clearspring.com - the #1 widget platform.

PointRoll and Clearspring Form Exclusive Partnership to Enable Viral, Rich Media 'SnaggableAds'

McLean, Va., and Conshohocken, Pa., Dec. 10, 2007 - Clearspring Technologies Inc., the market leader in widget syndication and tracking, and PointRoll, Inc., the leading developer of innovative rich media solutions, today announced a strategic alliance. Under the terms of the exclusive partnership, advertisers currently using PointRoll to incorporate rich media into their online campaigns will now be able to leverage Clearspring's viral sharing technology to convert new or existing rich media ads into SnaggableAds.

Clearspring Launches First Widget Ad Network

McLean, Va., Dec. 10, 2007 - Clearspring Technologies Inc., the market leader in widget syndication and tracking, today announced the launch of the Widget Ad Network. Clearspring's Widget Ad Network provides media publishers an easy and scalable solution for monetizing digital content across social networking sites, start pages and blogs, by creating an ad network to serve ads within the publishers' widgets. Clearspring is the first widget syndication platform to provide publishers a single source for widget creation, content distribution, in-widget advertising sales, ad serving and performance tracking and reporting.

Clearspring Partners with PointRoll for Ads on your Widgets

Clearspring has made a number of strides in the past couple of months, building on the new trends that we've seen take shape lately, from "open" networks to new ad networks. Always one to stay at the forefront of these trends, Clearspring has launched its own ad network, and teamed up with PointRoll for an exclusive partnership for providing rich media ad options for clients. Clearspring already had widget ads, but the new ad network allows ads to be placed on other widgets.

Tear Down This Wall: Clearspring Blurs the Line Between Facebook and the Widget Ecosystem

I was starting to get a little worried about the impact that Facebook was having on widget platforms like Clearspring, Widgetbox, Gigya, Musestorm, and YourMinis. It seemed that the combination of Facebook's control of the platform and the Flash-unfriendly nature of the Facebook environment was marginalizing these companies. In short, it seemed to me that the widget platforms were getting outplatformed by Facebook.

After all, as a widget / app publisher, do I really need third party distribution tools when Facebook is already giving me distribution tools within their social graph? Do I really need widget analytics when Facebook is already giving me adoption and engagement numbers? And is an add to Facebook button all that useful when the output is just a neutered Flash widget that appears only in the news feed, and requires the user to hit "play?"

More discouraging to me was the apparent lack of creativity coming from the widget platforms in regards to Facebook. While companies like Slide, RockYou, and HotOrNot gleefully churned out apps with little to no connection to their core business, in the process, successfully building out massive footprints which can in turn be used for advertising / cross promotion networks, the widget platforms stayed quiet.

Well, they're quiet no longer - at least, Clearspring isn't.

MySpace Widget Explosion: Clearspring, MyCityMate, Pikicamp

There was no doubt that widgets would be big this year, but it's turning out to be an even larger trend than many of us expected.

8 Startups to watch out for in 2007

Clearspring Technologies, a leading provider of widget syndication services, today announced that it has secured $5.5 million in its second round of financing. The round was led by Phil Bronner of Novak Biddle Venture Partners and Miles Gilburne of ZG Ventures, who also led Clearspring's first round in 2006.