Clearspring Becomes First Widget Network to Receive ABCi Accreditation
McLean, Va. - June 24, 2008 — Clearspring Technologies Inc., the leading widget syndication and tracking service, has been independently audited and accredited by the Audit Bureau of Circulations Interactive (ABCi). Clearspring is the first widget platform to complete an ABCi audit, highlighting the company's commitment to accurate tracking and reporting metrics and to meeting the industry's requirement for independent, third party accreditation.
The ABCi audit concludes that, as of June 16, 2008, Clearspring fairly stated the metrics for its widget platform. It further concludes that Clearspring employs the necessary internal controls and processes to ensure proper delivery and tracking of widgets. ABCi's accreditation also determined that Clearspring's data is compliant with current industry standards, not misstated or overstated by factors controllable by Clearspring, and not manipulated internally or externally. Metrics that were subject to audit included: views, unique visitors, placements created, active placements, clicks, clickthroughs, events, geographic report, computer information, interacted views, clicked views, average time spent, and average interaction time.
"Clearspring's commitment and success in completing a rigorous review of its systems and processes reflects its dedication to transparency and accountability," said Michael J. Lavery, ABC's president and managing director. "In both traditional and emerging forms of media, this type of leadership is a demonstrative step in encouraging media buyers to spend their valuable ad dollars."
Widgets are increasingly used by publishers and marketers to extend their reach to the leading social networks, start pages and blogs and to respond to growing consumer demand for a more personalized desktop, Web and mobile experience.
Clearspring currently serves nearly 4 billion widgets per month and has served over 31 billion widgets in the last 12 months. This activity is captured by the most comprehensive set of widget analytics reporting tools available. These same reporting tools help publishers and advertisers track and optimize their own widget campaigns. The ABCi audit concludes that the processes and systems Clearspring employs to derive these reports have been reliably tracked and counted with verifiable controls, substantiating Clearspring's leadership as a widget syndication platform.
"Being the first widget syndication platform to complete the ABCi audit was an important milestone for our company," said Hooman Radfar, co-founder and chief executive officer of Clearspring. "Receiving accreditation from a well-known and widely respected firm such as ABCi helps assure our advertising and publishing customers that the expansive reach and high volume of widget interaction that they see in our reports have been generated using acceptable and reliable industry practices."
About ABC and ABCi
ABC Interactive is one of the world's leading independent auditors of Web sites and digital technology, performing thousands of interactive audits since its inception in 1996. With nearly 4,000 members in North America, ABC is a forum of the world's leading magazine and newspaper publishers, advertisers and advertising agencies. The organization provides credible, verified information essential to the media buying and selling process. ABC maintains the world's foremost online database of audited-circulation information and a growing array of readership, audience and Web site usage data. To learn more, visit http://www.accessabc.com.
About Clearspring
Clearspring is the leader in social distribution, connecting publishers and advertisers to audiences on the social Web. Clearspring's content sharing products, ranked No. 1 by comScore, enable publishers, developers and advertisers to easily distribute and track digital content such as widgets, videos, photos and links to the most popular destinations, including social networks, start pages, bookmarking sites, blogs, mobile devices and desktop platforms. The company provides additional distribution of content on a paid performance basis to the world's leading brands through a targeted social distribution network of affiliate partners. The company reaches over 534 millionusers worldwide. Its tools are served billions of times monthly and they power programs for many major brands and over 400,000 other long-tail developers. To learn more, visit www.clearspring.com.