Widgetbox and Sugar Publishing Provide New Gossip Widgets for Bebo

Widgetbox and Sugar Publishing Provide New Gossip Widgets for Bebo

Widgetbox(TM), the world’s largest marketplace for web widgets, along with partners Sugar Publishing and Bebo, today announced the Widgetbox Showcase(TM) for Bebo — a fun and interactive showcase of gossip widgets for the 33 million worldwide Bebo users. The gossip showcase, created and managed by Widgetbox on behalf of Bebo, includes the most popular gossip widgets from across the web including widgets built with content from Sugar Network sites such as PopSugar and FabSugar, and others such as AOL’s TMZ and Perez Hilton. Unique to the showcase is a completely new MySugar widget, a fully customizable and interactive widget, which allows Bebo users to combine their favorite Sugar sites to create their own individualized Sugar widget. The MySugar widget will be exclusive to Bebo for four weeks and then made more widely available.

Bebo users can easily discover all of the gossip widgets in this single showcase by clicking the widgets icon on their Bebo profiles, or by going directly to the Widgetbox Showcase for Bebo at http://www.widgetbox.com/showcase/bebo. This Widgetbox Showcase for Bebo provides an easy and accessible place for Bebo users to find all their favorite gossip widgets in one spot. Once users link to the gossip showcase, they can preview and customize the widgets as well as see Widgetbox ratings, reviews, and subscriptions. Users can also install their favorite widgets on their Bebo profile page right from the showcase in one click. Every gossip widget has a “Get Widget” button for easy sharing and viral adoption with friends.

By adopting the Widgetbox Showcase feature, Bebo is leveraging the powerful Widgetbox Syndication Platform(TM) to provide the infrastructure needed to efficiently and easily distribute and manage gossip widgets for the millions of Bebo users. Bebo can easily customize the gossip showcase over time, adding and deleting widgets as users respond and new widgets become available. The Widgetbox Showcase feature allows easy co-branding and in this case the Bebo, PopSugar and Widgetbox brands are prominently presented.

“Our Widgetbox Showcase feature is an ideal way for large social networks and content sites like Bebo to provide a differentiated widget experience. Because Widgetbox provides all the widget-specific expertise and under-the-hood management, Bebo can focus on doing what it does best, giving their users what they want and managing its large and growing network,” said Ed Anuff, co-founder and CEO of Widgetbox. “We’re delighted to partner with Bebo to create this gossip showcase. We’re happy to include them among our other showcase partners including Amie Street, AOL, Flickr, Freewebs and Infield Parking.”

“In creating this showcase we also teamed up with Sugar Publishing to create the MySugar widget. It’s a great example of giving users control over the specific content within their individual widget. We like to see our easy and powerful widget creation tools in the hands of users so they have the creative license to express themselves,” continued Anuff.

“Bebo users are going to love the new MySugar widget,” said Brian Sugar, CEO of Sugar Publishing, Inc. “This widget gives each user the power to express themselves through their individual selections from our ten Sugar sites. It’s fun, easy, and interactive and we look forward to seeing the creativity expressed.”

“Our users want to know exactly what’s happening, when it happens. Incorporating this MySugar widget into their profiles lets them share what they think is cool with the rest of their network,” said Michael Birch, founder and CEO, Bebo. “Our community can now read and share all the gossip and entertainment they want – on their own terms – directly within Bebo.”

About Bebo

Founded in 2005, Bebo (http://www.bebo.com/) is a thriving social network of highly engaged individuals who want to express themselves, discover their passions and connect with like-minded users. More than 33 million members worldwide, have joined the Bebo community, making it the largest social network in the UK, Ireland and New Zealand and one of the top 3 social networks in the US, Canada and Australia. Over 95% of Bebo users are under the age of 35 and the site is one of the fastest growing on the Internet, with 5 users signing up each second. Bebo is also one of the world’s most engaging websites, ranked #3 in the UK after Google and MSN*. Bebo was named as the number one search term in the Year-End Google Zeitgeist 2006.
*Source: comScore World Metrix

About Sugar Publishing

Sugar Publishing, Inc., the privately-owned media company, is focused on creating the richest, most relevant online community for trendsetting, passionate and smart women. Building upon the insanely addictive flagship website, PopSugar, Sugar Publishing’s network now includes BellaSugar, BuzzSugar, YumSugar, FitSugar, GeekSugar, GiggleSugar, DearSugar, TeamSugar and FabSugar, winner of the 2007 People’s Choice Webby for Fashion. The Sugar Network boasts 4 million unique visitors a month. Founded in April 2006 and headquartered in San Francisco, Sugar Publishing is committed to creating the best, most comprehensive, and just plain fun online community for women.

About Widgetbox

Widgetbox is the leading managed syndication network for web widgets. Widgetbox’s mission is to create a thriving web widget economy by becoming the trusted resource for creating, distributing, promoting, tracking and monetizing widgets. The Widgetbox gallery is the world’s largest marketplace for widgets and the Widgetbox Syndication Platform(TM) is Widgetbox’s exclusive backend infrastructure that provides the most comprehensive set of tools for the management of your web widget strategy. Widgetbox serves both the producers of widgets, including the largest, online distributors as well as individual developers, and the consumers of widgets. For more information, please see http://www.widgetbox.com/.

Widgetbox(TM), Widgetbox Syndication Platform(TM) and Widgetbox Showcase(TM) are trademarks of Widgetbox, Inc. All other product names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Contacts:
For Widgetbox:
Julie McHenry
Communication Insight, LLC
jmchenry {at} sbcglobal(.)net
650-504-6655
OR
Tracy Pizzo
Widgetbox, Inc.
tracy.pizzo {at} Widgetbox(.)com
415-992-6542

For Sugar Publishing:
Rebecca Gruber
rgruber {at} sugarpublishing(.)com
646-283-5081