Carbonite Stacks the Deck on Amazon

New York Times ^ | Jan. 27, 2009 | David Pogue

[decimon]

Last week, a clever citizen sleuth caught Belkin in the act of hiring people to post bogus five-star reviews for Belkin products on Amazon. And now, no sooner has the world stopped shaking its fist at Belkin than another smoking gun has emerged.

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In short, “the review by Swami Kumaresan, rating Carbonite 5 stars, read too much like a testimonial,” he writes. “It turned out that Swami Kumaresan is the Vice President of Marketing for Carbonite. His review gives no indication that he is employed by the company.”

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[mnehring]

You can smell a fake review a mile away.. I completely stopped trusting Epinions.com (and I used to be an admin and consultant with them) because most of the writers never have touched the products or they do it for the $$. Some people make hundreds of dollars a month copying and pasting stats and adding a few I’s and Me’s into it to make it sound personal.

[decimon]

Hmmm...Guess I’d better stop pimping books I sell there too, Eh? ;)

Well, if all you know of the books is what you read on Amazon...

[decimon]

Another shot at Limbaugh.

The story is true or it isn't.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Then people are in trouble, LOL! Buyer beware.

I love Amazon, though. It’s been a good relationship.

I, however, use my library for most books that I want to read. I read at least one book a week; sometimes two, depending upon the subject. It’s a little sad, though...I used to be quite the Bibliophile, but then when I started selling books, they became ‘product’ to me.

I still enjoy the ‘thrill of the hunt’ and you can find me in book stores and thrift shops or cuddled up with my wholesaler at least 2 days of the week.

And there are some books I’ll never part with, of course. :)

[Yaelle]

This is just trying to get at Limbaugh. He has Carbonite’s people in his suite at the Superbowl this weekend too.

I bought carbonite a few years ago and I like it — except for the fact that they don’t back up Macs yet! So I have to run my backup through a PC. What is nice though is that they keep all my old stuff forever somewhere out there online as long as I keep paying. One day they will work for macs and I can interact easier with what they are saving for me. But it’s good to know that a fire here cannot ruin my old photos, etc.

[decimon]

...I completely stopped trusting Epinions.com (and I used to be an admin and consultant with them)...

I discount the gushing praise and the "Fill-in-the-blank SUCKS! DO NOT BUY FROM Fill-in-the-blank!" reviews. Much better when there are many reviews with some detailing likes and dislikes.

Gotta admit that the SUCKS! guy makes me laugh at times.

[Future Snake Eater]

lol...exactly what I think of when I think “carbonite.” Not very secure, though. A princess was able to break through it!

[Skooz]

I have pretty close to the same amount of iTunes files backed up on Carbonite.

In June 1999, my HD crashed and my tape backup AND floppy backups failed. Since then, I have backups of backups all over the place. That takes a ridiculous amount of space when you get into video and audio files.

Carbonite has been terrific peace of mind. I can see which files are backed up and pick and choose additional files at my leisure.

If I buy a song from iTunes, Carbonoite automatically backs it up as soon as I download it.

[mnehring]

I’ve lost so many Seagate and similar media drives, I think this will be a safer bet. Entrepreneur rated them the best.

[Richard Kimball]

How much play did it get when columnists started getting emails from people trying to get a Burger King mask for Halloween at the same time Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Burger King's ad agency was starting a web site where you could buy Burger King masks?

Go to Youtube, and you'll find hundreds of corporate ads supposedly put together by "jes average guys who luv the product."

Political campaigns routinely pass out prepared "home made" signs for people to wave at political rallies.

I can't prove this, but I'll guaran-dam-tee you that if Carbonite was the biggest advertiser on MSNBC the NYTimes wouldn't have printed the story, because it's NOT NEWS.

If this is news, I've got some other headlines for them:

Popular Boy Pretends to Like Unpopular Girl So She'll Have Sex With Him

Father Declares that Everything is An Ordeal When Dealing With His Family

Goth Teen Sits in Back of Minivan So Friends Won't See His Mom Driving Him Around

Fast Food Worker Smoked Marijuana Behind Restaurant During Break; Giggled When Next Customer Asked for a Whopper

Student at Catholic School Made Faces at Nun When Her Back Was Turned

Attractive Woman Escapes Speeding Ticket; Says Officer Was Really Sweet

And every one is true. Fifty times. Every day. They're just not news.

[LiberConservative]

Carbonite ripped me off months ago. I will never use them again. Got that Leo? “The Tech Guy?”

[Skooz]

Fast Food Worker Smoked Marijuana Behind Restaurant During Break; Giggled When Next Customer Asked for a Whopper

Mr. Parker to Skooz, Autumn 1978:

"Just what did you have fer lunch, son?"

[MyDogAteMyBallot]

I’ve lost so many Seagate and similar media drives, I think this will be a safer bet. Entrepreneur rated them the best. I'm staring at 6 external drives that have failed me over the years (some recoverable backup data, but most is missing), so I decided to try carbonite. It's still backing up (2 weeks so far), but I have 300GB data. I tested a restore with a few files during the trial period and it was much easier than my retrospect software. I seem to have a more reliable external drive now, but like the idea of offsite backup that carbonite offers.

Not sure though if the encrypted data transfer would be considered secure enough for stuff like business data (e.g., customer credit information).

[Richard Kimball]

Oh, and while I'm at it:

Man goes on Amazon.com drunk: Now Owns All Eight Seasons of Diff'rent Strokes in VHS Format

[mnehring]

Thanks everyone... You’ve sold me, I’m signing up tomorrow.

[Richard Kimball]

Be sure to send an email to the Times thanking them for starting this discussion ;o>

[mnehring]

...and copy Rush.

[Skooz]

[JRios1968]

[decimon]

“Whether the host is Rush Limbaugh, Howard Stern, or Jimmy Kimmel, the stories of real users are the best endorsements that a company could get — more powerful than us saying it, or even the host.”

http://www.carbonite.com/blog/?tag=/radio+ads