What they're saying about Magnify

FOLSOM, California, December 11, 2008

ION Publications LLC, publisher of ScientificBlogging.com, ( http://www.scientificblogging.com/) The world's premier online science community, has released its version 2.0. ScientificBlogging.com ( http://www.scientificblogging.com/) is the world's largest independent online science community and a place where world-class scientists, professionals and science enthusiasts alike contribute to writing science articles and blogs while facilitating discussions about physical science, earth science, biology, medicine, neuroscience and culture. The 25 featured writers include best-selling science authors as well as academics who are leading cutting-edge research in their respective fields while total membership includes people from all areas of science academia and the private sector.

Version 2.0 Feature Set

- Enhanced Profile customization allows even more individuality for writers
 • More robust open access now allows tens of thousands of science members to participate simultaneously
 • Chat, private messages and onsite collaboration along with the most detailed traffic statistics for each contributor
 • New front page makes more articles available to readers at a glance
 • An integrated video platform increases the breadth of the science content

"The new features along with the ground-up optimization we have done will allow us to continue to grow as a community but maintain a speedy interface and allow readers to get to content quickly," says Hank Campbell, publisher of ScientificBlogging.com. ScientificBlogging.com has everyone from research professors to world-renowned science journalists to the occasional Nobel prize winner all in one location, insuring that science readers who want to get their science writing from scientists can do it without going to multiple locations.

"I blog for one site and one site only--Scientific Blogging. And I do it for a simple reason; Scientific Blogging's founder and editor, Hank Campbell," says Howard Bloom, author of The Lucifer Principle and founder of the The Space Development Steering Committee, who writes on Energy issues.

The new release also incorporates easy integration with a variety of other social media sites, like Twitter, Reddit and Facebook, making the pool of collaborators even larger. An enhanced 'related articles' search feature means readers can easily find more articles on their topic of interest.

"Scientificblogging.com is one part quirky entertainment, one part late-breaking science news and 100% fascination. Brilliant!" says Jane Poynter, former Biosphere 2 scientist and now CEO of an environmental media company, who blogs in the Enviroment section. Video has also been promoted to full category status due to the popularity in testing.

"We're excited to power video for ScientificBlogging.com" ( http://www.scientificblogging.com/) said Steve Rosenbaum, CEO of Magnify.net. "As one of the top science sites on the Internet, ScientificBlogging.com has done an incredible job of being at the forefront of breaking science news. Now, with Magnify's video platform, Scientific Blogging's writers will be able to complement their text posts with rich video content."

More features, including category specific widgets and a new 'Science For Kids/Science For Parents' section, will be announced in the next two months, said Campbell.

About ION Publications ION Publications, publisher of ScientificBlogging.com, is the world's largest online science community and among the top science sites on the Internet. Members and writers can create feature articles, chat, collaborate, interact, use the forums or host their own science blogs and get paid to do it. Founded in 2006, ION Publications is privately held and based in Folsom, CA. For more information, please visit http://www.ScientificBlogging.com. [MORE »]

NYC Startup Updates: Outbrain, ZocDoc, Magnify.net, KickApps Written by Allen Stern - December 11, 2008

Here's the latest news from a variety of NY-based startups. If you are a NY-based startup and have news about your company, send it in.

KickApps

KickApps announced today that they have hired David Lapter as Chief Financial Officer and Tom Gaffney to head up the company’s expanding Customer Success division. Apparently the Customer Success division works on strategy and creative services.I've never heard of a Customer Success division but I like the idea! Check out all of our KickApps coverage.

Outbrain

Outbrain launched an update to their widget this week called the "Link Zapper". We run the Outbrain recommendations widget on CN (you can see it at the end of this post). The widget recommends other posts both from CN and from our whitelist of partner sites. The Link Zapper allows us to easily remove a link that might not be a good fit for the source story. It's a very manual process and while I am hoping for some automated tools in the future, it's a good start. Check out all of our Outbrain coverage.

ZocDoc

We've covered ZocDoc extensively on CN and I believe it could be the breakout star of 2009. ZocDoc provides online management for doctor, dentist and other healthcare practitioners. Forbes magazine named ZocDoc the winner of their small business contest. The announcement came this week and ZocDoc won $100,000 to further develop and expand their service.

Magnify.net

Earlier this week Magnify.net announced the launch of Thwoop.com, an online community for featured entertainment content and user-contributed videos. The concept for Thwoop.com came from children’s toy e-tailer Brand Performance and the site will be powered by Magnify.net. Check out all of our Magnify.net coverage. [MORE »]

Brand Performance Launches First-of-Its-Kind Online Video Portal - Thwoop.com

New Online Community Features Videos, Entertainment, Retail and Social Networking For Character Enthusiasts of All Ages

Last update: 11:45 a.m. EST Dec. 8, 2008

ERLANGER, Ky., Dec 08, 2008

Brand Performance LLC ( http://www.BrandPerformance.com), an overarching internet brand management and development resource for licensed character products, today announced the launch of Thwoop.com -- an online community for featured entertainment content, user-contributed videos, online shopping and social networking. The Thwoop.com site offers a new online destination for character enthusiasts looking to network with one another, review products, get the latest industry news and experience new and existing video content that is not readily accessible on other broadcast or online locations. Thwoop.com will initially feature unique and sometimes hard to find videos from NCircle Entertainment, including full episodes of Animal Atlas, Hermie & Friends, Hopla, Mighty Machines, Pocoyo, Word World and more. The site is being developed as an e-commerce destination that will allow visitors to not only view new content, but also rate it and then purchase the content directly from various partner sites. The web video channel is a unique combination of video hosting, community engagement, and user-generated content aggregation that is being provided by the Magnify.net Video Solutions platform.

"Thwoop.com offers a perfect opportunity for us to reach consumers in a new and exciting way, and embrace all of the amazing possibilities the web provides for video entertainment and social networking. We are pleased to be working with industry leaders NCircle and Magnify.net on this exciting new endeavor," said Ty Simpson, CEO of Brand Performance. "Our customers already love our brands, and now we can offer them exclusive new content on Thwoop.com that both enhances our brand partners and gives us a new platform to communicate with our customers. Never before have all of these elements been available in one place, dedicated to character enthusiasts."

"We are honored to be the first video entertainment partner for Thwoop.com," said Debbie Ries, Senior Vice President & General Manager at NCircle Entertainment. "The site offers a great opportunity for us to introduce our branded video content to a whole new audience of character lovers, and provide a seamless 'one-click' solution to easily purchase it online."

"Building Thwoop.com with Brand Performance has been a tremendous experience," said Magnify.net CEO Steven Rosenbaum.

"Thwoop looks like the future of children's entertainment, and we're excited to partner with Brand Performance to break new ground."

Brand Performance helps licensors manage their character brand assets on the internet by providing strategic ecommerce, online marketing and fulfillment services. Brand Performance currently operates and manages http://www.TysToyBox.com and http://www.AllAboardToys.com, along with official online stores for Thomas the Tank Engine, Curious George, Yo Gabba Gabba, Care Bears and Caillou on behalf of leading licensors such as HIT Entertainment, Cookie Jar Entertainment, Universal, Big Tent Entertainment, and Chorion.

About Brand Performance Brand Performance ( http://www.brandperformance.com) is an online brand development resource for licensed character products. The company acts as a multi-channel e-tailer of licensed character brands, specializing in the creation, management, marketing and fulfillment of comprehensive, dedicated marketplaces that carry the full breadth of officially licensed product available for each brand. Brand Performance is the parent company of TysToyBox.com and AllAboardToys.com, two of the fastest growing character based independent online toy stores.

About NCircle Entertainment and Source Interlink NCircle Entertainment, a division of Source Interlink Distribution, LLC, licenses, manufactures and distributes family and children's programming and related images for home entertainment and consumer products. Source Interlink Distribution is a subsidiary of Source Interlink Companies, Inc. ( http://www.sourceinterlink.com/) SORC, a $2.2 Billion media and marketing services company operating in 25 states, is a leading U.S. distributor of home entertainment products and services and one of the largest publishers of magazines and online content for enthusiast audiences. Source Interlink Media, LLC ( http://www.sourceinterlinkmedia.com/) publishes over 75 magazines and 90 related web sites. Source Interlink Distribution services tens of thousands of retail store locations throughout North America distributing DVDs, music CDs, magazines, video games, books, and related items. In addition to distributing over 6,000 distinct magazine titles annually, the Company maintains the largest in-stock catalog of CDs and DVDs in the U.S. -- a combined total of more than 260,000 titles. Supply chain relationships include consumer goods advertisers, subscribers, movie studios, record labels, magazine and newspaper publishers, confectionary companies and manufacturers of general merchandise.

About Magnify.net Magnify.net lets publishers immediately deploy a Media 2.0 strategy by enabling them to leverage their best assets and combine them with those curated and uploaded by their community from across the social Web -- all in one place, through one easy to deploy video player, uploader, and viewer. It provides a cost-effective and automated service that features and delivers a unique and engaging video mix. The platform currently serves 46,000 web publishers. http://www.Magnify.net [MORE »]

New Thwoop.com Uses Broadband to Invert Content/Commerce Model Monday, December 8, 2008, 09:56 AM ET posted by: Will Richmond

Brand Performance, a large player in the market for licensed character products for kids, is announcing Thwoop.com today, using broadband to invert the traditional model for content and commerce. I got a briefing from Ty Simpson, the company's CEO.

First a little background. Whenever you walk into a store like Toys-R-Us, you'll see rows and rows of products from hit kids programs like Ben10, Cars, Hannah Montana, etc. Licensing the characters and images from these shows to product manufacturers is a key source of revenue for program creators. If you have young kids as I do, you can attest to their popularity.

As Ty explains it, the industry is traditionally very hit driven. That means there is only a relatively small amount of room on TV for all of the character-driven programs that are produced. Similarly, big-box retailers allocate their finite shelf space to only the hottest properties. Ty recognized this latter scarcity several years ago and set up Tystoybox.com to focus exclusively on providing distribution for a broad range of licensed character products, many of which cannot get physical distribution. The site and its sister, AllAboardToys.com, have become the two largest independent online stores for these products.

With Thwoop.com, Ty is capitalizing on the scarcity of on-air shelf space for the programs themselves. The site aims to create a new kids entertainment experience, offering full program episodes of various kids programs along with trailers and other video. The first partner is NCircle, producer of Animal Atlas, Hermie & Friends and other shows. Thwoop.com's goal is to be a destination site where video can be seen and purchased, social networking and interactivity is promoted and user-generated product reviews are uploaded.

What's really unique here is that the whole site is supported by commerce, not advertising. On-air these programs are all ad-driven and the licensed products are considered ancillary. But Thwoop.com inverts the model, with commerce supporting the video. Ty explained that he's become a strong believer in broadband's potential to dramatically open up video availability, and that product sales will naturally follow. Presenting a strong user experience was a top priority, and Thwoop has partnered with Magnify.net to power the entire site. Maginfy's CEO Steve Rosenbaum said his company is unveiling its "theater-mode" and full-screen player as part of the launch.

As a parent Thwoop.com raises some interesting questions. For example, my son is a Ben 10 fanatic. I like the idea of a site where he can watch the old episodes and immerse himself in the characters, and maybe even interact with other kids (assuming the right safeguards were in place). On the other hand, I have to admit, it scares the bejeezus out of me that he would get even more exposure to the licensed products. As my wife likes to remind me, we hardly need any more Ben 10 paraphernalia in our house...

Regardless, Thwoop.com is exactly the kind of new, innovative experience that broadband enables. Clever entrepreneurs like Ty recognize that broadband resolves traditional distribution scarcities, opening up completely new business models. When I put my VideoNuze hat on, I'm excited to see it launch. [MORE »]