Collactive Explained

Collactive Inc.
Type:	Private
Foundation:	December 13, 2006 (as Delaware corporation)
Location City:	Herzliya
Location Country:	Israel
Key People:	Eran Reshef, CEO Amir Hirsh, President
Industry:	Internet, Computer software
Products:	"APB System", "Campaign Manager", "Collactive Web Assistant"
Homepage:	www.collactive.com (defunct)

Collactive Inc. was an Israel-based privately held start-up company which marketed software designed to influence ratings on sites which allow users to rate articles or other items. Collactive launched publicly in May 2007, with US$2 million in startup funding from American venture firm Sequoia Capital.

Products

Collactive main product was a system designed to influence ratings on key sites which measure the popularity of items on the Internet. The system had two main components, the APB component that allows an individual to create and distribute a "call for action" webpage, and the "Web Assistant", installed on a user's computer, which helped APB participants by automating the process of logging in, voting or commenting according to the previously created APB.

Controversy

Like its earlier Blue Service Team-released Blue Frog, Collactive's software was accused of being unethical.^[1]

See also

• Megaphone desktop tool, an earlier version of Collactive's "Web Assistant" used for political lobbying.
• Vote-stuffing

Press coverage

• "New Web 2.0 App Prompts Web 2.0 Elite To See Democracy As Spam", Wired blog entry by Ryan Singel.
• "Web Sites' Lists Of 'Most Viewed' Too Easy to Game?", Wall Street Journal.
• "Blue Frog reborn as traffic hoarder", InfoWorld
• "Collactive seeks to overwhelm Digg, Reddit with interested stories", Venture Beat.
• "Anti-spam tech reborn as web activist tool", The Register.
• "Spammer Slammer Targets Politics", Wired.

Notes and References

1. Web site: 2007-06-07. 2006. Blue Security Resurfaces Reincarnated as a Social Networking Spammer – The Blue Frog Will Spam Digg, Del.icio.us and More with Their New Collactive Service. live. 2013-07-05. The Internet Patrol: ISIPP Publishing. https://web.archive.org/web/20070609143834/http://www.theinternetpatrol.com:80/blue-security-resurfaces-reincarnated-as-a-social-networking-spammer-the-blue-frog-will-spam-digg-delicious-and-more-with-their-new-collative-service . 2007-06-09 .