Congratulations to our partner MerchantCircle on their business reaching a new membership and customer milestone.  As Greg Sterling noted on his blog today, “(MerchantCircle) has surpassed 500,000 members, with more than 5,000 paying customers.”

“Paid growth, according to MerchantCircle, has come within six months. (StepUp had roughly 5K paying customers when it was acquired by Intuit for $60 million.) The firm has partnerships with IAC/Citysearch and WebVisible that help sell or fulfill on the paid side.”

To read the entire story, click here.

Eileen Hiromura comes to WebVisible as the Senior Director of Product Development. With a broad range of product management experience at Yahoo! Search Marketing, Eileen played an integral role in advertiser and publisher applications, designing and launching the Yahoo! Publisher Network, defining application standards for Panama, Yahoo!’s advertiser search marketing applications, and driving the agency/reseller strategy for Apex, Yahoo!’s next generation Advertiser and Publisher Exchange applications. Eileen also brings several years of Oracle applications experience, where she designed and launched Oracle’s e-Business Suite of CRM, financial, and supply-chain applications.

As part of WebVisible’s product team, Eileen is helping refine our product strategy and roadmap, develop our growing list of products, and identify and size new product opportunities.

Kirsten Mangers has been invited to speak at 16th Annual Deutsche Bank Media & Telecom Conference at the Palace Hotel, NYC. The working title of the panel is “Local Search and Directories”. The panel will take place on Day 2 of our conference, June 10th, at 1:35pm.

There is no better way for advertisers to get a closer look at their online advertising campaigns than with Merchant Center 2.0, an easy-to-use interactive desktop with powerful tools that give advertisers unparalleled access to view their campaign results.

With an active landing page account, advertisers can login to their new Merchant Center and get instant access to track their customer’s actions, including:

• View daily click reports showing the number of clicks to their landing pages
•  Interact using keyword and advertising suggestion tools
• Get up-to-date listings of their most popular keywords
• Generate activity charts and reports
• Learn tips and tactics to take advantage of Web site traffic

Plus version 2.0 has these added features:

• Track inbound calls from potential customers
• Track missed calls and voicemails
• Track use of the map and driving directions to the advertisers business
• Track page prints
• Track link activity
• Track inbound emails from potential customers

If you’re not currently offering the Merchant Center to your advertisers, contact your channel development representative today and ask how you can have it added to your account.

WebVisible’s vp of sales & marketing, Carey Ransom, will be a featured speaker at Mediapost’s upcoming Search Insider Summit, May 20th. (go to the website)

Despite the slowing economy, business owners are thinking “growth” in 2008. A survey from Global Strategy Group working on behalf of Intuit (makers of Quickbooks) surveyed 751 small business owners in March 2008 and they had this to say:

What’s keeping small business owners up at night?

• Growth      27%
• Paying the bills     21%
• Keeping customers happy   17%
• Finding time to develop and run business 15%
• Finding the right talent    13%

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that small businesses want to aggressively market themselves out of a possible recession, and they should know that local search can help. In fact, businesses that market themselves heavily in a down economy often end up being better off in the long run. Here are a few tips to share with your clients and perspective customers:

When responding to questions from your clients about the impact a recession may have on their advertising budget, remind them that local search is a very efficient way to advertise. Like no other promotional product, local search means that their ad budget is only depleted when someone seeks them out by clicking their ad.

Business owners may find themselves working harder than ever during a recession. It may no longer make sense for them to spend time managing their own online marketing campaigns. This could be a great opportunity to earn their businesses and free up many hours of valuable time.

Lastly, when seeking to hire new talent, search can be used to generate leads from downsized workers seeking new employment.

WebVisible’s Geneva software platform was named “Internet Product of the Year” by the American Electronics Association during their 15th Annual High-Tech Innovation Awards. The event recognized local companies, individuals, and products in the technology industry that drive innovation in Orange County and the Inland Empire.

WebVisible’s Vice President of Engineering, James Williams, accepted the award on behalf of his team, saying, “For seven years, WebVisible has been enabling businesses around the world to utilize technology to promote and grow their businesses on the Internet. This award goes a long way to validate our efforts, our software platform, and our continuing innovation.”

Click here to view photos from the gala event or read the press release.

WebVisible, Inc. Secures $12 Million in Funding from Sutter Hill Ventures and Redpoint Ventures.
(read the press release)

Orange County’s premiere business magazine OC Metro named WebVisible CEO Kirsten Mangers as one of Orange County’s “20 Women to Watch”.

From the press release:NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. — Once again, Orange County’s only business magazine, OC METRO BUSINESS, has identified the 2008 Women to Watch in Orange County. The women on this year’s list are some of the most successful, dynamic and interesting in the county, coming from areas of business, government, education and health care.All were recognized at a private luncheon, sponsored by Kaiser Permanente and hosted by Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar, to coincide with the publication’s annual Women to Watch issue. Profiles of each woman are included in print, as well as online at ocmetro.com; each was selected for her role in making an impact in Orange County’s business community, and in people’s lives.

James Williams joins WebVisible as vp of engineering with a notable background in building scalable software platforms for some of the technology industry’s most high profile companies. James will lead his team of engineers in the further development of Geneva as a world class interactive advertising software platform.James comes to WebVisible from Google where he developed scalable technologies for Google’s advertising customers. Prior to Google, James was the founder of two companies: Fluid Audio Networks and iKennect. At Fluid Audio Networks he built the largest network of emerging artists and music fans by partnering with some of the world’s most recognized entertainment brands, including American Idol. At iKennect he developed a wireless, public access portal in partnership with Nortel Networks for the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Resort in Las Vegas. (read more here)