Mountain View, CA, November 4, 2010 — MerchantCircle, largest online network of local business owners in the nation, today announced that it has reached an agreement with Ask.com, an operating business of IAC to assume the management of the Bloglines personal news aggregation platform. This agreement will allow the popular service to continue uninterrupted for its 2.7 million users. Beginning on December 1st, MerchantCircle will offer a richer, more local Bloglines experience for existing and future users. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
The deal carries strategic significance for MerchantCircle and its network members. MerchantCircle will promote the service to its more than 1.4 million local business members through their account dashboards by integrating pre-created RSS feeds that deliver targeted content on their local areas and industries. Existing Bloglines users will also have an opportunity be exposed to blog content tailored to their locale. Providing local content will be a key element to the future of Bloglines. This will include new deals and specials from local business owners in a particular city.
“We believe the value of the Bloglines platform remains strong, and we see a significant opportunity to localize it for even more relevant content aggregation for users,” said Ben T. Smith, CEO of MerchantCircle. “We are in the business of enabling conversations between local merchants and consumers. We look forward to exposing content aggregation to our members while transforming Bloglines into a faster, richer and more flexible user experience.”
“We’re really happy to have reached an agreement that ensures the preservation of Bloglines for the loyal users who still love the platform,” said Doug Leeds, President, Ask.com. “Though operating the service no longer makes sense for Ask given our focus on our Q&A offering, MerchantCircle will build on the existing feature set, improve the experience for all users and enhance it specifically to meet the needs of local business owners.”
For more information and future updates visit www.bloglines.com
About MerchantCircle
Founded in 2005, MerchantCircle is the largest online network of local business owners, combining social networking features with a variety of free marketing tools that enable merchants to maximize their online visibility. Currently, over 1.4 million merchants use the MerchantCircle network to upload pictures, blog, create coupons and newsletters and connect with customers and other merchants. Local consumers can find more than 20 million business listings through www.merchantcircle.com or major search engines in the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom and Australia. In addition to its free services, MerchantCircle offers a portfolio of premium online advertising solutions including search engine marketing and instant website development.Ranked as one the Top 100 web sites in the U.S. by Quantcast, MerchantCircle is based in Mountain View, Calif., and funded by Rustic Canyon Partners, Scale Venture Partners, Steamboat Ventures and IAC. Learn more at www.merchantcircle.com.
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