Comments on: Uncovering The Web2.0Effect.org Hoax: How Virante Marketing Solutions & Burton Hosting Fooled the Web

By: Teaching English in Taiwan

Teaching English in Taiwan — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 05:18:00 +0000

Nice one. I have stumbled and twittered this for my friends. Others no doubt will like it like I did.

By: Teaching English in Taiwan

Teaching English in Taiwan — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 05:18:00 +0000

Nice one. I have stumbled and twittered this for my friends. Others no doubt will like it like I did.

By: web hosting reviews

web hosting reviews — Sun, 10 May 2009 14:34:05 +0000

Have to say I do agree. Things like this just are what they are.

By: The Web2.0Effect Hoax: How One Marketing Firm Fooled The Web | Easy Place To Blog

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 00:22:18 +0000

[...] it was an elaborate viral marketing ploy meant to shovel sales into the hands of Burton Hosting.read more | digg [...]

By: pwned

pwned — Thu, 08 May 2008 08:36:15 +0000

[...] Google, it looks like they are. Honestly I never expected this article to be awarded with such a …http://www.devindra.org/tech/2007/07/06/the-web20effectorg-hoax-how-one-marketing-firm-fooled-the-we…Digg – iPhone PWNED… 30???th, the long awaited project iPhone pwned will be available to the [...]

By: When Social Media Marketing Goes Wrong

When Social Media Marketing Goes Wrong — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 14:59:31 +0000

[...] blog ran a story calling the Web 2.0 effect site a “elaborate viral marketing ploy” while another said that the “whole thing was a viral marketing [...]

By: Sheree Motiska

Sheree Motiska — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 19:01:04 +0000

This is the most fun I’ve had reading a blog post for quite some time. I feel so warm and fuzzy inside as I witness this much needed purging effect that is taking place right now.

Ah, web 2.0 marketing.

A quick fix for sorry fools who still cling to the belief that there really is a magic secret to building a successful Internet based business overnight and with minimal effort?

Wrong.

A hot new buzz term ripe for the exploiting by anyone quick enough to claim they have a guru degree?

Wrong again.

A poor man’s alternative to the basic elements at the core of an Internet business plan? You mean I never have to learn any new skills now that I can grab free affiliate links and sneak them in front of unsuspecting people who are just hanging out on the net?

Nope.

A powerful addition to a legitimate business if unobtrusively and naturally used to enhance the credibility of the individual trying to make a name online? If I let people freely utilize a skill that I know how to do by giving them videos, and written step-by-step instructions will I slowly, yet steadily gain credibility in the eyes of my market?

Ding Ding Ding!!! You got it.

The best part about it is that the collaboration taking place among regular people who aren’t online to figure out the best ways to be a slimeball. All that is good and true is becoming a giant super power capable of outing the savviest of scam artists.

A stunning display of the power of Karma.

By: Steven

Steven — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 21:42:22 +0000

Excellent research. With the popularity of sites like digg, reddit, and /. I imagine we’ll see more and more stuff like this going on. I can see in the future companies who’s business model is based around pumping the popularity of posts on social news and bookmarking sites.

By: al

al — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 18:36:32 +0000

HostJury does indeed post and manipulate user reviews – David always is up to something!

I prefer to use http://www.hostreviewsite.com

legitimate reviews and it actually looks better too!

cheers

By: The UK is not the US

The UK is not the US — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 03:27:21 +0000

118 miles is quite a long way over here… :D

By: Hitfirm

Hitfirm — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 11:26:04 +0000

Russ you and your gang are weird, interesting, but weird.

By: Russ Jones

Russ Jones — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 14:31:49 +0000

A couple of things…

1. The tracker was always dynamic. Just go check Google’s cache of the document from July 6th at 7 GMT (3 AM Eastern Standard Time)…
http://216.239.51.104/search?q=cache:ctR5Mtfy9cQJ:web2.0effect.org/+site:web2.0effect.org&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us

This shows ixwebhosting being tracked before that comment was posted. Most importantly, if you just ran the tracker yourself, you would see that it is how I determined whether or not a page was timeing out. Go ahead and test it yourself!

2. The host title you see for Burton is the client name we used, viranteviral. You know how hosting companies work, the name use use is the temporary address you get.

3. I chose a random address for the whois information. I live in Durham North Carolina — where my company, Virante, Inc. is. Which is why my phone number, 919-459-1035 is a 919, US number.

By: Web 2.0 Effect Debunked As Marketing Ploy - Internet Insider Report

Web 2.0 Effect Debunked As Marketing Ploy - Internet Insider Report — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 13:34:41 +0000

[...] Devindra Hardawar wrote about one such effort from earlier this year. The Web 2.0 Effect project appeared to measure the effectiveness of several low-cost hosting solutions. On its surface, such a project would have some value for people seeking a comparison of services. [...]

By: Hostjury

Hostjury — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 21:59:20 +0000

Unsurprised to say the least.
I’ve caught Burton Hosting posting fake reviews to a number of web hosting review sites previously as well — including our own. They’ve been spamming on digg for awhile under a few different aliases.. a number have reached the frontpage.

We did remove the fake reviews though on Hostjury but other sites have left them up:
http://www.webhostingstuff.com/review/BurtonHosting.html

Our own are available at http://www.hostjury.com for the curious out there.

By: techipedia | tamar weinberg’s blog of stuff » Social Media Marketing Without Brand Awareness Can Kill You

Sun, 08 Jul 2007 17:20:12 +0000

[...] few weeks later, a surprising blog post was published that outed the marketing firm and hosting company that sponsored the particular study. It turned out, with investigation, that the [...]

By: Get a new host! » web2.0effect….

Get a new host! » web2.0effect…. — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 09:03:10 +0000

[...] who knows who there client is, but we know its fishy based on this link here. http://www.devindra.org/tech/2007/07…fooled-the-web [...]

By: A Penguin In Hell » The “Web 2.0″ Effect: What’s really going on

Sat, 07 Jul 2007 08:22:37 +0000

[...] have also been some rumors about whether the company that won financed the whole thing as a marketing gimmick. There are also [...]

By: blandname

blandname — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 01:55:06 +0000

I hate to say it, but it’s pretty common. The only thing that strikes me as odd is that he commented on reddit, and also that he tried to defend himself.

I have a feeling he was getting paid quite a bit to have this done, and the phony “CTO” moniker probably helped.

By: TV Online

TV Online — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 23:43:46 +0000

Yea from the getgo I was suspicious of it, it seemed odd that any ordinary person would willingly pay for a few hosts – none of which include the popular hosts used by Diggers. Not to mention that the site itself was hosted on Burton Hosting – and it managed to stay up showing clearly that they knew the site would make it to the Digg frontpage – and extra resources made available for it.

By: Bios

Bios — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 21:23:21 +0000

This really was a ’super smart’ viral marketing tactic, it’s something we should all learn from I suppose and get creative with