Web Surfing
By Daily Bruin Staff
Nov. 29, 2000 9:00 p.m.
Blue Mountain
www.bluemountain.com
Most people are unaware of the fact that November is peanut
butter lover’s month and national sleep comfort month, or
that Dec. 15 is Underdog Day in honor of strong-willed boxer, Mike
“The String Bean” Johnson. At bluemountain.com,
however, such seemingly meaningless holidays, as well as the more
well known ones, are days worth celebrating, specifically by
sending a friend or loved one an e-greeting. For instance, Dec. 9
is “Weary Willie Day,” and according to the e-greeting,
it was named after a character played by Emmett Kelly, who was born
on this day in 1858. Recipients of such a greeting are encouraged
to spend the day clowning around either wearing baggy pants or
learning how to juggle. Nothing seems more pleasing than checking
your e-mail to discover not simply drab black and white text
messages, but an e-greeting complete with music and animated
cartoons. Though traditional holidays are usually the ones more
celebrated and decorated, bluemountain.com encourages its patrons
of joy to share the unique characteristics of each day. Festive
screen savers are also available for users to download for their
personal computers or to send to others to enjoy. With the holiday
season approaching, one has the choice between two different
animated screen savers featuring snowmen on sleds and Santa Claus
checking his naughty and nice list. On the seasonal note,
bluemountain.com is not biased, offering a wide variety of
“Winter Holiday” eCards to choose from. Represented are
holidays such as Christmas and Hanukkah, in addition to Kwanzaa and
Eid. One of the cuter holiday cards offered features animated
penguins sliding down an icy mountain. Though a simple card that
only features the message, “Have a Cool Holiday,” the
e-greeting is sure to provide the recipient with a smile. With
animated virtual greeting cards that can not only be personalized
but also have voice messages attached, bluemountain.com seems like
the optimal place to go to either brighten someone’s day or
just say hi. In comparison to standard e-mail formatting, an eCard
is much more personable.
Barbara McGuire Rating:8
E-greetings
www.egreetings.com
Electronic greetings are the perfect way to alleviate political
angst. Disgruntled Americans tired of the presidential election
muck can click on egreetings.com and select from 16 political cards
featuring the White House hopefuls. In “The Political Pie
Throw,” for instance, users can send an animated interactive
e-greeting. With the click of the mouse, the card’s receiver
can aim and fire a creamy pie at George W. Bush and Vice President
Al Gore. Egreetings.com allows users to send cards for virtually
every occasion, such as the current presidential elections ““
all for free. From birthday to bon voyage cards, the site offers an
easy and convenient way to remember special occasions. Site-goers
can even propose marriage with e-greetings by expressing the
classic sentiment of “I want to spend the rest of my life
with you” complemented by a romantic setting sun, to a cute
animated old couple with the message “Let’s grow old
together.” A more unconventional card asks “Will you be
my wifey?” and features music from the Next album
“Welcome to Nextasy.” For users not quite ready for
matrimony, the site offers love and dating cards, ranging from the
earnest with “dreaming of you” to the daring with
handcuffs and whipped cream. An interactive card also allows users
to take a quiz to find out how romantic they are. Egreetings.com
also has a large selection of musical greeting cards. Click on
“Music Scene” and access an emporium of cards featuring
artists like Whitney Houston, Christina Aguilera, The Wallflowers,
and Kid Rock. The site also features fast facts about the musical
artists, making great trivia for fans. Special contests are also
available to the music fanatics who check out the site. Visit
egreetings.com now to send Barenaked Ladies cards and automatically
enter to win backstage passes to their New Year’s Eve
extravaganza in Boston. The site offers nine different BNL cards
featuring the Canadian band’s popular hits like “One
Week” and “Pinch Me.” With links to sites like
FTD.COM, CyberRebate.com, and MrsBeasleys.com, users can shop the
egreetings.com boutique and send gifts or attach gift certificates
to their card. Finally, lively flash animation provides attractive
accompaniment to the user’s message. With enough color and
energy to brighten up the computer screen, e-greetings are a simple
way for users to brighten the days of friends, coworkers and family
members.
Emilia Hwang Rating: 8
Message Mates
www.messagemates.com
Sex sells, but not when it’s silly cards filled with
phallic symbols that make no sense. At www.messagemates.com, such
greetings, which are meant to be funny, don’t always result
in laughs. Covering various topics ranging from political satire to
holiday humor, the greetings fall short of expectations. The cards
are organized into various categories based on whether their
content is “sexy,” “violent,”
“cute,” “eww” or “sick,” and
some even come with parental advisory labels. Users are able to
send their cards with prewritten messages that are usually
one-liner jokes, and are also given the option to create their own.
When viewed for more than five minutes, though, the most the cards
will probably accomplish is to bore the user. One of the more tacky
cards offered on the site, features characters performing strip
teases to holiday music. The characters, “Victoria” and
“Stuart,” wish the viewer a “Happy Holidays
SWINGER” wearing only strategically placed Santa hats. The
greetings, however, contain only mildly perverse humor. They are
given corny titles like the “Ice Queen Cometh,” and
contain equally corny messages. For example, “Stuart,”
the stripper from the Christmas greeting, invites the receiver of a
card to “Decorate (his) tree.” Additionally, sometimes
the jokes appear to have absolutely no point. One card shows the
letters S-a-n-t-a being transformed into S-a-t-a-n, while jolly old
Saint Nick is morphed into Lucifer holding a reindeer’s head
on a pike. That’s it. That’s the whole message.
Where’s the joke? The problem with the cards featured on
messagemates.com is that they attempt to be perverted or violent,
but in a PC way. Tame and censored cartoon characters are portrayed
as dirty and funny resulting in humor that is often mindless and
cheesy. Furthermore, the site itself is bothersome to navigate. It
is too cluttered and busy, and there are too many hyperlinks
presented on each page. With an excessive number of
“pop-up” windows that quickly become irritating,
messagemates.com makes selecting a card to send harder than the
actual process. Basically, the cards featured on the Web site are
not clean enough for your mom and not dirty enough for your
friends, but, with immature and trite jokes, this site can be
mildly amusing.
Sara Bamossy Rating: 5
