WebMD Becomes More Social
March 10, 2010
WebMD has launched WebMD Health Exchange, a new health social networking platform.
WebMD Health exchange allows people to connect with health experts and other WebMD members to share experiences, discuss personal challenges, and receive answers and support.
"WebMD Health Exchange is a powerful new way to connect our 60 million monthly users to share their own experiences and personal wisdom across any area of health and wellness," said Wayne Gattinella, President and Chief Executive Officer, WebMD.
"We expect Health Exchange will quickly become a trusted source of information for our users and an important new communications platform for our sponsors."
WebMD Health Exchange is being integrated throughout WebMD.com, giving people the ability to connect with others on relevant topics. Along with expert led communities, members can create their own communities and exchange information with other users. Communities can be created for public access which are searchable on WebMD and online, or members can create their own private communities to share information with others.
Doctors from Duke Medicine will provide expertise for communities ranging from asthma to rheumatoid arthritis. Experts from the National Health Council, National Osteoporosis Foundation, American Gastroenterological Association, North American Menopause Society, and the American Veterinary Medical Association will lead related community discussions.
The WebMD Health Exchange will also allow third party sponsors to create branded exchanges and to host consumer discussions on specific health and wellness topics.
Context Optional Launches Facebook Brand Management Suite
February 22, 2010
Social marketing company Context Optional has launched Social Marketing Suite (SMS), a customizable platform for brands to manage and build their presence on Facebook.
"Brands that have taken social seriously need to find more efficient ways to stay involved in consumer conversations while keeping pages interesting and free of profanity," said Kevin Barenblat, co-founder and CEO, Context Optional.
"Marketers are demanding workflow and analytics solutions for Facebook that are on par with what they use for television, email and search."
The SMS allows brands to build and launch applications on Facebook Pages, moderate conversations, schedule Facebook posts, track media and links, and analyze engagement and conversation on Facebook.
More than a dozen global brands and agencies have licensed Context Optional's Social Marketing Suite including Fortune 500 companies in the retail, technology, entertainment and financial services sectors.
Social networking users are increasingly making themselves more open to brands and 59 percent of online consumers are active on social networks at least once a month, according to a recent Forrester Research study.
Bing And Ask Increase Search Share In January
February 11, 2010
Bing saw the number of U.S. searches on its site increase 5 percent in January from December to 9.37 percent of the search market, according to a new report from Hitwise.
Ask also had a 4 percent increase in the number of searches from December to account for 2.64 percent of the search market.
Google still dominated with 71.49 percent of the search market but saw a month-over-month decline of 1 percent. Yahoo landed in the second position with 14.57 percent of the search market and also had a month-over-month decline of 2 percent.
Longer search queries, averaging searches of five to more than eight words in length, were up 5 percent between December and January. Searches of eight or more words increased 6 percent.
The same time period showed that shorter search queries, averaging one to four words, were down 1 percent from month to month. Searches of one word consisted of the majority of searches, accounting for 23.67 percent of all queries.
engines remain the primary way Internet users navigate to key industry categories. Comparing January with December, automotive, business and finance, entertainment, news and media, shopping, social networking and sports categories showed double digit increases in their share of traffic coming from search engines.
Among the top three search engines, Google sent the most visits to the automotive, health, shopping and travel categories. Bing saw double-digit growth among all four categories, including a 94 percent increase in the health category.
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NY AG Calls On Kids Websites To Add More Protections
February 3, 2010
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said today he is calling on social networking sites at aimed at children to provide more protections against the threat of sexual predators.
Cuomo said that the Electronic Securing and Targeting of Online Predators Act (e-STOP) law he authored has now resulted in the removal of accounts associated with at least 4,336 registered sex offenders from major social networking websites in the U.S.
At the end of 2009, Cuomo announced that Facebook and MySpace removed 5,385 accounts linked to 3,533 sexual predators from their rolls. Cuomo today announced that an additional 6,336 online profiles linked to 803 additional New York state registered sex offenders have been removed from popular social networking site.
Andrew Cuomo
"New York is once again leading the way in ensuring that social networking Web sites use the data that is now available, thanks to the e-STOP law, to keep kids safe," said Attorney General Cuomo.
"So far, thousands of sexual predators who had opened thousands of accounts have been purged from social networking sites. I am now taking this important protection a step further. I am calling on sites that specifically cater to children to screen users to reduce the threat posed by dangerous sexual predators."
The sites Cuomo is asking to use e-STOP information include:
AllyKatzz, BarbieGirls, Build-a-Bearville, Club Penguin, Girlsense, Neopets, Secretbuilders, Stardoll, Supersecret, Teen Second Life, Toontown, Tootsville, Webkinz, Whyville
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