Colocation America Ranks Top VoIP Providers... Well, Sorta Kinda
Yesterday, we tweeted about Colocation America's examination of VoIP provider websites, and their conclusion that the 5 top ranked VoIP providers in the business were:
- Broadcore
- OnSIP
- Axvoice
- IPsmarx
- Vocalocity
Of course, once you get past the headline in their press release, you find out that what they really meant was who put the most work into their website over the past four years.
Yes, that's right. Using Twitter, we didn't have a whole lot of room to point out that they were basing the rankings on web site turnaround, but I did make a note of it when I posted it on Google+ yesterday.
I did that because it seems a little disingenuous to trumpet the 'ranking of top VoIP providers,' and then prevaricate with "Colocation America goes through four years of data to decide the top 5 VoIP providers that had the biggest website turnaround." (Italics mine.) That seems a little bait-and-switchy to me, and the story's since been picked up by industry news outlets like TMCnet, who continue to promote the findings (based on cached web sites and redesigns over four years) as the best VoIP providers.
That's not to knock those providers. They're solid VoIP phone service providers with good reputations. Check our reviews on any of them, and you'll find they're mostly favorable. Colocation America even acknowledged that they filled their study with companies with longevity, and that were, in their own words, "thriving."
I just think that basing a company's merit — or spinning it that way — on the basis of whether they changed its site's color scheme or site navigation is a little... questionable.
Colocation America declared that this experiment yielded results that made "this ranking system a valuable instrument in determining which companies have true longevity, even in an unpredictable economy." All I am reminded of are those caveats that are placed on almost every piece of information related to stocks and mutual funds: "Past performance is no guarantee of future results." I'm not sure why a website would be any more indicative of... well, anything... than say, actual dividends and rising share prices. Especially when dividends and share prices apparently shouldn't be factored into any major investment decisions.
We'd love to get your input! Do you agree with Colocation America's assessments? Is a website's evolution really a harbinger of future stability and success?