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Why are 3D-rendered cartoonish mascots so consistently indicative of sleaziness?
As for telemarketing, I feel sorry for businesses since they don't have the luxury or latitude in telling them off like home residents do.
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I called on them when i was at a online direct marketing firm - these guys certainly qualify for being called out on valleywag, and why not throw in a \"hey asshole\" on idolator? Are they still doing that?
So you guys have a better idea - this company drives traffic only from users who have their toolbar installed (does anyone do that anymore??) - and it will append redzee PPC advertisers on all tier 1 engines on top of all their search results).
I can't believe these guys are still around. You would think that Google/yahoo et al would have found these guys already
Companies like that thrive on technically ignorant people in management. This is why marketing management people who can't figure out how to check their email should not be allowed to buy anything related to technology.
It IS a pretty cool looking site though...
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-3241-100x100.png\")
@ColdNorth: This is true. Real zebras only release their likeness to be used by reputable companies.
@chrisfromnl: Cool looking? I'm not sure what is cool about it. A front page that bogs down older or slower computers and internet connections? A search that makes you actively wait for 5-10 seconds for your results (when Google or ANYTHING else is instant)? Or how about this? Once you you've clicked on a link and been directed somewhere else, if you click back to go see your options again it doesn't take you to the results page, it takes you to the front page and you have to type in your search all over again and wait ANOTHER 5-10 seconds for the results to show up. It would be one thing if the site was easy to use, functional, and all that jazz, but its NOT. It's a painful experience and even if it was totally legitimate, I'd never use it again in my life past this initial test I did about ten minutes ago.
And this is kind of a seperate issue, but I think its silly when I see startup companies trying to create the next big search engine. I honestly don't think anybody will ever topple google unless an already existing company like AOL, Microsoft, or whatever does something dramatic and people start switching. Joe Schmo, fresh out of college with a Computer Science degree will never make a search engine to top google. Just stop trying guys. It's pathetic to watch, like seeing ants throw themselves at an elephant, in a vain attempt to turn it over.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-86968-100x100.png\")
@jjason82: I agree with your point about search. Google got big because machine driven search sucked when they started, so making a reasonably good search engine was a good business idea. New startups should look at areas where things still suck, and try fixing those.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-90186-100x100.png\")
They deserve 10 million theoretical internet dollars!
@nytmare:
Actually we do.
I have introduced the telewhores to voicemail hell.
I have a waste telephone director with an administrative assistant, a project manager, a senior vice president and a CEO. Just call and ask for somebody by title and you get shuffled to the AA telephone voicemail. Complain about the AA not returning your very important scamming telephone calls and you can have your complaint bumped up to the project manager. Get all the way to the CEO and the message will tell you to call the extention of the AA as she handles all of the CEO's telephone calls.
I even got names for all the fictional people so the telewhores can ask for them by name.
My telephone operators love the new system. Ask to speak to the owner/manager/head of marketing etc and you get bumped into the waste directory. Once every few days somebody goes through the waste voicemalls just to make sure there is not legit in the system.
We have been having a lot of fun with the system. Very entertaining to listen to some entry level Indian reading a prepared text trying to convince the AA voicemail that the Indian really does have a wonderful waste of my time.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-62482-100x100.png\")
I wonder if Redzee has a sister electronics company in Brooklyn.
i used redzee to search \"complaints about redzee\" - funny, no hits! google gave me 10+ pages. huh.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-169958-100x100.png\")
too early in the AM for south park references....
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-291733-100x100.png\")
Their shadiness was known all the way back in 2005:
Also, when you Google \"Redzee.com\", the first two hits are Redzee itself, followed by a slew of negative reviews. Not good.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-21984-100x100.png\")
An internet search engine that needs telemarketing inorder for it to be advertised...
What next? A telemarketer company which mails letters to get advertising?
Umm yeah, because we dont already have enough search engines in the world...
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@StevieD: If you are running Asterisk, there's a hook for it on www.whocalled.us so you can auto-redirect calls to VMH (Voice Mail Hell(tm)) based on the number of hits logged to whocalled.us. Cool stuff!
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-117661-100x100.png\")
These 2nd tier search engines aren't necessarily trying to topple Google. But if an engine can attract 1/1000% of Google's search they can at least monetize that traffic and make a little do-re-mi.
But this RedZee is completely unusable. I also Googled our company and the home page was a screenshot from 2007. So they're using cached images and not even live ones.
Does anyone use Redzee? Seriously! Put in consumerist and redzee into their search bar. This page shows up. ;)
I am another victm of RedZee click faud. I signed up to advertise under 2 search terms. I am getting hits - all visits are 0 seconds in duration really causing problems with my Google analytics. They are just automated meaningless clicks wasting my money and jumping my sites bounce rate.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-74864-100x100.png\")
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-146045-100x100.png\")
What does it say when you search for \"redzee\" on redzee.com and their website doesn't come up in the first 72 matches?