Demandbase Partners with Jigsaw

Demandbase has formed a partnership with Jigsaw, a business information and data services provider. Demandbase has qualified and integrated more than 1 million of Jigsaw's business contact records into the Demandbase Central technology platform. Jigsaw data is available through Demandbase's lead generation solutions: Demandbase Direct (a pay-as-you-go service for buying business contacts) and Demandbase Stream (a free software widget that lets sales and marketing people see which businesses are visiting their websites, provides a glimpse into their interests and identifies appropriate contacts for sales follow ups.

This partnership should provide immediate benefits for Demandbase. By aligning with Jigsaw, Demandbase has made its offering much more robust and more valuable to customers. With the breadth and quality of information that Jigsaw offers, Demandbase has very quickly increased the power of its lead generation platform. Users should be able to perform more effective and productive searches as a result.

Partnership Bolsters AC-U-KWIK's Portfolio

Weather-driven business solution provider WSI Corp. announced that it has formed a partnership with AC-U-KWIK that calls for the integration of AC-U-KWIK's global airport and FBO data into WSI's suite of proactive operations management products.

AC-U-KWIK has a worldwide database of 8,000 airports with hard-surfaced runways more than 3,000 feet in length, including runway dimensions, available approaches and contact information. Each airport has detailed listings for FBOs, handlers, fuel suppliers, ground transportation and catering. This information will be incorporated into WSI pre-flight briefing tools to provide pilots and dispatchers a comprehensive analysis of weather, hazards, facilities and services information for their route of flight and destination.

This alliance makes perfect sense. It creates a complete pre-flight information solution that should be valuable to the very niche customer base that requires such data. While serving current customers even better, the end result of this alliance will likely attract a set of new customers who are seeking such an integrated solution.

Zillow Launches Professional Directory

Real Estate web site Zillow.com last week announced its launch of the Zillow Professional Directory, a resource that enables real estate professionals and related service providers to market their services to the consumers who visit Zillow.com.

The directory launched with more than 150,000 listings of real estate professionals who already have an active profile on Zillow. Zillow is inviting any professionals who have a connect to local homeowners, buyers or sellers--from real estate agents, stagers and lenders to contractors, landscapers and architects--to include their listings in the directory. Consumers can search by specialty, business name, city, ZIP code or neighborhood.

When professionals register on Zillow.com, they are prompted to create a free profile page and identify their focus areas and expertise. They can enhance the profiles with photos, live listings, personal websites or video and narrative. Also, any of the professional's contributions to Zillow, such as listings, Q&A or discussion posts, link back to their directory profile.

As Zillow works to create a community among the individuals in the real estate market (from buyers and sellers to realtors), the addition of this directory is a natural next step. It seems that it was a relatively easy move as well, since Zillow was able to include the professionals who already had profiles featured on Zillow.

With a struggling real estate market, it shouldn't take much effort to attract other real estate professionals to the directory. For the same reason, the other professionals who can also include their listings (such as landscapers) will also likely be interested in this new offering.

The Zillow site already boasts an impressive amount of traffic. According to the company, Zillow recorded more than 5.4 million unique visitors in September 2008, which represents a 42 percent year-over-year increase in traffic. This new directory should certainly help increase the site's popularity with all of the members of the real estate community it serves.

Reed Construction Data Launches New Web Directory

Construction information provider Reed Construction Data this week announced the launch of SmartBuilding Index (SBI), an integrated and search engine optimized web directory geared toward the architecture, engineering and construction community.

SBI's tools enable users to research building and construction products and services. They can search for specific products and manufacturers. Included on the platform are more than 430,000 case studies from Reed's archives of construction project leads (RCD community members can contribute or modify content related to each project through wikis. There are also product overviews in which companies can align themselves with specific product types and manufacturers can post technical specifications, catalogs, BIM objects and case studies.

Pages for every product type represented by a MasterFormat 2004 code are also available. They include a wiki, a sponsored product spotlight, manufacturers of the product type and current news about the product type. Companies can take advantage of free basic listings that include a brief overview of their products or services, catalogs, case studies, white papers and product offerings. The platform also includes geographic pages that contain building codes, project case studies, regional news and sample project leads.

RCD is known for providing its customers with solutions that solve their information needs and put that information right at their fingertips. RBI solutions typically contain a wealth of content in a variety of formats. SBI appears to be no different, as it fits the mold of a one-stop shop for architecture, engineering and construction professionals.

RCD's intent is for these individuals to rely on this new platform for all of their research needs. At launch, it looks like SBI will be able to deliver. Additional content and functionality that will undoubtedly be added over time will only add to the platform's value.

Internet Movie Database Enhances Content

The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) has enhanced the database of movie information on its website with the addition of actual videos. A collection of more than 6,000 feature-length movies and television episodes are accessible for free on the site.

Users can click a "watch it" button to access the videos. They can also click to purchase the video in DVD format at Amazon.com or through Amazon's Video on Demand service. (Amazon owns IMDb).

IMDb has taken a page from b-to-b content providers by bolstering its site with even more robust content than it previous had, and becoming a one-stop-shop for related content. This certainly makes a lot of sense. The only question is why it took this long.

The benefits are obvious. IMDb undoubtedly had a loyal following of site visitors before; movie and television enthusiasts just seeking basic information about their favorite movies and programs. Now, those visitors will likely spend more time on the site. They will be able to research programs and then watch them without reliance on another site.

IMDb is off to a strong start with such a large number of videos already accessible on the site. Look for this initiative to pick up steam quickly, with the addition of more videos likely to follow.

Labels: IMDB, Internet Movie Data Base