shopnet.zzn.com

Earlier today I read an "opinion" on this site, which was a blatant piece of self promotion by the site owner. The opinion in question barely tells you what the site does but merely tells you to sign up because it’s a great email service and you get no SPAM.

~~~ The Site ~~~
In the interest of research I popped along and signed up as a user. Basically it’s a user owned site with a ZZN (Zap Zone Network) ...
...more about this email system later, but not in major depth as I'm not writing about ZZN. The shopnet site is a rather gaudy little area with a large sign saying "Free Email No SPAM" and a logon/signup form for the email system. The site is a rather garish blue in colour with blue text on a greenish yellow box, which as you can imagine is not very easy on the eye. If you signup to the email system you get yellow text on a blue background ... more

Earlier today I read an "opinion" on this site, which was a blatant piece of self promotion by the site owner. The opinion in question barely tells you what the site does but merely tells you to sign up because it’s a great email service and you get no SPAM.

~~~ The Site ~~~
In the interest of research I popped along and signed up as a user. Basically it’s a user owned site with a ZZN (Zap Zone Network) email system set up on it. I'll tell you more about this email system later, but not in major depth as I'm not writing about ZZN. The shopnet site is a rather gaudy little area with a large sign saying "Free Email No SPAM" and a logon/signup form for the email system. The site is a rather garish blue in colour with blue text on a greenish yellow box, which as you can imagine is not very easy on the eye. If you signup to the email system you get yellow text on a blue background which is even harder to see. Once you have signed up the text is also a bit small for those of us who don't like to sit 2 inches from our screens.

~~~ The Email System ~~~
As I mentioned before the email is offered through the ZZN company. I popped over to their site and I think they have a good concept here, you can use them to get free email for your website, maybe for your family or club? Excellent if you want all of your friends to use similar email addresses, I could have my family all with addresses ending in @evans.zzn.com if I so desired. The Shopnet site that I am writing this opinion on is one such example of the ZZN email system, although why Ciao users would want their email addy to be @shopnet.zzn.com is beyond me, perhaps the site owner could answer this. The system is available in multiple languages allowing anyone who signs up to offer a multilingual service. The person signing up to run the email from their site can also customize it with their own colours, I suggest different ones to those on the shopnet site. ZZN offer it free because they can put advertising on the bottom of the pages, targeting you as you use the email service. I guess that’s how Hotmail make money too.

~~~ Signing Up ~~~
The sign up process for this system is quite simple, a few questions such as your name, address and what email address you would like and you are a member. Or not quite, the second page asks you to tick the boxes appropriate for your interests which will enable you to "receive free news and information directly to your inbox!" as many of you well know this will allow you to receive advertising targeted to those interests, or spam if that’s what you choose to call it. Funny to see that on an email service which promises no SPAM. After sign up I checked my inbox to find two messages already, first one from the webmaster inviting me to follow a link which wasn't in the email. The second was from ZZN admin and was supposed to contain "some basic information" but actually gave a page not found message instead of any text.

~~~ About SPAM ~~~
For anyone who isn't sure SPAM is a luncheon meat product. This site promises you no SPAM, which is great for me as I'm a vegitarian. After signing up for a free email address and logging in, I did indeed find no meat products in my inbox. However I think the author meant to say no spam, in this instance spam being unsolicited junk mail. Yes the capital letters make all the difference SPAM is a registered trademark but spam is not. Here's the official line from the SPAM website.

"Use of the term "SPAM" was adopted as a result of the Monty Python skit in which a group of Vikings sang a chorus of "SPAM, SPAM, SPAM . . . " in an increasing crescendo, drowning out other conversation. Hence, the analogy applied because UCE was drowning out normal discourse on the Internet.

We do not object to use of this slang term to describe UCE, although we do object to the use of our product image in association with that term. Also, if the term is to be used, it should be used in all lower-case letters to distinguish it from our trademark SPAM, which should be used with all uppercase letters."

~~~ The Bottom Line ~~~
Well I figured as Ciao had given this site a category the consumers out there deserved some decent information about it. Basically it’s a personal site offering a free email service where you will not receive any luncheon meat. Sort of email for vegetarians. Yes the email service has some good features, but no different from a million others out there, sign up if you want an email address finishing with @shopnet.zzn.com. Whether or not you get junk email remains to be seen as I'm not likely to return my inbox to find out.

For anyone who is wondering why on earth I've even bothered to write this please bear in mind its Friday afternoon.

 

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