OTX Sample

In the past few days, we have been contacted by partners and survey takers who were either unable to take a survey, or received warning that our domain otxresearch.com might contain downloads ‘that some people consider adware, spyware, or other unwanted programs.” Today, we were notified that the site McAfee SiteAdvisor and the anti-spyware software Spyware Doctor are classifying the otxresearch.com domain under the spyware category.

This is wrong and hurting us.

OTX has never used spywares, adwares or any other type of unwanted programs to conduct our business.

A couple of years ago, OTX was using a download software, preloader.dll. Its sole purpose was to download large video files in the beginning of the online survey-taking process to allow a better user experience for our respondents - so they wouldn’t have to wait for a video download at a particular page in a survey.

This download was never malicious. However, some antispyware companies considered it as a spyware. Why? Simply because none of those companies can determine whether it is malicious (for anyone to really know what the control does, it would require reverse engineering of the dll, a practice widely considered a federal offense).

As those erroneous spyware alerts were hurting us, and because we believe that gaining respondents’ trust is critical for our business and the research industry as a whole, we decided to stop using the download software more than a year ago. We even decided to delete the download from our servers entirely over 30 days ago to avoid any accidental use in a survey copying old survey code.

So, obviously, the reviews are defamatory and hurting our business. We have asked McAfee and the Site Advisor team to revise their review and make it clear to the readers of the site that it has erroneously identified OTX as a user of unwanted programs.

We have also published an official response, which I invite you to read.

We hope that those issues will be resolved very soon, but in the meantime, you may receive questions from your members (from our experience, it always take time for spyware software to revise their reviews and distribute an updated version to their users). Do not hesitate to contact Olivier or the rest of the Sample Team if you still have any question.

As you may know, OTX is proud to be the market research sponsor for PRODUCT (RED), a global marketing campaign aiming to help eliminate AIDS in Africa.

Alice Gold, former head of OTX sample turned VP of Marketing Insights, recently presented at the ARF our findings from a three-wave tracker.

You’ll find a summary of the event here:

 http://www.worldopinion.com/news?cmd=item&id=38682

OTX sample staff and engineers are hard at work implementing your suggestions for improving our system - reporting tools, user experience, etc. The latest change that just went live is as follows: 

THEN:  After we pushed a study to “complete,” if any residual sample hit that closed study, that respondent got an error message. 

NOW: After a study is pushed to “complete” any residual traffic will take one of three different courses: 

1) If that sample was sent using a ROUTER (PICKER) link, it will be sent to the top of that router.

OR

2) If that sample was sent using the standalone link for a study that is in a ROUTER (PICKER), it will be sent to the top of that router

OR

3) If that sample was sent using a STANDALONE link with &FSA=1 appended, it will be sent to the designated OVER QUOTA link. 

Questions? Contact sample@otxresearch.com.

Please help the Sample Team in welcoming Nikhil Lobo to OTX as a Sample Coordinator!

Nikhil Lobo was born in Mumbai, India. He attended the University of Mumbai, and obtained his Bachelors and Masters of Commerce. On July 29, 2004 (to be precise!), he moved to Chicago to complete his MBA at the University of Illinois. Nikhil worked for the Department of Psychiatry, as an Operations Assistant, until he met the OTX Sample Team who convinced him to pick up his belongings and move to LA!

Nikhil has been in Los Angeles for two days! He hasn’t had a chance to explore the city, but he’s conquered the 405 freeway!

A little more info:

- Favorite movie of all time: Speed

- Favorite TV Show of all time: Everybody Loves Raymond

- Favorite Color: Blue

- Favorite way to spend time: Watching Movies

- Greatest Accomplishment: Completing his MBA

- First Impression: He’s self-proclaimed shy

- Last Impression: He’s a talker J

His AIM is NikhilOTX and his extension is 3510.

Blogspot is like, so five minutes ago. We have our own domain now!

Welcome to our NEW blog. We hope you enjoy

OTX POISED FOR FUTURE GROWTH

Global Research Agency Makes Five High Visibility Hires

LOS ANGELES, CA – April 5, 2007 – OTX (Online Testing eXchange), the leading global consumer research and consulting firm, announced today the appointment of five executives. The move signals that OTX, already number 22 on the Honomichl 50 – the American Marketing Association’s ranking of the top market research companies in the country - is preparing for aggressive growth.

Click here to read the rest of the press release…

Last week, OTX Research sponsored a table at an event called Mentor L.A.’s inaugural Promise Gala at 20th Century Fox studios – honoring Tom Cruise. The actor is a supporter of the non-profit, which is dedicated to revitalizing both schools and neighborhoods in the city.

Naturally the entire Sample department was at the top of executive management’s list to attend however we all had other plans, so they ended up taking the VP of the Theatrical division and some Theatrical research managers. One of said OTX’ers is Kazuki, who manages those giant high priority weekend trailer tests.

Here is some eye candy for you from the event - Kazuki with Orlando Bloom and Tom Cruise!

Next week, we’re welcoming a new member to the Sample team. Once we’ve gotten to know the guy, we’ll give more details about what makes him tick. For now, we wanted to let you know there will be a new name copied on the 3,532,364 we send you every day.