apple be awarded in the ‘Best Orange’ Category? If yes, then that’s what is happening in the online backup industry. With the advent of Online Marketing and Search Engines, people start to plug in their service into categories that don’t fit their core business just for gaining Online Reputation. One such classic example for this situation is the awards announced by the Online Backup Directory for the Jan 2010’s ‘Most Popular Online Backup Company’ category. The results for this award can be viewed at: http://www.onlinebackupdir.com/news/ShowItem.aspx?ID=28499.
Now, if you go through the list of companies that received this award, the first and second place for this award was given to RackSpace and SuperbHosting respectively. RackSpace and SuperbHosting are Web & Managed Hosting companies and I am not sure how these companies got through to the ‘5 Most Popular Online Backup Companies’ list. Now this is a clear indication that people who worked out this award don’t seem to understand the difference between Hosting and Online Backup Service. These kinds of awards only mislead the readers with wrong information.
If you would like to know more information on how these companies were selected in the 5 most popular online backup companies, here it is, in their own words, “Our most popular list is decided by the number of votes a company receives and the amount of times their profile page has been viewed each month. This ensures that every month we provide an up to date list of the leading hosting companies.” Just for the sake of gaining online reputation, companies start to sell these ‘wrong category awards’.
Also there was an online backup interview conducted by OnlineBackupDir with RackSpace and guess what, there was not even a single question on ‘Online Backup’. Check out the interview at: http://www.onlinebackupdir.com/search/profile.aspx?spid=170 . This is simply childish and hope that Online Backup Directory will correct its categories and award selection process at least in their future announcements.
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Thanks for the article.
I agree with you that top rated companies must not be by number of clicks, which is easier to manipulate.
Thanks for your input Tess.
Yes, Awards should not be announced just based on clicks or profile views and commercializing awards only end up in providing wrong information to readers.
Yes i am also agree that big companies has to be deserved for award.
I absolutely agree with your point. Your photo clearly points the difference – you can’t compare apples to oranges!
The site’s domain is a directory of online backup companies. And you should treat it as such. Don’t even post an article about such a crappy site. “OnlineBackupDir.com” site is dying for attention in the industry by posting crap articles, and doing whatever is convenient to them.
This site chose the easy way by automatically counting the number of clicks to determine a site’s popularity and ranking; and also by automatically posting industry news, via automated RSS feeds to the site. The funny part is unrelated stories are being posted.
So, as the first comment says, if one wants to get ahead in the ranking, they can simply sit in front of their computers and click their profile, hundreds of times a day – that will surely make them #1.
Also, there are many sites that call themselves “Online Backup Review” site without writing a single review in the years that they have been running their sites. Just have a look at the top 25 picks at this sites, and also at onlinebackupreviews.com, it won’t take you long to understand their affiliation with the top picks. Some of the top picks have been out of business for more than 2 years now, but are listed in the top picks.
On the other hand, some other “review sites” just write two or three paragraphs and think that they have done “reviews”. These websites have partnered with the companies they push as affiliates and urge visitors to click on their affiliate codes, just to benefit from the clicks. Would you trust these sites? No way!