Classmates.com
Classmates.com is a website that was launched in 1995 to build up an online community , which serves to maintain contacts between former school, university and military service comrades and for this purpose offers various functions, such as personal profile pages. It is one of the first portals of this type on the Internet.
With more than 40 million members (2008), the portal is one of the most successful social networks in the English-speaking world. In February 2008, the online marketing portal Nielsen Online ranked it third behind MySpace and Facebook for the US market , according to Alexa Internet on the other hand, it was 708th worldwide and 149th in the USA (non-representative sample August 15, 2008) behind other similar sites. Most of the users are from the USA and Canada .
Company history
The service was founded in 1995 by Randy Conrads , who set up Classmates Online Inc. for this purpose . United Online took over the service in 2004 . An IPO of Classmates Online announced in 2007 was not implemented. Classmates Online also includes the StayFriends service , a German, French and Swedish-language portal for former school friends.
Functions and page structure
The site offers both free and paid services. Registration as a so-called Basic Member is free, but only a few functions such as creating a profile, uploading photos and biographies and searching for friends in the database are available. In order to be able to contact other users via the website, a fee-based membership ( Gold Membership ) is required, which is also required to read messages received via the network. Contact can be made both by e-mail and via a network-owned messaging service called MyNetwork . Paying members can also create user groups and organize meetings using a special function.
criticism
According to research by PC World magazine , the service was rated one of the worst for ease of membership cancellation. In addition, former members are said to have continued to receive promotional emails from Classmates.com even after the termination.
In September 2009, a classmates lawsuit was filed against Classmates Online, Inc. for illegal business practices . In particular, it criticizes the fact that Classmates.com routinely sent e-mails to members giving the impression that people they knew had actively tried to contact them. The plaintiff members only found out that this is not always the case after they had entered into the paid Gold Membership . A lack of data protection is also complained about because Classmates.com uses links in e-mails and cookies on the website without indicating this, which make it very easy for third parties to log in to Classmates.com on behalf of a foreign member. Classmates.com and the plaintiffs are seeking settlement as of October 5, 2010, paying $ 1.05 million in attorney fees and $ 0.5 million to a nonprofit organization.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Nielsen Online popularity statistics for February 2008
- ↑ Traffic ranking for classmates.com at Alexa Internet, accessed August 15, 2008
- ↑ Just Cancel the @ #% $ * Account! Big Hassles , PC World Magazine , December 22, 2006
- ↑ Just Cancel the @ #% $ * Account! Want to cancel that service? , PC World Magazine , December 22, 2006
- ↑ Consolidated Complaint - In re Classmates.com Consolidated Litigation ( Memento of the original from October 26, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , In re Classmates.com Consolidated Litigation Website , United States District Court For the Western District of Washington, Case No. 09-cv-0045-RAJ, September 18, 2009
