New Widget Delivery Platform Extends the Reach of MIVA’s Expanding ALOT Brand
NEW YORK – MIVA Direct, Inc., the toolbar, homepage and content division of digital media and advertising company, MIVA, Inc. (NASDAQ:MIVA), announced the beta release of ALOT Desktop, a free software application that enables users to display widgets directly on their computer desktops without having a browser window open.
Through the new product, users can choose from a range of different ALOT widgets that they can customize and then add to their desktops. These widgets include an online radio player, news headlines, weather and celebrity gossip. It is intended that with future releases of the product, users will be able to access any widget from MIVA Direct’s rapidly expanding online widget portfolio, ALOT Buttons.
The ALOT brand was launched by MIVA Direct in Q4 2007 and is designed to ‘Make the Internet Easy’ by aggregating ‘best of the web’ content within widgets that can be displayed across toolbars, homepages and now desktops. ALOT’s toolbar and homepage products come pre-configured across 40 different categories, enabling MIVA Direct to build up niche vertical audiences. The ALOT music and recipe toolbars, for example, currently have over 900,000 and 500,000 users respectively.
“Our objective with ALOT is to create an integrated widget platform that users can interact with across a variety of different touch points,” commented Peter Corrao, MIVA’s President and CEO. “We believe that adding increased integration through the launch of products like ALOT Desktop not only enhances user experience, but also provides a valuable platform for brand and direct response advertisers to reach potential customers.”
The beta release of ALOT Desktop follows the October launch of MIVA Direct’s new, fully customizable toolbar and homepage products, ALOT Toolbar and ALOT Home. Together, ALOT’s toolbar and homepage products generate over 110 million searches each month1.
According to an October 2008 report from Razorfish, 55% of “connected consumers” — people with broadband who use social networks and digital media — use widgets on their desktops with some frequency, and 62% use them on personalized homepages and social networking sites.
http://www.alot.com
www.alot.com/desktop/
http://www.miva.com
About MIVA Direct, Inc.
MIVA Direct operates a portfolio of consumer websites, interest-specific toolbars and personalized homepages. 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. MIVA Direct is owned by MIVA, Inc. (NASDAQ:MIVA).
About MIVA®, 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.
