For the past 6 months I’ve been working on a new project outside R3 Media LLC with my business partner Vincent Nguyen and a great developer Daniel Lim. The project is called eGether; a multi-dimensional social portal for consumers, reporters, analysts and PR practitioners. Curious? Then head over to eGether now!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Come together with eGether a collaborative multi-dimensional service combining the best functionality from Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and LinkedIn.

Scottsdale, AZ, and Dallas, TX — December 8, 2009 — Addressing consumer demand to have one site that links to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and LinkedIn, eGether is launching today in public beta (http://egether.com/). A collaborative multi-dimensional social portal for consumers, reporters, analysts and PR practitioners, eGether is centered around an Activity Pitching Engine (APE) that combines 255 character status updates and 999 character pitches, using familiar @ status messaging for inter-user communication. Status updates can include one image, while pitches can include image and video content (including embedded YouTube), documents such as DOC, PDF and ZIP, and hyperlinks.

eGether was founded by Vincent Nguyen and Ewdison Then after they had grown frustrated using a combination of existing networking tools to collaborate. They developed eGether to bring the best of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and LinkedIn functionality and features into one easy-to-manage social networking service structured around Activities and Connections. Activities originate from user status updates and pitches, combined with user-defined contact information, online galleries that can be tagged with people and products. Connections include private and public circles — groups of other eGether users with whom they collaborate, or topics about which they are interested.

eGether also allows consumers to obtain product and service information direct from the source, rather than second-hand. Consumers can use global search for the latest company news and reviews, and PR firms can freely pitch their clients’ products and services, rather than sending out individual alerts.

eGether offers a single information point with a custom URL for users that can be shared via email, Twitter, Facebook and elsewhere. Visitors can then engage in discussions with everyone from consumers, to people in the media, to analysts, or even engineers involved in the company. eGether also empowers users to connect and share what’s on their mind, or even just to share their thoughts on the shiny new gadget they received over the holidays.

To start taking advantage of eGether’s powerful social networking tools, sign up at http://egether.com/signup.

eGether is supported by an advisory board including Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, Inc. (www.creativestrategies.com); Michael Gartenberg, vice president of strategy and analysis at Interpret, LLC (www.gartenblog.net); Seth Combs, interactive brand strategist(www.sethcombs.com); and Judie Lipsett, tech blogger and founder of GearDiary (www.geardiary.com).

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For more information, contact

Vincent Nguyen
vincent [at] r3media.com
+1 (917) 477-7911

http://eGether.com/Vincent

Ewdison Then
ethen [at] r3media.com
+1 (917) 720-8281

http://eGether.com/Ewdi

All marks are the property of their respective owners.

I know I’m a little late on this, but late announcement is better than no announcement at all; SlashGear has added its editorial agenda with columns written by industry experts. While our focus is still up to date tech and gadget news, we wanted to diversify our content with opinions and analysis on digital lifestyle. I would like to welcome Michael Gartenberg, Avi Greengart, and Joanna Stern to SlashGear family.

An analyst working with Credit Suisse is claiming that YouTube is costing itself nearly $500 million a year. YouTube, which is owned by Google, only places banner advertisements on approximately 3% of the pages that make up the website. If they were to increase the number of pages that include web advertisements, they just might see their online advertising revenues increase dramatically.

The analyst, Spencer Wang, suggested that YouTube needs to create a standard web advertisement for their site. Once they can accommodate the additional advertisements, it will be important for YouTube to convince marketers that their site has the capability to boost sales for the products that they advertise.

Not too long ago the forecasted revenues for Google were dropped a bit and YouTube is supposedly to blame. Analysts suggest that the video website is a real weakness for Google. Wang noted that “Despite the growth of YouTube’s user base, there is little evidence to suggest Google has been able to materially monetize this usage. In light of the current ad recession, experimental budgets are being trimmed.”

Google stock has already taken a hit over the last several months. The economy is declining and revenue generated by online advertisements simply is not growing as fast as it used to. Even though the forecast for YouTube was less than optimistic, the value of Google stock grew slightly. At the moment, Google also seems to be generating a great deal of gossip over whether reports of a Twitter takeover are true or not.

Phorm has created a new type of technology that will essentially allow ISPs to track their users’ activity online. ISPs will then be able to take the information that has been generated by users and sell it to online advertisers. This will allow them to use advertisements that fit more appropriately with a user’s interests.

Many people have expressed outrage at the technology which could easily be seen as a gross invasion of privacy. Not too long ago, the Open Rights Group sent several large internet companies a letter that asked them to avoid Phorm’s technology. Those who received the letter included Bebo, Google, Facebook, and Yahoo.

Several companies are beginning to respond to the letter and it looks like Phorm might have a problem on their hands. A Bebo spokesperson said “We have received the letter and are giving it careful consideration from privacy and business perspectives.” Chris Kelly with Facebook added that “If [web browsers] are deeply unhappy with it we hope they express that as clearly as possible to the ISPs.”

It is also easy to assume that companies like Google will want nothing to do with Phorm. This is mainly because the technology that Phorm developed will be competing with their own. Although the technologies used by both companies may be different, the end result is more or less the same. Both will enable behavioral advertising to take place. The Open Rights Group is expecting a response from Google shortly.

It is no secret that the newspaper industry is suffering but several journalists who work with online newspapers believe that the future of the industry will be saved with the help of web advertisements. The Online News Association conducted a survey of approximately 300 journalists and the vast majority of them said that the news industry will find a way to stay profitable.

The survey questioned the journalists as to how online news sites would be able to turn a profit in the future. Around 60 per cent of respondents said that web advertisements would be the most likely way to generate revenue in the next few years.

Print publications have slowly begun to realize that their readership base is shrinking. In most cases, the good news is that these same readers are heading online to read the information. A great example of this is a major newspaper like the New York Times. Every month this site receives millions and millions of unique clicks.

While their subscriber bases might have receded, the customers are still reading the news. The only thing that print publications need to do now is figure out how to generate the revenues from their online readers to make up for what they might have lost through the print side. With web advertising continually growing, it seems like the perfect opportunity for a number of these publications to cash in on.

Perhaps this strategy is oversimplified and it could prove to be ineffective. Rupert Murdoch recently noted that web advertising rates were simply too low.

NeXplore has just launched the latest beta version of its web advertising software called NeXplore Ads which focuses on search capabilities. In what the company is calling a “lifecycle platform”, marketers will be able to utilize NeXplore Ads to create web advertisements and then manage their ad campaign going forward.

NeXplore Ads will allow marketers to engage in advertising campaigns that include a variety of different advertisement formats including simple text, video, instant message, and email. The new advertising platform will integrate with the company’s web browser called NeXplore Search which users will enjoy simply because of its aesthetic qualities.

The chief marketing officer for NeXplore, Scott Grizzle, said that with the help of NeXplore Ads, marketers will be able to create engaging advertisements that people will enjoy. He added that “With a simple click consumers can watch a brief video commercial and can click again to initiate a real-time video chat with a call center representative of the advertiser. With NeXplore Ads, targeted consumers are engaged, relationships forged and transactions consummated within seconds, with absolute privacy and without leaving the search results page.”

One of NeXplore’s consultants is Rowland Hanson who previously worked with Microsoft on their branding effort for Windows. Hanson has said that NeXplore Ads has really changed the way in which search advertisements can be delivered. He added that companies who take advantage of the interactive advertisements that NeXplore can generate will likely see a great return on their investment.

Web advertising continues to grow rapidly. At the moment, many marketers are looking for alternatives to print advertisements and the web is providing plenty of incentive for them. There are plenty of companies around today that offer a variety of tools to make web advertising easier. Some tools help companies create advertisements while other tools are used to help you understand how effective your web advertisement really is.

A new company called Yield Software is attempting to combine these aspects into one tool which marketers will be able to use with ease. Matt Malden, who is the chief executive officer of the company, said that they were looking to companies who want to spend upwards of $20,000 a month for marketing. He pointed out that a number of companies find current tools to be cumbersome or that they do not include all of the capabilities that they want.

Malden said that Yield Software developers spent a great deal of time thinking about the various elements that they would include in their package. Some of the tools could be automated while others could not.

Companies will be happy to know that the software will help them determine the types of keywords that their search advertisements should be based on. The program will help to determine the actual look and style of the advertisement as well. Anyone that is interested in Yield Software will have an opportunity to test it out for free during a month long trial period.

Popular website Wedding Mapper is changing the way web advertising is conducted. In what is considered to be a first in the advertising industry, Wedding Mapper is going to start auctioning off space for web advertisements that will be placed on a variety of different local sites.

The President of Wedding Mapper said of the new web advertising scheme that “Most industry websites cannot afford to cater to small, local businesses due to the overhead required to penetrate such markets with a sales team. Because we are fully automated, Wedding Mapper can serve diverse markets and support large and small businesses delivering the industry’s most competitive pricing structure with stronger results.”

Wedding Mapper uses a sophisticated algorithm to determine price levels. This algorithm takes into account things like web traffic and even the city which the site might be geared toward. Any company that wants to participate in the web advertising auction is required to create a budget. After the bidding process is over, Wedding Mapper will chose the winners who will then receive premium advertising space.

Those that win the auctions will receive an update every other month which details how well their advertisements are doing. Various statistics are included in this report such as the click-through rate.

So far the auction scheme seems to be working out well for Wedding Mapper. The site has already received around 250,000 bids for advertising space which covers approximately 7,000 markets.