Do We Write Too Much On IDrive and Not Enough On Mozy?
Same Mozy Gal With Same Box Of Photographs
The other day we had an unfriendly comment on a post about IDrive. The comment said he suspects that OnlineBackupSpot is owned by IDrive because many of our recent posts were about IDrive.
(Must not have read our About page)
Well, we suspect that the commenter is either from a competing website or an online backup vendor competing with IDrive; and struggling to compete with IDrive at that.
Our response was that we write most about the online backup software that:
- We like so much we use on our own computers
- We are currently working with to review or otherwise have daily contact with it
- Are making improvements in their service and rolling out new features
What would you expect? That we write more about companies that:
- We don’t think are worthy of mention
- We have not used in a while
- Have not made any changes in their service in many months
What kind of news happens in the online backup world? Yet ANOTHER new, undistinguished service that uses the same server cloud (Amazon) as half of the others. Oh, boy. THAT’s what I want to spend my week on, evaluating how non-different they are from everyone else. And trying to figure out their feature set from some basically blank web pages that say “we’re new, we’re cool, so buy from us”.
Online backup is somewhat like your utility company. You just want them to always be there, working. Backup is backup. Mobile apps are really the only game changer of late and not everyone cares much about that. Can you really open up an Excel file on your iPhone anyway?
Mobile devices are more about music and pics. Most of the pics aren’t REALLY worth saving and the music may have been purchased from Amazon or iTunes and they are “backing it up” for you anyway. It’s only true oddballs like me who have a collection of music, much converted from vinyl, that was purchased LONG BEFORE iTunes or Amazon MP3 came along.
Let’s Look At Mozy
Take for instance an industry leader, Mozy online backup. From what we can tell by reading their blog, nothing much has changed since Mozy Stash which we wrote about at the time. Sure, their blog has some interesting content, but not about anything really to do with their cloud backup service and what it can do for you.
Let’s make it clear, we LIKE MOZY. Mozy Pro especially is a top notch service for businesses. But, it can get a little pricey and they have had complaints too, just like everyone else.
But not only does Mozy still have the same image (see upper right) of the same gal with the same box of photographs they must have had now for a couple of years, but not much has changed in the service or mobile apps. OK, the gal is fairly attractive even if she does have a kind of frumpy grin going on.
And yes, Mozy will do a great job of protecting your photos. Is that something we can write about every week?
Mozy’s 2GB Free Account
When Mozy home first came out with their free for life 2GB online backup account it was a game changer. They were leading the industry. But at that time 2GB was worth something.
Today?
Even the 5GB free accounts are starting to become a novelty and truly only a “free trial account”. 5GB just isn’t enough for much data, let alone 2GB.
Mozy has not even ante upped in the game.
Contrast IDrive
IDrive, by contrast, has been making lots of changes recently. We no sooner realized an attribute of their programming methodology we did not like (and wrote about) that they changed it (not because of us).
Then they improved their apps. And their website. And they are still the same low price.
That was something to write about, and we have. Plus, I have IDrive on this very PC that I am writing this post on. And I installed the IDrive App on my Android phone and experimented with copying and pasting my long, complex private encryption key from Password Safe to the IDrive App.
And I tested (again) the tech support.
What To Do? Who To Trust?
So based on the facts above, what do you think I should be writing about? IDrive, or maybe Mozy?
Our commenter ended his troll with “buyer beware” attempting to indicate that our site was not to be trusted because we have written too much about the company we recommend as our #1 pick – and use ourselves.
Really?
My response to that was that buyers should beware review sites where the person “reviewing” the software never even installs it on a computer but simply looks at the sales page, reads a few comments, maybe checks out some other review sites and then pays a designer to make it look really cool.
We dig deep. We call the company to find out answers they don’t post on their sales page.
Ever notice how LITTLE information is really listed on the “features” pages of some of these online backup services?
Yep, that’s what we are for – to fill in the monstrous gaps.
Leave a comment, we would love to hear from someone who is not just a troll. 🙂