ReCrunch

[TC] Do The Right Thing: Save An Alien (and this startup) (Exhibit A):

perhaps Save An Alien, an Israeli Facebook-only startup, can reach their goal of 10 million users in six months. I sure hope they do, anyway. Otherwise a bunch of cute little aliens are going to die. … And if you really like your alien you can buy a tshirt with it on it. I imagine other revenue generating merchandising opportunities may be thought up later, too.

[TC] Epson Joins Sprint: They Suck And Their New Website Is Stupid (Exhibit B):

I’m pretty sure there are some consultants out there who are telling big, clueless companies that the way to engage with their audience is to engage with them on an interactive, emotional level. … now those consultants have conned Epson into doing the same thing on a new site called Epsonality. They ask questions like “You come across a bear in the woods, what do you do?” and “you find $199.99 lying on the ground, what do you do?” and use your answers to somehow determine the right printer for you. All in a sick, highly personalized Flash interface.

Save An Alien is a fairly well-crafted Facebook Ponzi scheme in a class of its own. Most Facebook apps can be classified into two categories: either amateur creations by college kids seeking their five minutes of fame, or promotional vehicles for startups looking to get a few more users and show something at the next investor meeting. Save An Alien is neither. It appears too elaborate to be crafted overnight in a dorm room and yet there is no product or service it is supposed to sell. Well, there are the t-shirts. If they’re selling as well as photo albums at Flickr, maybe they’ll unload a hundred of them. Big money, big money! All Save An Alien has to do is infect 10 million Facebook profiles.

Epsonality is just a corporate quiz site. Answer a few questions and they shove one of Epson’s printers in your face.

By installing the Save An Alien, you hand over all your the info stored in your Facebook profile. Sure, they’re not supposed to keep it, but who is going to enforce that? Epsonality is totally harmless. And now you know Epson makes printers. And if you’re more likely to buy one now. Yes, even if you thought that website was stupid.

I know one more difference between the two. Save An Alien guys will worship Michael Arrington if the site makes it onto TechCrunch. I doubt anyone at Epson even knows who he is.

Have we learned a lesson here today?