Saturday, May 24, 2008

Installment #24 - Electronic greetings - Ecards

I have concluded:
MOST ECARD sites are NOT SAFE!!!!!

When I first started using the Internet a lot, and started making a lot of online friends, I loved to send ecards. I'll bet I sent at least 25 or 30 a week, especially on holidays. Little did I know, they are extremely dangerous. After all, they are free and have to pay the bills somehow!

Needless to say, I very rarely ever send ecards anymore, much less do I like to open them when they are sent to me. It's unfortunate because they were such an effective way of sending emotions across the Web.
  • I do have an alternative, however, that, so far, I can recommend with confidence - that is, use your email provider. Some of them offer their own ecards and lots of cute little bells and whistles. Personally, I love Incredimail - I can use smileys, and animations, and sounds and more. I've been using Incredimail for over 4 years, and so far, I have had no problems - knock on wood!
As for my research results, they are indeed sad! Out of 30 I checked on, only 10 were okay to use. Two of them, 123greetings.com and lavacards.com are EXTREMELY dangerous - even if you receive one from those sites, DO NOT open it! Delete it immediately and inform the sender, if you know who it was, NOT to use that site anymore and offer one of these "Good" ones as an alternative.
  • NOTE: Just because these ecard sites are okay today, does not mean they will be okay tomorrow! A few of the bad greeting web sites listed here were my favorites and now send questionable spam, or pass along/sell your email/sign-up information, or use dangerous invasive third party cookies, or sneak spyware and/or viruses in your computer. Always check with SiteAdvisor, WOT (Firefox), or Sitehound before you use any site! I use all three!
Here are the results:
GOOD:
BAD:
  • 2000greetings.com
  • talkintoons.com
  • 123greetings.com
  • bluemountain.com
  • greetingsnecards.com
  • free-e-cards-online.com
  • ecardfunny.com
  • care2.com
  • 100free-ecards.com
  • funny-ecards.com
  • hipstercards.com
  • wickedmoon.com
  • evite.com
  • all4love.net
  • riversongs.com
  • e-cards.com
  • greet2k.com
  • ecardica.com
  • lavacards.com
  • ecard4all.com

3 comments:

  1. Hi. My name is Steve Anderson and i work for 123greetings.com. Have you guys checked out our website recently? ... It has gone through many changes ... I wanted to address your comments directly and assure you that 123Greetings does not attempt to install viruses, malware or any other software onto any user's computer. We have been on-line as a business venture since 1997. Our addresses have not changed. Our business is focused on providing free on-line greeting cards...Moreover as part of a new user experience initiative we are removing all pop-up advertising from the web site.

    As part of a planned web site redesign scheduled to occur within the next 120 days, all pop-up advertising in the U.S. will disappear as contracts run out. 123Greetings is planning a number of new initiatives to increase the interactivity of the site, placing more choice in the hands of the visitors...Please visit http://www.123greetings.com for more informations.

    Thanks
    Steve :-)

    Steve Anderson
    PR Specialist
    123Greetings.com
    1674 Broadway, Suite 403
    New York, NY 1001
    Email: steve@123greetings-inc.com
    website: http://www.123greetings.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. This article was written by a real thinking writer without a doubt. I agree many of the with the solid points made by the writer. I’ll be back day in and day for further new updates. paykwik

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow Really Very nice post Such a useful information thanks for sharing
    Home For sale In la Mirada

    ReplyDelete