Gigya, Inc., the leading technology for connecting content and consumers with the social web, today announced that its Socialize technology is now available as a plug-in for WordPress. WordPress, the largest self-hosted blogging and OpenSource toolset in the world, has quickly become a favorite among developers seeking rich functionality and ease of use.

The new Socialize plug-in enables WordPress sites to easily add multi-dimensional social and authentication functionality by providing a single point of access to Facebook Connect, MySpaceID, Sign in with Twitter as well as OpenID providers like Gmail, Yahoo! Mail and AOL Mail. The plug-in is available on Gigya’s website at http://www.gigya.com/public/Content/About/Press.aspx?m=Press&p=1171 or on WordPress at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/gigya-socialize-for-wordpress/

Powerful Authentication, Social and Promotional Features
WordPress sites that implement the plug-in have immediate access to a variety of powerful authentication and social features. Users can log into the site using their social network or webmail identity, enabling the Socialize plug-in to personalize the user experience by displaying the user’s name and image. Users can also update their status, promoting their activity to the newsfeeds of their social network, or invite specific social network friends with a custom message, driving traffic back to the original site. The Socialize WordPress plug-in also enables users to post comments on blog posts directly to their newsfeed on Facebook.

With the Socialize WordPress plug-in any site can allow users to share content or a specific event on the website. By integrating user profile and social graph data, Socialize makes the user experience social.

“It has never been easier to add so many social features to a WordPress powered site,” said Patrick Salyer, Director, Business Development, Gigya Inc. “No engineering skills are needed to add this functionality to your WordPress Toolbox. It is a great way to include seamless authentication, social and sharing features on any WordPress website.”

Gigya has also released a plug-in for Wildfire, the industry standard platform for sharing content to more than 70 destinations. The Wildfire WordPress plug-in enables bookmarking and email functionality for blog posts, providing another way for users to share content with friends and followers.

Currently, plug-ins for both WordPress and bbPress, WordPress’ forum software solution are available. They are both fully configurable from the WordPress administration panel, require little time to install, and require no programming knowledge.
Socialize’s code is also OpenSource, so developers can customize it as desired for their specific site needs.

About WordPress:
WordPress was born out of a desire for an elegant, well-architected personal publishing system built on PHP and MySQL and licensed under the GPL. It is the official successor of b2/cafelog. WordPress is fresh software, but its roots and development go back to 2001. It is a mature and stable product. We hope by focusing on user experience and web standards we can create a tool different from anything else out there. For more information, please visit: www.wordpress.org.

About Gigya:
Gigya’s technology is the standard for connecting content and consumers with the social web, providing publishers and marketers with powerful tools for increasing audience reach and engagement. Reaching more than 250 million people each month, Gigya’s innovative widget advertising network enables marketers to engage consumers in social environments and enlist them as brand advocates. The company’s Wildfire and Socialize products enable publishers to syndicate and track their content across more than 70 unique platforms, and to integrate and promote their own websites with popular social platforms like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. Publishers and advertisers including Coca-Cola, DoubleClick, Electronic Arts, Hyundai, JCPenney, Kraft, Levis, Photobucket, Samsung, Turner and Unilever choose Gigya to connect their content with the social web.

Commuto has officially released their new community bartering widget, targeting social networking, gaming and blog type websites, based on the ever growing Commuto.com social bartering site.

“We’re very excited to release our Community Widget, a first of its kind, which allows users to take their bartering communities and place them on their sites. Now users can create or join hobby specific communities like book clubs or more obscure ones like plant trading and place it on other sites.

Members of MySpace, Ning and other social networks will be able to place their bartering communities on their personal pages for all their friends to see. So even non-members of Commuto will know what they have to trade and what they want,” says Stephen Arbib, Founder of Commuto.

The widget will show users the location of the community, its members, the items available for trade and the items users want. In order to download the widget users will need to visit the specific community page and click on the “Grab Community Widget Code” link.

Since its launch Commuto has released a Facebook application that provides nearly all the functionality of Commuto within Facebook, and their Barter Buddy Widget that helps users find others in their communities with similar interests based on what they own, want, and like. Through Barter Buddy, users are able to build local specific communities with ease and find users in their cities who fit exactly who they want in their communities.

About:
Commuto is an online social bartering network where members can swap in person with others members in their cities, schools, workplaces or any other communities they create or join. For more information please visit Commuto.com

KineticaRT has started a TwinCAT Developers group on the professional networking website Linkedin to provide a forum for all levels of Beckhoff TwinCAT PLC developers to discuss programming and system engineering issues, problems and solutions.
KineticaRT has been developing solutions using TwinCAT for several years and it would have been great, during that time, to have been able to share our problems with others. Support from Beckhoff and their in-county agent was excellent, but some of our problems might have been solved more quickly or elegantly based on peer knowledge.

To join the TwinCAT Developers Group on Linkedin go to
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1860933&trk=anetsrch_name&goback=%2Egdr_1245320419899_1

KineticaRT develops innovative and reliable systems and software for complex engineering and scientific applications. For more than 6 years we have provide companies across the globe with automation, measurement and test solutions by the integration of software and Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) hardware.

KineticaRT offers the following services:
* Consultancy
* Requirements analysis
* System design
* Software development
* System integration and test
* System support

KineticaRT can deliver full turnkey solutions through established partnering with others for:
* Mechanical design and build
* Electrical and electronic design and build

KineticaRT Limited
The Innovation Centre
Rennes Drive
Exeter
EX4 4RN
England
+44 (0)1392 217855
[email protected]
http://www.kineticart.co.uk

YourMembership.com Inc., a leading global provider of online member communities and membership management software, today announced the launch of a new add-on, called SocialConnect™, that provides Facebook® integration.

The SocialConnect add-on to YourMembership.com communities leverages Facebook Connect technology and enables members of YourMembership.com customer communities to sign in to their organizations’ private communities using their Facebook credentials (username/password). Once signed in, members have the option to post updates automatically to their personal Facebook walls when they conduct many actions within their organizations’ private communities.

Actions that publish from a YourMembership.com community to Facebook include: blog postings, photo uploads, events, fundraising activities, member profile updates, media uploads, résumé updates, forum posts and more. As member activity is automatically posted to Facebook, these updates also are included on the Facebook homepage feeds of their connected friends.

“SocialConnect helps extend our customers across the social grid. The more information that they share across open social networking sites, the greater their exposure and visibility,” said William H. Stover Jr., CEO and president of YourMembership.com. “With the purchase of the SocialConnect add-on, our customers can increase member registrations, member interaction, event registrations, transactions and overall brand recognition for their organizations.”

While a member’s Facebook wall may feature links to content on his/her organization’s private community, access to private content is controlled by YourMembership.com’s security settings. To access private content, an individual must be an approved member of a YourMembership.com community.

About YourMembership.com

Founded in 1998, YourMembership.com Inc. develops online member communities and web-based membership software for associations, non-profits, government organizations, corporations, congregations, secondary schools, universities, foundations, fraternal organizations and private social networking sites. Serving hundreds of customers around the world, YourMembership.com creates truly dynamic, secure and connected member communities with all product features, design, hosting, future product upgrades and customer service included for one low fee. Please visit www.YourMembership.com for more information.

SocialConnect is a trademark of YourMembership.com Inc. Facebook® is a registered trademark of Facebook Inc.

FatCow (www.fatcow.com), a leader in Web hosting services for individuals and small businesses, worked with Google to become the first Web hosting company to implement the Google Services for Websites console that customers access directly from the hosting control panel. The goal of Google Services for Websites is to enable customers to maximize the potential of their Web site and provide easy access to expanded services such as Webmaster Toolsâ„ , AdSenseâ„ and Custom Searchâ„ .

Google Services for Websites allows Web site owners to easily install, activate and access their Google Web tools through a central location on the hosting control panel. Product Managers from Google and FatCow worked closely together to develop Google Services for Websites and provide hosting customers with a superior user experience.

“We wanted to capitalize on all of these great Google tools by making it easier for customers to utilize these best-of-breed tools through a single sign-on,” explains Mitch Haber, Vice President, Product Management at FatCow, “It was an amazing experience to work with Google. We were able to integrate their innovation, technology and commitment to excellence with our understanding of hosting customers to deliver an outstanding application.”

“People who manage Web sites are looking for easy access to simple and powerful tools because they want to focus on retaining users and managing their business,” said Rajat Mukherjee, Group Product Manager for Google Custom Search. “It’s optimal when we can work with a valued Web hosting partner like FatCow to develop new interfaces that make the lives of our Webmasters easier and more organized.”

Each tool within Google Services for Websites adds value to a customer’s site, improves the user experience, and helps the site better “communicate” with Google. The tools include:

* Webmaster Tools – Allows customers to see how Google views their site, identify visibility issues and submit sitemaps.
* Custom Search and Site Search – Adds a customizable search box to their site with a consistent look and feel.
* Adsense for Search – Helps customers generate revenue and better serve visitors’ needs by displaying relevant ads with their search results.

Existing FatCow account holders will find Google Services for Websites in their online control panel under Web site tools and new customers can learn more about this tool and many others by visiting http://www.fatcow.com. Google Services for Websites is also available through other leading hosts, including IPOWER, StartLogic and PowWeb.

About FatCow:
FatCow provides shared Web hosting solutions for individuals and small to medium sized businesses looking for an affordable, reliable Web hosting option. FatCow pioneered the “one plan one price” philosophy when it began offering its signature all-in-one Web site hosting solution, The FatCow, back in 1998.

Odojo Inc. today announced the launch of a new service that monitors and archives a company’s social network activity, meeting the requirements of both Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) and Regulation FD (RFD). The Odojo Archiving Service monitors all activity, created both by company employees as well as content created by 3rd parties, on a host of social networking platforms and archives it into a database for future use. Built upon cloud computing technology by Amazon Web Services™, the Odojo Archiving Service requires no customer IT department involvement and operates as a Software as a Service (SaaS) browser based application. The service monitors and securely archives both company sponsored social networking accounts as well as “keyword mentions” of a companies name, trademarks, and ticker symbol on numerous social networks including (but not limited to) Facebook™, Twitter™, and MySpace™.

“The Odojo Archiving Service provides a mission critical tool to both public and private companies that want to monitor what is being said on social networks by both their own employees as well as 3rd parties,” said Mike Stemple, Founder of Odojo Inc. “Having watched the explosive growth of social networks like Twitter™, we saw a need for a service that can help protect a company from not just SOX and RFD compliance but also keep track of how 3rd parties are utilizing a companies trademark and stock symbol online.”

The Odojo Archiving Service is currently in limited trials with a handful of companies with the company looking for additional “early release” clients.

Additionally, Odojo announces a company authored white paper outlining the numerous risks public companies are experiencing with the advent of social networking. The white paper entitled “Twitter in the Age of Sarbanes-Oxley and Regulation FD”, can be downloaded from the company website.

About Odojo Inc.
Odojo provides a return on investment (ROI) for companies or brands utilizing Twitter™. The Odojo platform helps a company better engage their customers on Twitter™ while providing ROI metrics for their micro-blogging efforts. Odojo has frequent communication with companies in numerous verticals that all have a similar problem, “How can we leverage the power of Twitter™ while also being able to track its ROI?” Odojo solves the problem of how a business can utilize Twitter™ while insuring all communication is archived, secure, measurable, and accountable. The company has built a future proof platform that addresses these problems while also allowing a company to explore other ways to leverage Twitter™ for marketing, advertising, sales, customer service, and more.

Odojo Inc. has no formal relationship with Twitter™, Facebook™, MySpace™, or Amazon™. All trademarks used are properties of their respective owners.

In a proposed answer to the shortage of leads and new clients for small-to-medium businesses, ReferQuest.com, a refer-and-reward platform, has developed a Facebook application to help businesses experience growth, in the down economy. The ReferQuest Facebook app, available at http://apps.facebook.com/referquest/, allows business owners to utilize the power of social networking to develop leads and acquire new customers. SMBs can use the free application to offer finders’ fees to reward customer acquisition (“$10 reward if you refer a new customer”) The ReferQuest Facebook application is available to Facebook users in North America.

During a recession, advertising budgets are amongst the first cutbacks for many small and medium businesses. However, according to separate studies conducted by McGraw-Hill Research and American Business Press, businesses that continued advertising, or increased their advertising, during a recession, saw substantial growth during the economic dip and after it ended.

While the ReferQuest Facebook application may not be a viable alternative to print-and-web advertising, it does allow business owners to acquire warm leads, or leads from a known party, with exposure via viral networking channels where payment is only required on a per-acquired-customer basis. As with other business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) promotions via social networks, the ReferQuest application is the online version of word-of-mouth advertising.

According to Camille Landau, the CEO of ReferQuest.com, the benefits for small-to-midsized business owners are noteworthy:

* Businesses can acquire new customers directly, in stark contrast to traditional advertising methods
* Advertising is free, and payment is only due upon a successfully acquired customer
* Businesses can find customers, partners, and employees who are unreachable via other advertising methods

About ReferQuest.com

ReferQuest.com is a public forum which allows users to offer finder’s fees to those who help them get their needs filled. The ReferQuest Facebook application is available to North American Facebook users, and is available at http://apps.facebook.com/referquest/

XING (www.xing.com) – the leading European business network – will today launch Twitter Buzz, a new web-based app allowing professionals to keep up on trends and opinions on the popular microblogging service, Twitter. The app gives over seven million XING members access to a real-time Twitter keyword filter, and shows results directly on the personalized XING member home page. With Twitter Buzz, you can search for your company or scout the competition, see what’s being said about the upcoming trade fair or the latest software releases.

Jason Goldberg, Chief Product Officer of XING AG, said “In recent months, we’ve launched a number of features with a single goal: Making XING even more valuable for as many of our members as possible. We listened to member feedback, and put priority on releasing exactly those features which will add the most value to the professional lives of our users. The new app Twitter Buzz fits this concept exactly.”

Twitter Buzz is one of the first new XING OpenSocial apps
Following in the success of XING News and Ask XING, Twitter Buzz represents the third OpenSocial app developed by XING, currently in beta. The new app will feature five languages from its launch, and can be displayed on the XING home page and on a special overview page. Due to the universal nature of the OpenSocial API, XING will be capable of integrating third-party applications, the first of which will go live in coming weeks.
Twitter Buzz is free of charge for all XING members, and can be added by clicking here:

www.xing.com/opensocial/canvas;app=3

Two months ago, XING launched its first Twitter-based add-on, allowing members to twitter about events they were attending or organizing. The success of this feature was substantial, and confirms the widespread use of Twitter for business-related topics.

About XING:
XING is the leading European online business network. Over seven million members use XING in 16 languages to do business, find jobs, and pursue a career. XING helps members get connected and stay in touch with their contacts with customized networking solutions and services. Members are active on XING because of the real value generated, with XING Jobs, over 26 thousand specialized groups, and over 90 thousand live networking events a year, organized by members for members.
XING AG went public in December 2006 as the first Web 2.0 company to do so, and the XING AG share has been strong since. A continual increase in membership figures leads to increasing revenues and profits. XING AG is headquartered in Hamburg, Germany, and has local offices in Barcelona, Istanbul, Milan, and Beijing.
XING. Powering Relationships.

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, is pleased to announce the results of its end-user survey, 2009 Corporate Use of Social Networking, an evaluation of how social networking is used in enterprises.

The survey presented questions on corporate use of social networking, policies regarding corporate social networking sites, and the utilization of Web 2.0 tools. The survey includes responses from 1,439 participants.

Social networking has increasingly been making itself more visible in the workplace, and its functionality is being harnessed by corporations globally. Web 2.0 technologies are widely in use. A vast majority (80% of survey respondents) report that they personally use Web 2.0 technologies to connect and share with friends and family while at work. More than half of all respondents (54%) reported that they use Web 2.0 technologies for professional purposes such as connecting with colleagues, generating leads, and collaborating on projects.

“However, despite the current hype of social sites such as Facebook and Twitter, social networking platforms are still perceived as being used only for social purposes,” explains Vanessa Alvarez, Industry Analyst with Frost & Sullivan’s Unified Communications practice. “Enterprises, both big and small, are still just beginning to understand the potential of Web 2.0 tools and public and private social networking platforms. The next level of productivity will occur when enterprises can use these tools to go beyond the social aspect, and harness the unlimited potential of these tools to more effectively manage workflows and drive business.”

Social networking sites are the most utilized Web 2.0 tool. Nearly three-fourths of respondents report using social networking sites for personal use within an organization. Besides social networking sites, other tools cited include blogs, wikis, and teamspaces.

When considering usage in the enterprise, medium-sized enterprises (those with 100-999 employees) employ Web 2.0 tools more often than small (1-99 employees) or large (1000+ employees) enterprises, except for teamspaces, which are most utilized by large enterprises.

More executive-level management, or current leaders, avail themselves to Web 2.0 tools than do entry or mid-management employees.

According to the survey, roughly four out of ten organizations formally use social networking/Web 2.0 tools. In most cases, the IT department initiated the program, with the vast majority of the initiatives managed internally.

The majority of respondents also indicated that their organizations have written policies regarding the use and access of social networking sites. Of those individuals working at companies without a written policy, 80% work in organizations that allow access to such sites, despite no formal policies.

Frost & Sullivan’s survey goes on to measure the length of time participants have been using corporate social networking, in which roughly one-third of respondents report formal organizational use of social networking/Web 2.0 tools within the past year.

Interestingly, client relations, advertising, marketing, and other business communications are not part of most organizations’ use of Web 2.0 tools. The majority of respondents reported that their organizations use Web 2.0 tools primarily for internal use, staff relations, and training.

“Social networking and other Web 2.0 technologies are literally changing the way people think about collaboration, and how willing they are to share information,” says Melanie Turek, Industry Principal with Frost & Sullivan’s Unified Communications practice. “Organizations have always looked for ways to make their employees more collaborative; today, they need to look for ways to make their collaborative employees more effective.”

This survey was conducted by Frost & Sullivan’s Customer Research Team, led by Tonya Fowler, Global Director. Specifically, the Customer Research Team conducts independent, non-sponsored research among end-users to evaluate and measure companies and trends in the market.

For more information, please send an email to Christina Alfaro, Customer Research, at christina.alfaro[.]frost.com, with your full name, company name, title, telephone number, company email address, company website, city, state and country. Upon receipt of the above information, an overview will be sent to you by email.

About Frost & Sullivan
Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth and achieve best in class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company’s Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO’s Growth Team with disciplined research and best practice models to drive the generation, evaluation and implementation of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages over 45 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from more than 35 offices on six continents.

MySpace today announced its intent to restructure its international operations and refocus personnel around a smaller number of territories, while retaining a robust global consumer presence.
The proposed restructuring plan, which is subject to consultation with international employees in some countries, would apply to all international divisions of the company, reducing MySpace’s international staff from 450 employees to approximately 150 employees and closing at least 4 of its offices outside the United States.

Upon completion of the proposed plan, London, Berlin, and Sydney would become the primary regional hubs for MySpace’s international operations. Under the proposed plan, MySpace would place all existing offices in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, France, India, Italy, Mexico, Russia, Sweden, and Spain under review for possible restructure. MySpace China, a locally owned, operated, and managed company, and MySpace’s joint venture in Japan would not be affected by the proposed plan.

“With roughly half of MySpace’s total user base coming from outside the U.S., maintaining productive and efficient operations in our international markets is important to users worldwide and our immediate financial strength,” said MySpace Chief Executive Officer Owen Van Natta. “As we conducted our review of the company, it was clear that internationally, just as in the U.S., MySpace’s staffing had become too big and cumbersome to be sustainable in current market conditions. Today’s proposed changes are designed to transform and refine our international growth strategy.”

About MySpace

MySpace is a technology company connecting people through personal expression, content, and culture. MySpace empowers its global community to experience the Internet through a social lens by integrating personal profiles, photos, videos, mobile, messaging, games, and the world’s largest music community. MySpace is a division of News Corporation (NYSE: NWS) (NYSE: NWS.A) (ASX: NWS) (ASX: NWSLV).

Social Media Advertising company mokono GmbH extends reporting for blog marketing

Berlin, 15th June 2009 – The User-Generated Content & Social Media Committee of IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) released standards for defining social media ad metrics for the first time. The committee – compromised of over 150 member companies – is dedicated to developing and expanding new measurement methods for social media advertising and educating marketers and agencies on user-generated content and social media as a viable advertising platform.

Social Media has changed the paradigm of how people consume online media according to the IAB. The IAB goes on to identify the participatory element where an individual not only receives information but has the ability to take part in the creation and distribution of content as the most profound difference.

Germany’s largest blog marketer, mokono GmbH, has already developed participative advertising formats for bloggers and also established a new additional way of measurement (volume of mentions for brands and topics) which was implemented for the first time in May 2007, the client being Nokia. According to Ryan Walker, Manager Industry Services IAB, this method is in compliance with the IAB definitions: “Counting the number of times a brand is mentioned by name is a valuable metric that is in line with the IAB Social Media Metrics Definitions.”

“The definitions for blogs and widgets are an enduring signal towards the advertising industry which will change online media planning in the long run. Agencies with existing learning curves in this environment will be able to turn their knowledge into advantages for their clients. Being a special marketer for blogs, this development rewards our past efforts and serves as guidelines for further improvement on our reportings”, says mokono co-Founder and Managing Director Vasco Sommer-Nunes.

As largest blog marketer in Germany and one of the leading blog marketing companies in Europe, mokono welcomes the pathbreaking definitions of IAB for the advertising industry. The necessity of a new measurement for blogs is now even more explicit due to these new IAB standards. One more reason for mokono to extend the reporting and act in accordance with the new IAB Social Media Ad Metrics Definitions.

About mokono GmbH
mokono connects advertisers and bloggers, thereby actively supporting agencies and clients in developing a comprehensive understanding of social media advertising. With the experience of running a European wide blog community network including sites such as blog.co.uk, blog.de or blog.fr, special ad formats have been created to suit the demands of agencies and the most influential web group alike. In the past, successful campaigns were performed with brands like NOKIA, T-Home, Diageo or the Tourism Board of Spain.

Octoinfo announced; they will implement P R Quick Press as a tool to inform with a marked impression.P R Quick Press contents will be supplied by individual Companies, fueled by permission email and distributed to a large audience on Social Networks and other Business Platforms.
“PR Quick Press was designed and developed to capture a person’s immediate attention, expand that information and maintain interest of product or service.” said Charles J. Quattrocchi, Jr. Owner of Octoinfo. P R Quick Press is projected to distribute three times a day, three days a Week, four consecutive weeks which will provide a sustained concentration.
P R Quick Press offers daily distribution; an assortment of topics such as charts, graphs, maps, product or service descriptions.
“P R Quick Press, a simple innovative easy way to gather and maintain new clients. A new approach“ Said J.W. McNeal, President, Mc Neal Properties.
Octoinfo, is a five year old promotion firm that markets permission email distribution, rotating banners, voice broadcasting, and exit traffic systems.