FindersUK review

Finding relatives was always a topic which interested me marginally, so I was interested in checking out the Finders UK website (which BTW, can also be read in other ways because URLs don’t have the concept of capitalization implicitly – lets just leave at that). They offer different services like tracing heirs. Unfortunately (for me) their services are limited to the UK (then again, it makes the company much more compelling, since supposedly a company can offer the best services by specializing in one core competency).

They don’t have a public price offer, but this is understandable since the amount of work involved can vary wildly between cases. All in all this looks like a good company if you need such services in the UK (the links on their webpage to different industry associations are all legitimate, even though some of them a little out of date). They also support two non-profit organizations: the Marie Curie Cancer care and Missing People, which is very generous of them.

Full disclosure: this is a paid review from ReviewMe. Under the terms of the understanding I was not obligated to skew my viewpoint in any way (ie. only post positive facts).

BrickHouse Alert review

After looking at the site of this Medical Alert company I’m left with troubling questions in my mind. Having an ill grand-parent makes me acutely appreciate the need for Medical Alert services, but this company leaves many open questions, especially considering the fact that this is a company which requires a monthly subscription. Their site is just a front for Yahoo Stores (which isn’t bad in itself, since it makes business sense to outsource the non-core competencies of your activity – like running a website) and the registration data for the site is protected by “Whois Guard” (again, something which makes sense in a lot of situations, but is just an other stab in the trustworthiness of the company). They also don’t seem to provide any physical address or concrete information about the personal used in their call centers.

All in all, I wouldn’t do business with this company unless somebody I know and trust recommends them. While the issues raised might very well be just an oversight on the part of the company, it suggests a lack of understanding of consumer psychology which is alarming given the sensitive nature of the issue (health care).

Full disclosure: this is a paid review from ReviewMe. Under the terms of the understanding I was not obligated to skew my viewpoint in any way (ie. only post positive facts).

Globe Runner review

The second review for today is also for a SEO Consultant: Globe Runner SEO. From all that I can gather, they are a legitimate company (here is their BBB page - so hard to tell these days :-( ), and they also run BabySafe Travel. They also don’t seem to come up in the first 10 pages (!) on Google when I’ve searched for SEO. Then again, this might be a good thing, since these days many of the top spots for any search are dominated by scammers (though not the top one usually).

They also have an informative blog with original content. In the end it everyone must make the decision about needing SEO help by herself / himself. The technology is not very complicated behind most of the actions and a good website should already have most of the elements, but if you not a “webhead”, you will benefit from the advice of an expert. One thing I missed on their site is the clear display of prices for their services, but then again this can be interpreted in a positive manner as: “we won’t go into an one-sided competition on price, because we should be judged on more than one figure” (my words, not theirs :-)).

Full disclosure: this is a paid review from ReviewMe. Under the terms of the understanding I was not obligated to skew my viewpoint in any way (ie. only post positive facts).

Softline Local Review

Many say that local online marketing is the “next frontier”. While I have some doubts with regarding this phenomenon (my money is on the ever expanding global economy – even though I’ve got “slapped” a couple of times by companies refusing to deliver to Romania), I’ve looked at softline local.

They seem like a company to consider if you wish to include such tool in your arsenal. Their main target is the USA (understandably so, since they are located in LA), so this probably isn’t for you if you are outside of the USA or your services are not location dependent.

In case you do decide to go with them, I would recommend to check out in detail their pricing and maybe inquire about the details of each element in their price chart. While all of them seem like a good idea (I especially liked the inclusion in GPS systems), I would question the repeated value of some of them (maybe some of these services require an annual fee – but many of them – like the inclusion in search indexes – definitely don’t). In conclusion, my final advice is: the services look promising, but proceed with caution, maybe do a short-term evaluation of their services.

Full disclosure: this is a paid review from ReviewMe. Under the terms of the understanding I was not obligated to skew my viewpoint in any way (ie. only post positive facts).