Web 2.0 Upgrade - Is this site a Scam?
Written on the 17th June 2008:
An Internet site claims to be upgrading the entire Internet to Web 2.0 at the touch of a button. They use sentences like " The Web 2.0 Upgrade is an astonishing breakthrough in what is being called THE NEXT STEP IN THE EVOLUTION of the Internet" and go on say that they will revolutionalise the Internet. According to them, members are calling them the next "BIG Google".
They're also promising to give away $1 Million and you allegedly earn a share when you spread the Web 2.0 word and 2 members join the site below you. The system is supposed to go live on the 1st July 2008 when evidence suggests that it will be just another affiliate marketing get rich scheme and I strongly suspect you'll have to pay for any reasonable level of membership. I've initially joined free so that I can get more information about the system and I'm already receiving various marketing Emails, proving that they're already using the system to build a large list of leads for marketing purposes.
Firstly Web 2.0 isn't a brand new Internet at all, against speculation. It's just the name given for a new bread of site that allows full interaction from users rather than just browsing information, for example http://www.youtube.com. Web site interaction is something that has gradually evolved over the years and isn't something brand new.
This site's so called upgrade appears to be just an Internet plugin that allows social interaction like chatting while surfing the Web, E.g. you can chat about the page you're surfing and see who else is surfing that particular page in real time. This has been done before by various companies and certainly isn't new at all, see http://www.iosurf.com for example.
The site's main domain name is http://www.cashblasterpro.com (*** Now offline - see beside link below) but various promotional domains are being redirected to this site for affiliate marketing purposes. This is hardly the domain name you'd expect for a site that's going to completely revolutionise the Internet.
To sign up you have to visit the site via an affiliate link. For more information please visit the site below, but be warned it's very convincing:
http://www.CashBlasterPro.com/pjcnet (*** The original website is now off-line since the so called launch - See http://www.web2server.info for the new official site)
I have written to the company politely suggesting that I suspect they're making false claims, see below:
Message sent to "CashBasterPro" on 17th June 2008:
I can certainly give you 100% for marketing and presentation, but excuse me if I'm sceptical, but your "web 2.0 Internet upgrade" appears to be just a fancy instant message plug-in that allows you to chat and interact while surfing. Please visit http://www.iosurf.com and you will see that this has been done before - this is just one example of social interaction while surfing web pages.
Lots of companies are exploiting the term "Web 2.0" for promotion purposes as it's meaning is a currently bit of a grey area. It sounds much better than it really is and people misunderstand, thinking it's a completely new Internet, when in reality Web 2.0 has slowly evolved from Web 1.0 and isn't anything new at all.
If the take away the Web 2.0 Internet upgrade cover, it looks to me like your system is just another clever way to recruit as many members as possible into a get rich quick scheme. You also generate a massive leads list which you're clearly using for marketing purposes.
I will publish my opinion about your system, but first I'd like to give you the opportunity to advise me what makes your system so special, so different from the rest? I will include your reply.
PS: If you really do become that next "BIG Google", then please accept my apologises!
Reply To Message:
There has been absolutely no reply to this message what-so-ever. This is further evidence that this is a scam.
Disclaimer:
The document above is a personal opinion only and cannot be declared as certain fact. People are advised to visit the site in question a make up their opinion from the content presented. PJCNET will publish responses from the company in question and will also remove any content that is proven incorrect.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 17th, 2008 at 2:36 am and is filed under Money Making & Saving, Scams. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
July 8th, 2008 at 5:00 am
The original site appears to be down since the so called launch date and has been replaced with a new site - see http://www.web2server.info for more details. It still boasts that it upgrades the whole Internet to web 2.0 standards, but it is more watered down than before as it’s now more clear it’s simply a chat / instant message while you surf application.
October 18th, 2008 at 3:21 am
I will say that the web2server site is now position 29,143 on Alexa at the time of writing which is a very good indication of popularity. This is rather high and shows they are getting lots of traffic. My site started with no rating on Alexa, then went to around position 15,000,000. It’s now at position 978,195 at the time of writing and this is quite reasonable for a blogging site. For http://www.web2server.info to get to a high position, they must be doing something right at least. Their software product is probably quite reasonable, although it was in my opinion initially advertised incorrectly in a misleading way saying that they were the first and only upgrade of the whole Internet to Web 2.0 standards. Also they weren’t the first people to produce this type of social networking software based on websites people visit.
October 18th, 2008 at 3:24 am
We will now see if they do become the new Google as they initially advertised. Google is at position 25 on Alexa at the time of writing, they are currently 29.143 at the time of writing which is very good, but they’ve still got an awful long way to go.