I was delighted with the fresh and slick look of SocialMarker, but as an industrial strength social network and bookmarking automation tool it is just as weak as its competitors.

First, let's look at what they get right:

• Documentation
• Good midrange site support - 28 working sites
• Nice web design

And, unfortunately, the bad stuff:

• No TOS or Privacy Policy
• Spooky monetization scheme
• No workflow

Documentation

I don't know why more people don't do this: documentation on YouTube . It's no subsititute for printed documentation (of which there is none) but it is much much better nothing, which is what you mostly get in this class of automation.

Good Support for Social Sites

While SocialMarker does not support the most sites (that would be Post Toaster) it does support each site as fully as its limited architecture will allow. I was able to walk through all 28 sites and use the register/login/submit buttons where available.

Which is the part the author really got right - they went above the normal "find a URL that direct posts" and got the "/sitename/register.php" and coded it up into their stuff.

Yes, that is 3x as much to break as site owners change filenames to slow down the auto-posting robots - cue Terminator music! And since there is no real commercial business model (see below) you have to worry about support.

Nice Design

I'm not very good at design, but I know a good looking site when I see one - and this is well done. The site is basically one page, and while that makes it look lightweight, it does help the user see what can be done.

Part of what makes the design work is that you have the option of using their service in a "frame" mode. Unfortunately that violates the TOS for a number of sites (Propeller says you may not "frame any portion of Propeller.com", etc).

No Workflow

Despite all the nice design work, the only workflow is a notice that you are on site 7 of 23, or whatever. Which sites? What order? What worked? Who knows.

It is almost counter-productive to offer a consumer 28 choices if they are unable to plan and manage their work. Once again, a critical missing feature.

No TOS or Privacy Policy

Nothing at all. Nada.

Does any of their framing code phone home? The answer is "no" (I looked) but there is nothing to say that that wouldn't be true at a later date. And if they put it in you wouldn't have a leg to stand on because there is no TOS.

Interestingly, that brings us to our next point:

Spooky Monetization Scheme

There is a paypal/donate button (which is nice to see) and a big fat ad for UploadPedia. And another ad for UploadPedia on the frame you work through to go from site-to-site.

Yes, I am sure that framing another site with your ad is a no-no. Ignore that for a minute - I'm just glad to see an attempt to monetize. So I click through.

Hmm, UploadPedia is another free site. Hmm, the TOS does not say that they won't re-use content you upload. Who owns it? Hmm, no idea.

So, I snoop a bit, find out that both SocialMarker (67.228. 29.248) and UploadPedia (67.228.38.58) both use the same registrar and are both hosted on SoftLayer.

Ok, so I am gonna assume they are the same people. And now I'm very spooked by the whole scheme.

Grade: C

This is another service I really wanted to like - it's just pretty, has some documentation, and the author did go to the trouble to make 28 sites work, albeit simply. But they have no TOS, no workflow, and most of all there is that spooky UploadPedia thing going on.

[Check our reviews of EkStreme Socializer and OnlyWire ]