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Footbo integrates Facebook Connect

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Online community for soccer fans Footbo.com has now integrated Facebook Connect. This enables users to share information across the two platforms and log-in with their Facebook profile.

The access to Facebook’s activity stream enables Footbo users to connect their accounts to Facebook and share their football blog posts, discussion topics and comments with their friends on Facebook. New users coming to Footbo will be able to log-in with their Facebook account, without having to fully register on Footbo.

Footbo features include:

  • Interaction with friends and more than 250,000 football fans from around the globe
  • Live scores, fixtures and personalized news
  • Blogs and forums
  • Prediction Games
  • Grading of players’ performances
  • Photo and video sharing
  • Team and player profiles – created by the Footbo community
  • Fan groups of teams and players

Plastic Jungle secures $4.8 million in funding

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Plastic Jungle, the website where you can sell, buy and exchange gift cards, has secured $4.8 million in its Series A Preferred Stock Financing, led by Shasta Ventures with investments from Bay Partners, First Round Capital and Harrison Metal. The financing will allow Plastic Jungle to accelerate its growth through key new hires, as well as increased marketing and business development efforts.

As part of the round, Plastic Jungle will add two new members to its board of directors, including Tod Francis of Shasta Ventures and Josh Kopelman of First Round Capital. Existing board members include Gary Briggs, Plastic Jungle founder and Chief Operating Officer Tina Henson, and St. Bernard Software CEO Lou Ryan.

Filed Under: Web

Redfin’s online customer community responsible for 40% revenue growth

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Redfin, the real estate infustry’s first online brokerage for buying and selling homes, revealed that 51% of people who bought a home through Redfin reported that the company’s online community influenced their decision to work with the brokerage. Prior to making a purchase, over 22% of Redfin buyers had posted a question to the community.

Visits to Redfin’s online community have increased 415% year over year. In that time, Redfin’s revenues have increased by more than 40%, while the company has reduced marketing program expenses 82%; Redfin’s Net Promoter Score, a measure of customer satisfaction, has increased by 5%.

Redfin’s community, powered by Lithium, is one of the only forums for real estate consumers to ask one another about pricing trends, neighborhood guidance, and local best practices The community allows customers to comment on individual agents’ service, and to suggest improvements to Redfin’s website. Community postings appear throughout Redfin’s site, with each agent’s contributions appearing on a profile page that also includes the agent’s entire deal history as well as customer reviews and ratings.

Boomer women count Internet as primary news source

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The fate of the nation’s traditional news sources, specifically newspapers and TV news programs, may lie in the hands, eyes and pocketbooks of America’s well-connected, growing network of women age 50-plus. A recent survey by VibrantNation.com among its more than 20,000 members, shows that while Boomer women are now utilizing the Internet as their core news source they remain heavy consumers of “traditional” media outlets with nearly 70% of respondents citing a combination of newspapers, TV, radio and magazines among their primary sources of news. VibrantNation.com is the first online destination created exclusively for women 50+ and a peer-to-peer information exchange populated by smart and passionate women.

With statistics showing that women 50+ are spending more money compared to any other demographic– and more time online than teenagers– understanding this often overlooked yet powerful, advertiser-friendly block of consumers could be key to the survival of “traditional” media such as newspapers and TV news programs. Among these “Vibrant Women,” as dubbed by VibrantNation.com, the survey findings uncovered that:

• Online News Leads the Way: 28% of women 50+ depend on the Internet as their primary news source. Of those who turn to the Web for news, 29% use their Web service homepage (Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc.), 25% log-on to newspaper websites (NYTimes.com, WSJ.com, local newspaper sites, etc.), 25% read news blogs and specialty online news sources (HuffingtonPost.com, Politico.com, DrudgeReport.com, Weather.com, etc.), and 16% rely on online news sites of broadcast media outlets (CNN.com, ABCNews.com, CBSNews.com, etc.).

• “Traditional” Media Still Plays a Central Role: While garnering smaller percentages than the Web on an individual basis, when combined 70% of respondents cite multiple “traditional” print and broadcast media as their primary news source — TV news programs (23%), newspapers (21%), radio (15%) and magazines (11%).

TheKnot.com enhances wedding registry services with Felicite.com

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The Knot Inc. announced the acquisition of several registry patents from Felicite.com, as well as the ongoing business of eWish, a web-based service that enables online merchants to easily add online gift registries to their websites.

With Felicite’s patented group gifting technology, wedding guests can pool gift money online to put toward the pricier items on a registry. The patent pending cash substitution technology allows brides and grooms to get more of the gifts and cash they actually want from their registry. These new features will provide couples more options and flexibility when creating and updating their wish lists.

Filed Under: Web