News
MIVA Direct Creates First Sponsored Widget for myALOT(TM) Personalized Homepage
NEW YORK-(Business Wire)-February 19, 2008 - MIVA Direct, Inc., the homepage and toolbar division of global digital media company, MIVA, Inc. (NASDAQ:MIVA), today announced a content distribution agreement with leading entertainment website Starpulse.com. The agreement has seen the creation of a Starpulse.com sponsored widget which is available on MIVA Direct's personalized homepage, myALOT.
The sponsored widget features headlines of the latest celebrity news stories taken from the Starpulse.com site. When myALOT users click on one of the headlines they link directly to the full article on Starpulse.com providing the site with a potentially highly qualified source of new traffic. MIVA Direct generates revenue each time a myALOT user clicks on a headline and visits the Starpulse.com site.
The sponsored widget has been designed to enhance the online experience for myALOT users by delivering a constantly updated feed of the latest celebrity news. The widget is available to all myALOT users who choose to display the 'entertainment' widget on their personalized homepage.
This is the first sponsored widget to be hosted on myALOT and signals a drive by MIVA Direct to build high quality content partnerships that deliver value to users and create an additional revenue stream for the myALOT brand.
"We believe that this sponsored widget delivers value for myALOT users, Starpulse.com and MIVA Direct alike. For myALOT users the widget serves the latest celebrity news, for Starpulse.com the widget delivers potentially highly qualified traffic, and for MIVA Direct the widget has created an additional revenue stream for the myALOT brand. We further believe that this is exactly the sort of agreement we're looking to put in place to build the myALOT brand," commented Rob Roe, SVP/GM, MIVA Direct.
"With myALOT, iGoogle and My Yahoo, we're seeing growing demand for personalized homepages. Working with myALOT allows us to have visibility amongst new audiences on these personalized sites and attract them back to our site," commented Dave Armenia, CEO, Starpulse.com. "With this widget, our Starpulse.com users and other celebrity enthusiasts can consistently receive entertainment content pulled from our site that not only is relevant to them, but keeps them engaged."
Launched in Q3 2007, myALOT enables users to create custom homepages by displaying a range of widgets specific to their individual interests. In January 2008, myALOT generated over 10 million impressions with users spending an average of 14 minutes on their homepages per visit(1). myALOT is one component to the new ALOT brand. Other components include web search at http://search.alot.com and interest specific toolbars that are certified by TRUSTe's Trusted Download Program (TDP)(2) (http://www.alot.com/).
http://my.alot.com/
www.miva.com
About MIVA Direct, Inc.
MIVA Direct operates a portfolio of consumer websites and interest-specific toolbars that focus on pop-culture and infotainment. MIVA Direct's millions of active toolbars span a range of niche sectors including jokes, music, recipes and horoscopes and offer consumers search functionality in addition to one-click access to tailored content. The newly-launched ALOT toolbars found at www.alot.com. MIVA Direct's portfolio of consumer destination sites attract over 15 million unique visitors each month and include www.spill.com, an animated movie review site; www.screensavers.com the number one website for screensavers and wallpapers; and leading weather portal, Weather Studio. MIVA Direct is owned by MIVA, Inc. (NASDAQ:MIVA).
About MIVA(R), Inc.
MIVA, Inc. (NASDAQ:MIVA) is a global digital media company with a mission to deliver valuable digital audiences to advertisers. MIVA has two focuses to its business: owning and operating a growing portfolio of consumer destination sites and interest-specific toolbars, through its MIVA Direct division; and running a third-party contextual Pay-Per-Click ad network focused on key vertical sectors, through its MIVA Media division. MIVA, Inc. operates across North America and Europe.
Forward-looking Statements
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements that are based upon current expectations and involve certain risks and uncertainties within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words or expressions such as "plan," "will," "intend," "believe" or "expect'" or variations of such words and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors, some of which are beyond our control and difficult to predict and could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or forecasted in the forward-looking statements, including (1) our ability to successfully execute upon our corporate strategies, (2) our ability to develop and successfully market new products and services, and (3) the potential acceptance of new products in the market. Additional key risks are described in MIVA's reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Form 10-K for fiscal 2006 and our most recently filed Form 10-Q.
(R)Registered trademark
(1) myALOT internal data, January 2008.
(2) The version of the ALOT toolbar that is TRUSTe certified is 1.03. TRUSTe's TDP whitelist can be found at: http://www.truste.org/pvr.php?page=td_licensees
Search Our News Using Google Search
Can't find what you want? Try using Google:
