Dedicated Server Provider, Superb Internet, Premieres Managed Hosting Services
Honolulu, Hawaii – (The Hosting News) – August 25, 2009 – Dedicated server web hosting company, Superb Internet, has officially launched its managed hosting division, having had a long history of offering high-end custom dedicated server solutions.
The new suite of managed services will officially be available to all new and existing clients.
Dale Bunten, Dir. Sales and Marketing noted, ”This marks a natural evolution for Superb Internet, as companies become increasingly dependent on the Internet to reduce costs and improve efficiencies. As a result, we are seeing heavy demand for our outsourced IT services despite the economic downturn.”
William Song, Senior Product Manager added, ”The new managed dedicated server line provides clients with enhanced security, disaster recovery, proactive monitoring, and managed firewall options. Each customer is assigned to a certified Technical Account Manager (TAM), who is responsible for understanding and maintaining the client’s infrastructure; including: identification of problem areas and pro-actively resolving them before an incident occurs. We are confident we have one of the strongest managed hosting offerings on the market.”
All Managed servers come with a 100% network uptime guarantee, 1 hour hardware replacement SLA, and Gold Level managed support by default. The services are provisioned by certified network and systems engineers 24×7, at all three company-owned datacenters.
Patrick Ahler, Dir of Business Development added, ”Working closely with such a great group of dedicated professionals has been a rewarding experience and we are confident that our clients will benefit from our rigorous attention to detail, and strict quality control and change management procedures. Our key objective is to ease the day-to-day pain associated with managing IT infrastructure, so our clients can focus on developing their business and applications.”
Since 1996, Superb Internet has been consistently rated as one of the best web hosts by all web host rating agencies, such as Web Hosting Magazine, in all areas, especially customer support and reseller services. Superb Internet provides a complete range of managed web hosting solutions, from virtual shared web hosting through to high-volume, mission-critical dedicated server solutions. Superb’s core focus is customer service, and continuous service improvement, as a part of its commitment to staying ”Ahead of the Rest.” Superb Internet has its own data centers staffed 24x7x365 in McLean, VA, Springfield, VA, and Seattle, WA, and its headquarters office in Honolulu, HI.
To learn more, please visit: www.superbhosting.net/managed-hosting.
Server virtualization, automation and software provider, Parallels, has released its Panel 10 SMB Edition, which, along with and Parallels Partner Marketplace, is designed to enable hosters to quickly and easily deliver commercial SaaS offerings in the cloud.
Renton, Washington – (The Hosting News) – August 20, 2009 – Server virtualization, automation and software provider, Parallels, has released its Panel 10 SMB Edition, which, along with and Parallels Partner Marketplace, is designed to enable hosters to quickly and easily deliver commercial SaaS offerings in the cloud.
Jack Zubarev, President of Service Provider Division at Parallels noted, ”Parallels has been working on a number of best-of-breed ISVs over recent years to launch these offerings. We’re bringing ISVs and hosters together and helping both become more profitable.”
The comprehensive solution introduces Parallels Partner Marketplace, which enables hosters to rapidly enter the growing software-as-a-service market and provides SMBs access to a number of IT and business applications, such as e-commerce, customer relationship management, human resources, accounting, video conferencing, web content management, e-mail and more.
Parallels Partner Marketplace is a central feature of Parallels Panel 10 SMB Edition control panel and lets hosters rapidly profit from the growing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) market by offering the most popular applications through the control panel, says the company. It further avers saying that Parallels Panel delivers access to best of breed software and services, such as Interspire’s e-mail marketing and Pinnacle Cart’s e-Commerce shopping cart. Provider Partners can easily and quickly offer SaaS offerings with no development effort of their own through the combination of the new Parallels Panel 10 SMB Edition and a co-branded Parallels Partner Marketplace storefront that Parallels provides. For independent software vendors (ISVs), Parallels Partner Marketplace offers a straight-forward, cost-efficient way to reach new audiences and create new revenue streams.
Craig Fox, Founder and VP of Product Development, at Pinnacle Cart added, ”We are happy to have joined forces with Parallels Partner Marketplace. Parallels Partner Marketplace lets hosters deliver SaaS quickly and cost-effectively and simultaneously provides SMBs with the applications they need to stay competitive. Now we can easily offer our e-Commerce Shopping Cart to potentially millions of SMBs through Parallels Partner Marketplace.”
Parallels is a worldwide leader in virtualization and automation software that optimizes computing for consumers, businesses, and service providers across all major hardware, o company with 900 employees in North America, Europe, and Asia.
To learn more, please visit: www.parallels.com.
Server virtualization, automation and software provider, Parallels, will conduct a seven-country partner roadshow targeting Parallels’ partners and other hosters, cloud services providers and ISVs.
Munich, Germany – (The Hosting News) – August 25, 2009 – Server virtualization, automation and software provider, Parallels, will conduct a seven-country partner roadshow targeting Parallels’ partners and other hosters, cloud services providers and ISVs.
The EMEA Partner Roadshow will provide attendees with insights and best practices to deploy applications and services in a hosted environment. The roadshow will also provide practical examples of how hosters can use white-label reselling to create a lucrative indirect sales channel with a wider portfolio of applications, while maintaining brand independence and client loyalty.
Johan Vansimpsen, CTO and co-founder at Network Group Europe remarked, ”Network Group is using Parallels to balance a fine-tuned approach for delivering IT resellers the best possible technology to ‘grow with the cloud’ from the start. We are committed to delivering a full-blown hosted communications platform reseller solution and with Parallels, we are now able to deploy new services five times faster, so logically we are anticipating five times more revenue. Parallels also allows Network Group systems integrators (SIs) and value added resellers (VARs) a speedy entry to market option that gives them the fastest route to customers who trust them to deliver the most flexible software and services packages at the best price points.”
White-label reselling enables hosters to resell and deliver SaaS applications including Microsoft Exchange, Windows SharePoint, Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS), etc. in a hosted environment. In the SaaS model, end user customers subscribe to applications instead of purchasing them, typically on a monthly basis. In this pay-as-you go approach, SMBs are afforded an easy-to-use low-cost service.
An April 2009, study by IDC finds that growth in the SaaS market will be strong in Europe despite – and in some cases because of – the weak economic conditions. The overall SaaS market will grow from 237 million in 2004 to 6,005 million in 2013 (1). From this and other recent IDC studies, it is clear that SaaS has become accepted by the mainstream of user organizations around Europe. This will result in continued strong growth, making SaaS a rising star in a very largely depressed European software market.
Dan Germain, CTO at Cobweb Solutions remarked, ”Leveraging Parallels we were able to increase our average revenue per user, deploy new services faster and reduce operating costs. It was critical for us to find a provider able to properly support white-label services at a modular and infrastructure level, so that our partners can resell Cobweb services under their own brand. Parallels allows Cobweb and its resellers to provide multiple-vendor solutions and flexible billing and administration across its different service offerings. Parallels enables Cobweb to increase revenue from each and every customer, both now and in the future.”
White-Label Reselling lets hosters delegate service plans to their customers to resell and offer a wider array of applications, without the extended cost of infrastructure involved in creating and distributing the applications themselves. White-label resale also offers an indirect sales channel and lets resellers maintain their unique brand independence, as well as retaining client loyalty. With white-label web hosting, it is possible for anyone to run their own web hosting business, while they rent or buy the actual web server space and services from an established hosting provider. Resellers do not have to take on the huge investment that make-up a web hosting service such as web servers, network connections, data center staff, server administrators, server support technicians and web server software and system licenses.
The 2009 Parallels Partner Roadshow will be take place in: Stockholm, September 1; Amsterdam, September 3; Warsaw, September 7; Cologne, September 10; Paris, September 14; Madrid, September 17 and London, September 21. To register for any of the events, or for more information, please visit www.parallels.com/emea2009.
Parallels is a worldwide leader in virtualization and automation software that optimizes computing for consumers, businesses, and cloud services providers across all major hardware, operating systems, and virtualization platforms. Founded in 1999, Parallels is a fast-growing company with more than 650 employees in North America, Europe, and Asia.
To learn more, please visit: www.parallels.com.
Domain registration and web hosting company, LCN.com, has initiated large discounts on domain names and web hosting packages, designed exclusively for Twitter users following @LCN_com. Exclusive discounts in the form of promotion codes, such as 25% off .com domains and 50% off web hosting, will be sent directly to those who follow the LCN.com twitter profile, @LCN_com. Mark Boost, Managing Director, LCN.com Ltd, noted, ”Twitter has become a fantastic platform for companies to communicate with and listen to existing and potential customers. By offering exclusive discounts to new and existing customers through Twitter we are giving them another reason to engage with us via social networking. Providing promotion codes and discounts are not the only ways we are using Twitter to engage with our customers. Through Twitter we are seeking customer feedback which allows us to develop and tailor our products and services to give customers exactly what they want.” LCN.com has been consistently evolving to help customers grow their business and the company highlights this as one of the main reasons for its extremely high customer retention rates. Over the last 6 months LCN.com has created partnerships with leading industry brands to offer its customers over 100 pounds of free online advertising vouchers, award winning web design software, royalty free stock images, and, free email marketing credits all as part of its web hosting packages. LCN.com has been providing world class web hosting since 2000 and are one of the largest web hosting companies with 180,000 current customers and over 400,000 domain names registered since its launch in 2000.
London, United Kingdom – (The Hosting News) – August 25, 2009 – Domain registration and web hosting company, LCN.com, has initiated large discounts on domain names and web hosting packages, designed exclusively for Twitter users following @LCN_com.
Exclusive discounts in the form of promotion codes, such as 25% off .com domains and 50% off web hosting, will be sent directly to those who follow the LCN.com twitter profile, @LCN_com.
Mark Boost, Managing Director, LCN.com Ltd, noted, ”Twitter has become a fantastic platform for companies to communicate with and listen to existing and potential customers. By offering exclusive discounts to new and existing customers through Twitter we are giving them another reason to engage with us via social networking. Providing promotion codes and discounts are not the only ways we are using Twitter to engage with our customers. Through Twitter we are seeking customer feedback which allows us to develop and tailor our products and services to give customers exactly what they want.”
LCN.com has been consistently evolving to help customers grow their business and the company highlights this as one of the main reasons for its extremely high customer retention rates.
Over the last 6 months LCN.com has created partnerships with leading industry brands to offer its customers over 100 pounds of free online advertising vouchers, award winning web design software, royalty free stock images, and, free email marketing credits all as part of its web hosting packages.
LCN.com has been providing world class web hosting since 2000 and are one of the largest web hosting companies with 180,000 current customers and over 400,000 domain names registered since its launch in 2000.
For more information, please visit: www.LCN.com.
Provider of private label reseller web hosting services, Value Reseller, has launched new plans for experienced and newer web hosts. The plans have been simplified to provide complete flexibility for all budgets, with Pay As You Go and All You Can Eat plans.
Flemington, New Jersey – (The Hosting News) – August 20, 2009 – Provider of private label reseller web hosting services, Value Reseller, has launched new plans for experienced and newer web hosts. The plans have been simplified to provide complete flexibility for all budgets, with Pay As You Go and All You Can Eat plans.
Ali Davachi, President of Value Reseller noted, ”Customers are looking for simplicity and flexibility. In the world of web hosting where plans and prices can be confusing, we heard our customers loud and clear. Our only two advanced plans are all any web hosting business needs to succeed. The new plans are backed by the best support and features in the industry.”
The new plans coincide with a re-design and re-launch of the Value Reseller website. The All You Can Eat plan provides unlimited web sites, unlimited bandwidth and transfer, unlimited disk space and 100 free control panel accounts for only $297 per month. For a limited time only to celebrate the launch, the price is reduced to only $197 per month.
The Pay As You Go Plan is only $0.50 per GB of disk space and $4 per GB of traffic.
Both plans include:
-24 x 7 x 365 live phone support
-completely automated account creation and billing process
-guaranteed 100% uptime, guaranteed satisfaction
-full-featured control panels with sitebuilders, web-based email, blogging/forum software and more
-flexibility to offer both Linux and Windows hosting
Value Reseller does not compete at the retail level against its partners and is fully committed to helping them succeed. Value Reseller provides a private label reseller hosting solution to web designers, developers and smaller hosting companies. Reseller partners get access to a world class hosting operation with a cloud-based infrastructure that is guaranteed to deliver 100% uptime.
Mr. Davachi added, ”Our next-generation platform of ‘cloud hosting’ makes this possible. The era of dedicated servers is gone. Cloud hosting provides maximum flexibility, scalability and reliability for Value Reseller customers.”
For newer web hosts, Value Reseller offers a $9.95 Linux only plan and a $19.95 Windows and Linux plan.
Value Reseller, established in 1998 with facilities in Boston, MA and Jersey City, NJ, is a privately owned private label web hosting provider focused exclusively on the reseller market. Hosting services offered include shared hosting, enterprise virtualization, virtual private and dedicated servers, and are available for both the Windows and Linux operating systems. All of Value Reseller’s services are backed by a leading edge datacenter infrastructure and network, and supported live 24/7/365 by technicians and customer service professionals. Value Reseller features a next-generation hosting platform built on the principles of cloud computing, making it possible to guarantee 100% uptime availability. This platform is the foundation from which Value Reseller has been able to offer customers hosting for unlimited domains — one of the biggest breakthroughs in web hosting over the past 10 years. Value Reseller is committed to enabling the success of its resellers and does not participate in the retail market in competition with its partners. With a complete private label service, web developers, ISPs, design shops and Internet professionals have everything they need to build a successful hosting business or enhance their existing offerings.
To learn more about Value Reseller, please visit: www.valuereseller.com.
Provider of managed dedicated hosting, and on-demand virtualization/cloud computing and web services, Layered Technologies, Inc., has ranked on Inc. magazine’s third annual Inc. 5000, at the No. 622 position.
New York, New York – (The Hosting News) – August 20, 2009 – Provider of managed dedicated hosting, and on-demand virtualization/cloud computing and web services, Layered Technologies, Inc., has ranked on Inc. magazine’s third annual Inc. 5000, at the No. 622 position.
The list represents the most comprehensive look at the most important segment of the economy – America’s independent-minded entrepreneurs. Consumer electronics maker Vizio, Internet giant GoDaddy, rental car service Zipcar, and beverage maker Honest Tea are among the prominent brands featured on this year’s list.
Jim Melloan, project manager of the Inc. 5000 remarked, ”Savvy trend spotters and those who invest in private companies know that the Inc. 5000 is the best place to find out about young companies that are achieving success through a wide variety of unprecedented business models, as well as older private companies that are still expanding at an impressive rate. That’s why our list is so eagerly anticipated every year.”
Layered Tech, a global provider of managed dedicated hosting, on-demand virtualization/cloud computing and Web services, ranked in the top 12 percent of Inc.’s list because of its three-year growth rate of 441 percent. The Plano, Texas-based company invests heavily in R and D to add new technologies and services to remain a top 10 hosting provider globally. Layered Tech evolved from an emerging dedicated hosting company to a recognized Web hosting provider whose scalable infrastructure powers millions of sites and a wide array of Internet-enabled applications.
The 2009 Inc. 5000, unveiled today on Inc.com, serves as a unique report card on the U.S. economy. Despite the ongoing recession, aggregate revenue among the companies on the list actually increased to $214 billion, up $29 billion from last year, with a median three-year growth rate of 126 percent. The Inc. 5000 are responsible for creating more than 1 million jobs since their founding, making the list perhaps the best example of the impact private, fast-growing companies can have on the economy. Complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, region, and other criteria, can be found on Inc.com.
This year’s list also offers a preview of which industries are poised for growth in coming years. With an average growth rate of 667 percent, Insurance ranked as the top industry overall. Government Services was the top industry gainer with 252 companies on this year’s list, up from 135 last year. Health is the top industry by both total revenue ($22.7 billion) and total employment (156,223 jobs).
Once again, California tops the Inc. 5000 with the most companies of any state with 612. The Golden State is followed by Texas (393), New York (316), Florida (263), and Virginia (261). All 50 states, plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, are represented on this year’s list.
New York boasts 371 Inc. 5000 companies, making it the top metropolitan area, followed by Washington, D.C. (317), Los Angeles (253), Atlanta (209), and Chicago (203).
Bolstered by this year’s No. 1 company, Northern Capital Insurance, Insurance emerged as the top industry, with an average growth rate of 667 percent. Other strong performers include Energy (523 percent) and Government Services (491 percent).
In total, the companies on the Inc. 5000 have created more than 1 million jobs. Health is the top employer with 156,223 jobs, followed by Business Products and Services (122,911), IT Services (89,632), Food and Beverage (86,572), and Construction (65,494).
IT Services had the most companies on this year’s list with 658, followed by Business Products and Services (502), Advertising and Marketing (398), Construction (354), and Manufacturing (342).
Topping this year’s list is Northern Capital Insurance, a Miami-based firm that is helping to revolutionize Florida’s ailing insurance industry. The company generated $95 million in revenue in 2008 and an impressive three-year growth rate of 19,812 percent.
The top woman-owned company is P3S (No. 17 overall), a San Antonio – based firm that provides IT network security and physical security services, mostly to the Defense Department. P3S, owned by Mary Ellen Trevino, recorded revenue of $13.5 million in 2008 and a three-year growth rate of 5,898 percent. The top minority-owned company is Harley Stanfield (No. 3 overall), a Washington, D.C. – based real estate investment firm that buys existing properties, makes them energy efficient, and then resells them as investment properties. Harley Stanfield, founded by Cedric Franklin, posted revenue of $38.4 million in 2008 and a three-year growth rate of 13,350 percent.
The Inc. 5000 posted an aggregate revenue of $214 billion in 2008, up nearly 16 percent from the previous year. The top five industries by total revenue include Health ($22.7 billion), Business Products and Services ($19.6 billion), Construction ($18.8 billion), Energy ($14.7 billion), and IT Services ($13.2 billion).
The Inc. 5000 is ranked according to percentage revenue growth from 2005 through 2008. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by the first week of 2005, and therefore able to show four full calendar years of sales. Additionally, they have to be U.S.-based, privately held, for profit, and independent — not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies — as of December 31, 2008. Revenue in 2005 must have been at least $200,000, and revenue in 2008 must have been at least $2 million. The top 10 percent of companies on the list comprise the Inc. 500, now in its 28th year.
Founded in 1979 and acquired in 2005 by Mansueto Ventures LLC, Inc. (www.inc.com) is the only major business magazine dedicated exclusively to owners and managers of growing private companies that delivers real solutions for today’s innovative company builders. With a total paid circulation of 712,961, Inc. provides hands-on tools and market-tested strategies for managing people, finances, sales, marketing, and technology. Visit us online at Inc.com.
Each year, Inc. and Inc.com celebrate the remarkable achievements of today’s entrepreneurial superstars – the privately held small businesses that drive our economy. The Inc. 500|5000 Conference and Awards Ceremony brings together members of the Inc. 5000 community, both a new class of Inc. 5000 honorees and the list’s alumni, for three days of powerful networking, inspired learning, and momentous celebration. Please join us September 23 – 25, 2009, at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland. For more information about the 2009 Inc. 500|5000 Conference and Awards Ceremony, and to register, visit www.Inc5000event.com. Stay connected with Inc. Events by following @IncEvents on Twitter.
Layered Technologies is a leading global provider of managed dedicated hosting, on-demand virtualization/cloud computing and Web services. By providing high-quality technology, infrastructure and support, Layered Tech enables customers to eliminate capital expenses and save on operating costs while focusing on core business issues. Layered Tech’s scalable infrastructure powers millions of sites and Internet-enabled applications including e-commerce, software as a service (SaaS), content distribution and more. Our clients range from leading-edge Web 2.0 startups, successful mid-sized enterprises and some the world’s largest consultancy and integration firms.
For more information about Layered Technologies, please visit: www.LayeredTech.com.
Web hosting services for personal, business, e-commerce, and dedicated server hosting, Lunarpages Web Hosting, is now offering up to $50 in free Facebook Ads Credits to 160,000 existing customers, as well as for all new customers.
Anaheim, California – (The Hosting News) – August 25, 2009 – Web hosting services for personal, business, e-commerce, and dedicated server hosting, Lunarpages Web Hosting, is now offering up to $50 in free Facebook Ads Credits to 160,000 existing customers, as well as for all new customers.
Amy Armitage, Director of Business Development at Lunarpages noted, ”Facebook has really become the epitome of online social marketing. If you have a presence through Facebook, it can not only boost your SEO but you can also build a following for your business, interact with customers directly, and ensure the online reputation of your company. But the big new thing Facebook is offering now is called Facebook Ads, and Lunarpages is excited to be among the first to offer them free to our customers.”
The promotion is offered in addition to the already affordably-priced hosting plans that Lunarpages Web Hosting provides; currently, there is no set expiration date.
Ms. Armitage added, ”Every new and existing web hosting customer on our Basic, Business, VPS, or Dedicated Servers gets free Facebook Ads credits. If you purchase a Basic or Business Plan, you receive $25 free credits, and if you purchase a VPS or Dedicated Server, you get $50 in free credits! These ads can push your products, services, and websites in front of potential customers on the fourth-most tracked website in the world, right on Facebook.com. That’s an offer that seriously can’t be beat.”
Lunarpages Web Hosting hosts over 160,000 customers worldwide out of three state-of-the-art data centers in California and Nevada. They are best known for their web hosting services, which start at $2.95 per month.
To learn more, please visit: www.lunarpages.com.
Dedicated server web hosting company, Superb Internet, has officially launched its managed hosting division, having had a long history of offering high-end custom dedicated server solutions.
Honolulu, Hawaii – (The Hosting News) – August 25, 2009 – Dedicated server web hosting company, Superb Internet, has officially launched its managed hosting division, having had a long history of offering high-end custom dedicated server solutions.
The new suite of managed services will officially be available to all new and existing clients.
Dale Bunten, Dir. Sales and Marketing noted, ”This marks a natural evolution for Superb Internet, as companies become increasingly dependent on the Internet to reduce costs and improve efficiencies. As a result, we are seeing heavy demand for our outsourced IT services despite the economic downturn.”
William Song, Senior Product Manager added, ”The new managed dedicated server line provides clients with enhanced security, disaster recovery, proactive monitoring, and managed firewall options. Each customer is assigned to a certified Technical Account Manager (TAM), who is responsible for understanding and maintaining the client’s infrastructure; including: identification of problem areas and pro-actively resolving them before an incident occurs. We are confident we have one of the strongest managed hosting offerings on the market.”
All Managed servers come with a 100% network uptime guarantee, 1 hour hardware replacement SLA, and Gold Level managed support by default. The services are provisioned by certified network and systems engineers 24×7, at all three company-owned datacenters.
Patrick Ahler, Dir of Business Development added, ”Working closely with such a great group of dedicated professionals has been a rewarding experience and we are confident that our clients will benefit from our rigorous attention to detail, and strict quality control and change management procedures. Our key objective is to ease the day-to-day pain associated with managing IT infrastructure, so our clients can focus on developing their business and applications.”
Since 1996, Superb Internet has been consistently rated as one of the best web hosts by all web host rating agencies, such as Web Hosting Magazine, in all areas, especially customer support and reseller services. Superb Internet provides a complete range of managed web hosting solutions, from virtual shared web hosting through to high-volume, mission-critical dedicated server solutions. Superb’s core focus is customer service, and continuous service improvement, as a part of its commitment to staying ”Ahead of the Rest.” Superb Internet has its own data centers staffed 24x7x365 in McLean, VA, Springfield, VA, and Seattle, WA, and its headquarters office in Honolulu, HI.
To learn more, please visit: www.superbhosting.net/managed-hosting.
Search engine, Google, has launched new gadgets designed to leverage Opensocial to all iGoogle users in the U.S., including ways to share content, play games and collaborate on the iGoogle page.
Mountain View, California – (The Hosting News) – August 20, 2009 – Search engine, Google, has launched new gadgets designed to leverage Opensocial to all iGoogle users in the U.S., including ways to share content, play games and collaborate on the iGoogle page.
A few examples of the new social gadgets include:
- Content Sharing – NPR enables users to browse through latest headlines across a variety of categories and share the stories that interest them with friends. With the Flixster gadget, users can rate and review movies or browse what films their friends have reviewed or found interesting. Users can now also view their friend’s favorites comics stories or post comments with the GoComics gadget.
- Games and Fun – The Scrabble and Chess gadgets enable users to play two of their favorite games with their friends or the public at large. Users can also see which of their friends has the biggest brain or immerse themselves in a New York Times Crossword where they can complete a given week’s puzzle with the help of their friends.
- Communication/tools – Users can share multiple lists with friends with the social To-do gadget. It’s easy to add and remove items, mark items done, change priorities and edit item descriptions with friends or family. The Social Photos gadget enables users to upload and share their albums from Flickr and Picasa, as well as browse their friend’s albums or top Photos.
As part of the launch, Google also introduced two new features on iGoogle called a Friends group and Updates. A Friends group is a list of friends users can create based on a subset of users’ Google Contacts to be able to interact and share social gadgets with. Updates allows users to see what their friends are up to by sharing gadgets, photos, ratings and more from the social gadgets on their iGoogle page. The new social features are completely optional and can be disabled on any social gadget if users do not want to take advantage of the new features. In addition, not all gadgets on iGoogle are social-enabled and those which are will be marked with a special icon.
iGoogle’s mission is to quickly connect users to the information that is most useful and important to them in an easy-to-use and customizable format. This is just the beginning and Google will continue to offer users more choices that enable them to create a powerful and personalized homepage. For developers and content owners, social gadgets allow more possibilities for building rich and compelling gadgets. In addition, not only can developers take advantage of iGoogle’s growing audience of users to promote their gadgets and drive additional awareness and traffic back to their websites, but they can also earn revenue from their gadgets on iGoogle by placing ads in the canvas view mode of their gadgets.
iGoogle, Google’s personalized homepage, lets users customize their internet experience, choosing the content they’re interested in seeing. Users can access weather forecasts, movie times, play games, or read the latest news, all directly from their homepage.
With the largest index of websites available on the World Wide Web and the industry’s most advanced search technology, Google Inc. delivers the fastest and easiest way to find relevant information on the Internet. Google’s technological innovations have earned the company numerous industry awards and citations, including two Webby Awards; two WIRED magazine Readers Raves Awards; Best Internet Innovation and Technical Excellence Award from PC Magazine; Best Search Engine on the Internet from Yahoo! Internet Life; Top Ten Best Cybertech from TIME magazine; and Editor’s Pick from CNET. A growing number of companies worldwide, including Yahoo! and its international properties, Sony Corporation and its global affiliates, AOL/Netscape, and Cisco Systems, rely on Google to power search on their websites. A privately held company based in Mountain View, Calif., Google’s investors include Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers and Sequoia Capital.
For a full list of highlighted social gadgets, see www.google.com/igsocial.
For more information on Google, please visit: www.google.com.