WEB CROSSING, INC. LAUNCHES WEBCROSSING NEIGHBORS,
A PRIVATE-LABEL SOCIAL NETWORK PLATFORM
— Now Any Business or Organization Can Have Total Control Over Its
Own Branded Online Social Network —
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., June 22, 2006 — Web Crossing, Inc. today announced
the immediate availability of WebCrossing Neighbors, its new private-label
online social network solution.
Now, businesses and organizations can create, under their total control,
customized, branded online social networks where members can link their
personal spaces with friends and colleagues. WebCrossing Neighbors is a
hosted solution complete with common areas for interest groups, personal
user spaces, profiles, blogs, discussions, photo and file sharing, access
controls, search and much more. WebCrossing Neighbors is available
immediately as a server hosted solution, starting at $195/month.
“We’re extremely thrilled to use the WebCrossing Neighbors platform for our
newly introduced automotive lifestyle social networking site CarSpace,”
said Sylvia Marino, senior director of CarSpace. “This platform allows our
members to have a clean user interface and tools that are easy to use to
bring automotive fans together.”
“Web Crossing products have had a rich history of online community and
collaboration that’s customizable, extensible and scalable,” said Tim
Lundeen, president and CEO of Web Crossing, Inc. “As one might expect,
WebCrossing Neighbors can be functionally and aesthically customized to
meet any company or organization’s goals. WebCrossing Neighbors empowers
businesses and groups to build relationships with, and between, customers,
audience, student body or constituency. Companies wishing to create a
community, bring members of an existing community closer together, build
greater brand loyalty or increase collaboration should consider Neighbors.”
Linking Brings People Together
Personal spaces link friends and colleagues together using the WebCrossing
Neighbors dynamic tagging engine, with support for “degrees of friendship”
that display friends-of-friends and third-degree friends. Access to other
spaces is quick using links from the new activity list, the friend gallery
or the interest group gallery. Each personal space includes an up-to-date
list of new content in subscribed friends’ journal space or discussions.
Each personal space also provides two avatar galleries for quick links to
friends or colleagues or to interest groups.
Members on a WebCrossing Neighbors site can create shared interest groups
to participate in discussions, either via the web-based forum or email
subscriptions. Companies and organizations can also offer “premium
membership” benefits, providing options, such as extra photo albums, more
file storage, and more. Demographic and statistical information metrics
help companies measure success and growth.
Businesses Control Building Brand
To help businesses and organizations build a bridge with customers and
constituents, WebCrossing Neighbors is based on the WebCrossing Core engine
to provide social networking functionality that is scalable, extensible and
easily customized. System-wide search is fully indexed and lightening fast.
WebCrossing Neighbors administrators control access permission rules for
interest group and individual spaces. Administrators can also give members
access control over their own personal space. System-wide announcements
provide members with hot news or other updates from the online community
director who represents the company or organization.
Each WebCrossing Neighbors site is customized both aesthetically and
functionally. The design of the graphics can reinforce company branding,
organization identity or establish its own aesthetic. If the default
features comprise the desired set, WebCrossing Neighbors can be used
out-of-the-box in minutes. Functional modules are administered through an
easy-to-access control panel with switches. The underlying scripts and
templates that control WebCrossing Neighbors operations can also be
modified and extended.
Functional elements provide varying levels of interactivity. Available
functional elements include: classic forum discussions; journal or blog
capabilities with integrated comments; photo albums; personal files for
sharing data or storing backups of files; footprints showing recently
accessing members; instant messaging and chat rooms; and email services for
POP3, SMTP and AJAX-based webmail.
Pricing, Compatibility and Availability
WebCrossing Neighbors is available immediately as a server hosted package
for maximum uptime, priced based on traffic and member storage capacity
starting at $195/month.
Guided tours of WebCrossing Neighbors are available. Additional information
can be found at: (http://webcrossing.com/Home/webcrossing_neighbors.htm).
About Web Crossing, Inc.
Web Crossing, Inc. is the virtual communities and collaboration tools
powerhouse. The award-winning Web Crossing products help companies and
organizations extend brands and build relationships. Further information
can be found at (http://www.webcrossing.com/).