Vizuble

Pete Cashmore of Mashable Visits Vizu

Thanks for stopping by, Pete.  Mashable rocks.

Next Generation Web Polls from Vizu

Next Generation Web Polls based on

Internet’s most powerful online polling platform

January 23, 2008 -- Vizu Corporation (www.Vizu.com), the Internet’s first self-serve market research network, today introduced Power Polls, the latest way for websites to engage visitors and learn from them.

The Power Polls robust product suite consists of four integrated polling applications: Demographic Polls, My Polls, Content Polls, and Research Polls. To use Power Polls, websites create one “Poll Zone” and select 1-4 types of remotely controlled polls to appear in that zone. These polls fulfill a number of important functions for web publishers:

• Understand visitor demographics. Demographic Polls automatically characterize a website’s audience and deliver a dashboard view of who is visiting the site based on the most valuable demographic measures. Great for improving content relevance and selling advertising.

• Collect visitor feedback. For websites that regularly poll their audiences, My Polls is the easiest solution available. Instead of pasting code for each new poll, My Polls enables publishers to create one customized “Poll Zone,” then remotely rotate content as needed.

• Provide fresh content. For publishers who are looking to increase return visits and reader engagement, but don’t want to create their own web polls, Content Polls will automatically serve relevant, professionally produced polls to their sites.

• Monetize websites. Web publishers can make money by hosting 3rd party Research Polls which engage readers, but don’t take them off the website like ads do.

“The data from the thousands of websites using Vizu polls showed us that many websites are using web polls for similar purposes. With Power Polls, we automate many of those activities for our users to save them time and share best practices,” said Dan Beltramo, CEO of Vizu. “Our goal with Power Polls is to make web polling as engaging and easy as possible.”

Power Polls adds interactivity and provides an opportunity for two-way dialogue on websites. The polls do not require site visitors to leave the participating web site in order to complete their polls. Web publishers have direct access to the metric data that is collected by the Demographic Polls and to the entire library of custom My Polls that they have created.

Here’s what prominent users have to say about Vizu Power Polls:

“The data gathered from Vizu’s Demographic Polls helps us understand Salon.com’s visitors better and deliver more value to our advertisers. By using Vizu, we are able to quantify the demographic profiles of the various sections of our site so our advertisers more effectively reach their target audiences.”

-- Chris Neimeth, CEO, Salon

"Vizu’s Power Polls provide an excellent interactive feature where my readers can express and compare opinions. They love it and when it was taken off for a redesign, they complained. Vizu Power Polls are reliable and very easy to use. I’ve never had to do a thing since I put the code on my site months ago."

-- John C. Dvorak, writer for PC Magazine, MarketWatch, and Dvorak.Org.

“At OKCupid.com, the consumer experience is our top priority and we are always looking for new ways to engage our users. Vizu’s fully customizable web polls blend seamlessly into our site and give our users entertaining content while also helping us generate revenue and grow as a business.”

-- Sam Yagan, CEO, OkCupid

Power Polls is currently available for free during a limited trial basis.

Create Free Web Poll Vote Maps

Now every free web poll that you create on Vizu comes with a free vote map.

Vizu's vote maps are a "mashup" between Vizu's web poll results and Google Maps.  Vizu's vote maps color code answer responses so you an easily look for regional voting patterns.   With Vizu's vote maps, you can interact with your data in multiple ways:

• Drill down to look at vote patterns on the local level
• Step back to look at vote patterns on a global level
• Drag the map to change the region that you are looking at
• Click vote markers to see precise date, time, & location of each vote

Vizu's vote maps will track the location of votes even if they are cast on Vizu web polls that you export onto your website, blog, or social network page.  You can even place the same Vizu web poll on multiple sites, weblogs, or social network pages and see the votes aggregated in one vote map. 

Vizu vote maps are a great way to see where your friends or site visitors come from geographically.  Vizu's free poll widget works on virtually all websites, blog platforms (Blogger, Typepad, Wordpress, Xanga, etc.) and social networks (MySpace, Facebook, Friendster, etc.).  Create a free web poll.

See a sample of a vote map in action on this poll:  Should more cities outlaw handguns? 

Here are three different views of votes on a poll using Vizu's vote map feature:

Here is a sample Vizu web poll.  After you vote, click the "COMMENT" link to be taken to the vote map.

Opinion Polls & Market Research

Vizu Raises Funds to Democratize Market Research

Vizu Corporation Raises $2.9 Million to Revolutionize Online Research

Web’s first do-it-yourself polling service brings market research to the masses 

San Francisco, CA – January 31, 2007 – Vizu Corporation (www.vizu.com), the company democratizing market research, announced today that it has secured $2.9 million in funding, led by a $1.5 million investment from Draper Fisher Jurvetson. The additional resources will help the company continue to market and develop its premier service -- Vizu Answers (http://answers.vizu.com), the web’s first do-it-yourself opinion polling and market research service.

“The beauty of Vizu Answers is that it is both simple and revolutionary. It breaks open the market for polling and primary research by making it easy, fast, and affordable, while creating an entirely new way to monetize web page views without having to resort to more ads,”  said Steve Jurvetson, Managing Director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson. “We are big believers in value-added networks as a business model, and Vizu Answers is a great example of that.”

“With this additional funding, Vizu will invest in marketing and development to maximize the service’s benefits for both the researchers and publishers,” said Mack Tilling, Chairman and CEO of Vizu. “Just as advertising networks in the ‘90s disrupted the traditional advertising model, we are shaking up the world of market research.”

The market potential for Vizu’s service is enormous - knowledge workers in organizations of all sizes can use Vizu Answers.  Anyone who does not have the time, money or know-how to invest in expensive market research initiatives can take advantage of Vizu Answers to find the answers they need quickly. During its private beta testing stage, Vizu Answers was used by financial institutions, consumer products companies, entrepreneurs, and more. The publisher network grew 2-3 times larger than initial projections during the beta period, and is growing over 35% per month.

“I’ve followed the research industry very closely for many years, and applaud Vizu Answers' breakthrough approach to quick polling, currently a hot spot in the market research industry,” said Louise Garnett, Vice President and Lead Analyst, Outsell Inc. “The Internet has driven the need for faster answers, which is currently being addressed by on-line market research techniques.  Vizu takes it a step further by building a real time publisher network where quick polling can be done on the fly, benefiting both the researcher and the publisher.  That is a unique value proposition, which would not have been feasible even just a couple of years ago.”

Ravi Belani of Draper Fisher Jurvetson adds, “With the explosion of self-publishing online through blogs, social networks, and other media, the Internet is an unrivalled resource to poll the specific audience you are seeking.”

Vizu is a privately held company backed by WR Hambrecht + Co, Amicus, LLC and angel investors including Ron Conway, Esther Dyson, Mike Maples, Jr., and Dave Whorton. The Vizu team brings together backgrounds in market research, customer service and technology. Vizu executives have worked with industry-leading companies such as Modem Media / Digitas, Market Tools, Agency.com, and The Clorox Corporation.

About Vizu

Founded in 2005, Vizu is democratizing the market research industry by developing services that make online polling easy, accessible, and affordable to everyone. The company’s premiere service, Vizu Answers (http://answers.vizu.com), combines a revolutionary market research technology with a vast network of web sites, offering highly targeted audiences to answer a wide variety of questions. Vizu Answers is also an innovative way for online publishers to monetize their site traffic in a reader friendly way. Vizu is headquartered in  San Francisco, CA.

About Draper Fisher Jurvetson

Draper Fisher Jurvetson is the pre-eminent venture capital firm with global presence through a network of affiliated funds, with offices in more than 30 cities around the world and over $3.5 billion in capital commitments. DFJ's mission is to identify, serve, and provide capital for extraordinary entrepreneurs anywhere who are determined to change the world. Over the past twenty years, DFJ has been proud to back more than 300 companies across many sectors including such industry-changing catalysts as Hotmail (acquired by MSFT), Baidu (BIDU), Skype (acquired by EBAY), United Online (UNTD), Overture (acquired by YHOO), Interwoven (IWOV), Four11 (acquired by YHOO), Parametric (PMTC), and Digidesign (acquired by AVID).

Apple iPhone Market Research Says Its a Winner

It has been described as the "ultimate iPod." And according to a recent report by VizuAnswers , the public believes that the iPhone will live up to that title.

Between January 11th and 14th, VizuAnswers ran a number of iPhone related polls on its Partner Network and has since made the results public in its Apple IPhone Review.

The results were in-line with what many bloggers have been predicting in the past week. Here are some of the most compelling results:

• 57% of respondents believe that the iPhone is going to change the way we use our phones in the same way the iPod changed the way we listen to music.
• 56% of respondents plan on purchasing an Apple iPhone
  • Of those respondents, 57% plan on purchasing one A.S.A.P.
• 64% of respondents claim that the iPhone would replace their MP3 player for day-to-day use.

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iPhone Trivia
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Q: What percent of people will switch to Cingular (AT&T) in order to get an iPhone?

• A: Go to VizuAnswers report -- Page 5

Q: Of the new features on the iPhone, what do people consider the most exciting?

• A: Go to VizuAnswers report -- Page 8

Q: What percent of people will get rid of their iPod once they get an iPhone?

• A: Go to VizuAnswers report -- Page 9

Q: How many people think that the larger 8-gig model will NOT be large enough?

• A: Go to VizuAnswers Report -- Page 10

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With all the speculation and analysis of Apple's iPhone, this free Market Research provided by VizuAnswers will be an invaluable tool for blogger's looking to bolster their own arguments and/or defeat competing arguments.
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If you would like to conduct your own market research using VizuAnswers' Research Network click, here.

If you are a Publisher and are interested in joining Vizu's partner network, you can learn more, here. [In short, Vizu will pay you to host polls on your blog / website].

Internet's First Self-Serve Market Research Network

INTRODUCING VIZU ANSWERS, INTERNET'S FIRST SELF – SERVE MARKET RESEARCH SERVICE AND NETWORK

Researchers get the answers they want and bloggers add a new revenue stream with easy, fast and cost-effective market research network

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (January 16, 2007) – Vizu Corporation, the company democratizing market research, today introduced Vizu Answers (VizuAnswers.com), a revolutionary new service that allows anyone to conduct do-it-yourself market research online.  Vizu Answers combines an easy-to-use polling platform and network of websites to enable any knowledge worker to conduct research quickly and cost effectively. The service also offers bloggers and web publishers a new way to generate revenue by hosting online polls, which add intriguing, relevant content and another level of interaction to their sites.

“More than 90% of market research questions go unanswered because traditionally, it is expensive, time-consuming and complicated, and can require an investment of thousands of dollars and weeks of time,” said Mack Tilling, Chairman and CEO of Vizu. “We created Vizu Answers to let anyone from entrepreneurs to small business owners to individuals in large corporations get the market research data they need quickly and cost effectively.  Now proprietary answers are available in a matter of hours for a few hundred bucks.”

Vizu Answers’ clients have included many entrepreneurial smaller firms as well as larger consumer-oriented companies like Sephora and Orbitz and financial institutions like Cowen & Co., and WR Hambrecht.

Esther Dyson, a long-time industry analyst and an investor in Vizu added, “Vizu Answers got my attention as ‘user-generated polls.’ It’s addressing a variety of current trends – the long tail, user-generated content.  Now the long tail of market researchers, amateur or professional, can afford to study the long tail of topics – not just which cola people prefer, but what features would appeal to swimmers in a pool thermometer.  No matter how esoteric your question, you can now find the handful of fanatics who have been begging to tell you their opinion on that very point!”

For Researchers, Vizu Answers allows anyone to create polls and deliver them to targeted audiences by placing them on specific sites or groups of sites within the Vizu Answers network.  The ability to select placement enables Vizu polls to generate answers from a highly targeted audience immediately. The Vizu Answer network features numerous popular topical blogs, blogging networks, and web sites, including diverse destinations like Salon.com, DealBreaker (a Wall Street site) , Hollywood Tuna (a celebrity site), and ALT 1040 (a Spanish language tech blog).

For websites, Vizu Answers gives webmasters and bloggers an innovative, reader-friendly way to monetize their pages. Until now, ads have been the primary source of revenue for web publishers, despite the clutter they often add to web pages. Vizu Answers introduces a brand new way for publishers to not only engage their readers, but to monetize their sites with a seamlessly integrated poll. Publishers set the rates at which they are willing to accept polls on their sites and share in the research revenue collected by Vizu Answers. Polls placed through Vizu Answers are targeted to the site’s audience, so the poll becomes value-added content that readers want to interact with, while not taking readers off the site like ads do.

“Vizu Answers is a fresh, new way for web publishers to make money while providing value to their readers,” said Greg Stuart, former CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau.  Stuart continues, “By bringing more research online, Vizu Answers manages to radically cut the cost of market research for anyone who needs fast, proprietary answers.”

About Vizu

Founded in 2005, Vizu is democratizing the market research industry by developing services that make online polling easy, accessible, and affordable to everyone. The company’s premiere service, Vizu Answers (www.VizuAnswers.com), combines a revolutionary market research technology with a vast network of web sites, offering highly targeted audiences to answer a wide variety of questions.  Vizu Answers is also an innovative way for online publishers to monetize their site traffic in a reader friendly way.  Vizu is headquartered in San Francisco, CA.

Free Flash Polls for Websites & Blogs

Adding polls to your website or blog can be a great way to learn from your readers or about your readers while providing your visitors with another way to interact with your site.  In fact, Vizu has found that as many as 40 times more visitors will interact with a relevant poll than will comment on an post.

If you are a webmaster, you have full control over your site and can add polls anywhere.  Some bloggers, however, are not so lucky because many blogging platforms restrict the type of code that you can put on your blog.  These restrictions range from making it impossible to put polls on your weblog to limiting the quality of the types of polls that you can use.  That is where Vizu's new Flash based web polls can come in handy.

Vizu's new polls based on Adobe's Flash technology are very broadly compatible, yet still provide a very high quality polling experience.  In fact you can completely customize the colors and width of the poll to match your blog.  (You can even save the style template for future polls.)  Additionally you can upload graphics associated with the poll question and/or each answer choice.  Including graphics can often increase participation rates in your polls dramatically.

To create your own free web poll all you need to do is sign up on Vizu and then hit the Create Polls button.  Once you have created your poll or found another poll on the site that you like, select the "Export to your blog or site" link where you can customize the look of the poll to your liking and then get the code to paste into your website.

For some samples of how Vizu's Flash polls look on various blog platforms, check out the following pages:

Blogger Polls
Xanga Polls
MySpace Blog Polls
Typepad Polls (This is a Typepad site)

Vizu's Flash polls also work great on many other major blogging and CMS (Content Management System) platforms.

Here is a sample of Vizu's Flash based polls.  Go ahead and vote to get a feel for the user experience:

Get Your Poll Widget

Free Flash Polls for Social Networks - MySpace, Friendster, etc.

Adding polls to social networks can be a fun way to get to know what your friends think about all kinds of things. 

Poll widgets have been around for a while, but many of them do not work on social network sites because they use java script which is restricted by many sites such as MySpace and Friendster.  Most of the poll poll widgets that do work on social networks are coded in HTML and are, therefore, restricted in terms of functionality.   

Vizu.com has just introduced web polls coded in Adobe's Flash which are much more broadly compatible and work on many social networks including MySpace, Frienster, & Piczo.  Because Vizu's polls are coded in flash, they are also more visually apealling and provide a better user experience than typical HTML or Java script polls.  Vizu also allows you to fully customize the colors of the polls and to add graphics associated with the poll question as well as the poll answers.

To create your own free web poll all you need to do is sign up on Vizu and then hit the Create Polls button.  Once you have created your poll or found another poll on the site that you like, select the "Export to your blog or site" link where you can customize the look of the poll to your liking and then get the code to paste into your social network site.

MySpace Polls:
In MySpace you can put Vizu's Flash polls in the Profile, Comments, Blog, & Bulletin sections.  For an example of how the polls can look in MySpace, see Vizu's MySpace page.

Friendster Polls:
In Friendster you can put Vizu's Flash polls in the Profile & Blog sections.  For an example of how the polls can look in Frienster see Vizu's Frienser page.

Piczo Polls:
In Piczo you can put Vizu's Flash polls just about anywhere.  For an example of how the polls can look in Piczo see Vizu's Piczo page.

Other Social Network Sites:
Give Vizu's Flash polls a try on your favorite site.  If the site allows any code on it, there is a good chance Vizu's Flash polls will work.

Here is a sample of what Vizu's Flash polls look like.  Go ahead and vote to get a feel for how the poll works...

Get Your Poll Widget

Pod Camp West - "Future of New Media" Keynote Panel

 

Notes from the PodCampWest Keynote Panel:

Question: What is the future of new media?
Mike's Answer: The ability to hear that voice or those images from all kinds of people and start ups.  The ability to go out there and get an audience immediately.

Radio is not going anywhere. Neither is television. Neither is cable. 

Question: Are we threatening the like of Clear Channel?
Chris' Answer: We scared them from the very beginning. NPR is a good example.
WBBZ in Chicago has launched “secret radio project” which uses all user generated content.
I think there will always be a movement to bring in fresh people and ideas.

Question: What about copyrights?
Greg's Answer: Incentive exists from mainstream media side to just “coopt.” In the future, we’ll see more endorsed content from major corporations. They will be picky, though, because not everyone can support edgy contents. 

Question: What is your perspective on new media?
Tim's Answer: As an artist this is the first time I can really afford a canvas for what I do.
A few months ago I was paying $1000s to serve my video. Now I use Revver and my hosting costs are gone & I am making $1000’s / month. And I am even getting paid in advance for producing my episodes.

Mike's Comment:
Grape Radio – Weekly sponsorship for $1300. Sold out through Feb. with return clients. Over $100 CPM, but our users get the right kind of customers.
GigaBox – Ad sales networks have bought a lot of impressions from us.
Companies don’t right checks for $200. If it is only worth $200, its not worth their time.

Tim: I disagree with the $200 comment. You can super serve niche’s and build a business. It depends on the level at which you want to play the game.

Question: How big a slice of the pie can pod casts get?
Mike's Answer: It is a zero sum game with other forms of media.Tim's Answer: Podcasts deliver better contextual advertising. That is the huge advantage that podcasting has over traditional media. We are going to see the transfer of media dollars in the next couple of years. 

Quesiton: What are the secrets to attracting an audience?
Mike's Answer: Do something you are passionate about, but that is not necessarily how to get the most advertisers. You can sell the concept that the right audience is worth more.
Greg's Answer The secret is selling and experience, not page views. The value that we have is the influence and the relationship we have. It’s not about eyeballs.
Mike's Answer: Look at history of entertainment. Whenever there has been a tech advance, first comes spectacle, then comes story. E.g. special effects. We are in a transition from spectacle to story in podcasting. Lonely Girl was the first real story on You Tube. Think about what makes story work. It is emotional engagement. Get people to care.

Question: Can you think of a podcast that really tapped an emotion?
Tim's Answer:Ask a Ninja really touches humor. The ninja is the judge of a Yahoo talent contest.
I deal w/ lust and comedy on French Maid.
Mike's Answer: When I share my emotion, I really build relationships.
Tim's Answer: Conflict & Controversy build interest. Don’t be homogeneous.

Question: At what level do people start to try to get advertising?
Answer 1: Advertising is work. There are expectations. You need agreements. You really need to decide if you want to turn your podcast into commerce.
Answer 2: A good first step is to put an “Ad Sales” link on your site so leads can come directly to you rather than chasing them.

Question: Are the maids really French?
Answer: Some are of French heritage and/or speak French. Mostly they are from Hollywood.

Audience Statement: Podcasting can bring you other work without having to monetize your site. Once you get noticed and become an expert, you can get consulting projects.
Response: Using a podcast is a great way to market a product.

Panelist Statement: Just keep trying things. You are going to learn from what you do. Sometimes you make money in a round about way. Find your voice.