The Prodigal Incredimail Returns To Google Ads

Incredimail, like the proverbial prodigal son, has seen the errors of its ways and promised to be a good son. Google has killed the fatted calf. Incredimail's now back into the fold.

Incredimail users are breathing a sigh of relief. Investors seem be breathing a sigh of relief - but they should be wary of this foreign-based company whose revenue comes mostly from advertising - not from the sale of its products.

Adsense ads are once again showing up in the Incredimail (free version) interface and on Incredimail's web sites. The ads are generating income again and all is well again. Or is it?

Investors have a right to be edgy. Reliable financial reports say that Google Adsense revenue accounts for 85% of Incredimail's revenue. Companies who have great products can sell those products in the free and open market - and that's how they make money. Good products sell and bad products don't. If you can't your products you either go out of business, create better products ---- or rely on Google ads? Incredimail, the adware company that claims it isn't, relies on Google ads for most its income. Something is missing here. Something isn't right.

Investors have lots of reasons to be nervous. Want another? Why did it take Incredimail two days to inform investors that Google had yanked its ads? Incredimail has been silent about the reasons behind this brouhaha. Silence breeds suspicion. Since its the investors' money and Google ads that we now know keep Incredimail afloat, you'd think they would at least be more honest with their investors than they are with their users, but so far, not a word from Incredimail.

Incredimail went public with a prospectus full of pretty promises but they've yet to release a single product that they've been able to sell successfully. A vast majority of Incredimail users opt for the "free" adware - excuse me - the ad-supported version of it - and live with the ads. Incredimail sales can't be very good. According to several reports, up to 85% of their revenue comes from Google ads. That's Incredible, Incredimail. It makes me glad they don't have any of my money.

Incredimail has always been slippery enough enough to avoid being classified as "adware" or "tracking software". But, actually that's a matter of semantics. The free version is supported by ads and that makes it adware. Its privacy policy clearly states that by using it you give Incredimail the key to any data on your computer it decides to glean and that makes it tracking software. You can argue about semantics until hell freezes over but Incredimail's so-called "free" version is adware and tracking software.

Advertising is very important to Incredimail. Recent reports claim that as much as 85% of Incredimail's revenue is derived from Google ads. If that is true, only 15% of its revenue comes from sales of their products. Sales must not be very good. If their products were as good as they claim why do they have give it away as adware? They're certainly not giving away Incredimail because they are philanthropic. They are giving it away because they are making a lot of money by being adware. I wonder what they do with the information they collect from users' computers? Sell it?

What was Incredimail doing that was so nefarious that Google decided to take such drastic action. Don't you wonder? You have to be a little curious.

If you're an Incredimail-lover don't be illogical; don't give me the old David and Goliath (ho-hum) comparison: Big, powerful Google picking on poor, little, innocent Incredimail. Google had no reason to pick on Incredimail. Incredimail is just one of millions of companies and web sites who use Adsense.

Here's our take and it's based on fact:

Fact #1: The free version of Incredimail is adware - Incredimail says it's not. Yet, it displays advertising in its user Interface and inserts an advertisement at the bottom of every email users send with it. Indeed the person sending the email cannot see the ad, but the recipient can.

Fact #2: Every person who installs Incredimail is bound by their privacy policy - including this clause:

"...CONSENT TO PROCESSING
Users, including without limitation, Users in the European Union, fully understand and unambiguously consent to the collection and processing of their personally identifiable and non-personally identifiable information, in the United States. ..."

What exactly is "Personally identifiable" information? What type of processing is done with this personally identifiable information? If you're an Incredimail user, you should be asking these kinds of questions.

What really happened between Google and Incredimail? Incredimail isn't saying. Why doesn't Incredimail tell us? If they had nothing to hide don't you think they'd have made a statement of some kind by now?

Incredimail investors and users should be demanding an honest explanation. Given Incredimail's reputation and history, we don't think you'll ever get one .