MerchantCircle Selected by AlwaysOn Media as Top 100 Private Company Award Winner

MerchantCircle Selected by AlwaysOn Media as Top 100 Private Company Award Winner

Recognized for leadership in emerging technology

LOS ALTOS, Calif., January 17, 2007 — MerchantCircle today announced that it has been chosen by AlwaysOn Media as one of the AO Media 100 Top Private Companies. AO Media 100 is a power list of the top private digital media companies. MerchantCircle was handpicked by the AO Media editorial team based on a set of five criteria–innovation, market potential, customer adoption, media buzz and investor value creation.

“It’s an honor to be chosen as one of the AO Media 100. We’d like to extend the honor to our nearly 75,000 business owners who are part of our network. We look forward to continuing our steady growth and to providing our merchants with a place where they can manage their online reputation – easily and effectively,” says Wayne Yamamoto, President of MerchantCircle.

MerchantCircle and the AO Media 100 will be honored at the AO Media executive summit January 29-31, 2007 at The Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York City. The summit will focus on the forces that are disrupting user behavior and creating new opportunities in marketing, branding, advertising, and public relations. The event will also showcase top innovative private companies, like MerchantCircle, that are changing the way media is created, distributed and consumed.

“The AO Media 100 are creating new revenue opportunities in the more than $16.4 billion online advertising market by disrupting traditional media and advertising models,” said Tony Perkins, founder and editor in chief of AlwaysOn. “They are innovating by applying game-changing technology to key sectors including user-generated content, technology-enablers, mobile marketing, community platforms, Web analytics, and online advertising services.”
About MerchantCircle

Founded in 2005, MerchantCircle combines online reputation management capabilities with quick and easy online marketing tools for local business owners with a desire to use the internet to grow their business. MerchantCircle recently launched their Web Identity Manager (WIM), aggregating reviews from several consumer related sites, so that merchants can view them on their MerchantCircle page. Over 14 million business listings can be found on the MerchantCircle website. MerchantCircle is located on Main St. in downtown Los Altos, CA and is funded by Rustic Canyon Partners, Bank of America Ventures and Disney’s Steamboat Ventures. Learn more at www.merchantcircle.com.

A full list of all the AO Media 100 companies can be found on the AlwaysOn Web site at http://www.alwayson.goingon.com.
About AO Media 2007: January 29-31 @ The Mandarin Oriental Hotel, NYC

AlwaysOn Media is where cutting-edge technology CEOs from the back streets of Silicon Valley meet the global advertising and media establishment. This two-and-a-half-day executive event features CEO presentations and high-level debates on which forces are disrupting user behavior and creating new opportunities in the marketing, branding, advertising, and public relations industries. At AlwaysOn Media, our editors will also honor the AO Media 100 Top Private Companies. Fifty of the top CEOs from the AO Media 100 will pitch their market strategies to a panel of industry experts in our “CEO Showcase.”
About AlwaysOn

ALWAYSON ignited the open-media revolution in early 2003 by being the first media brand to launch a global blog network. In 2004, ALWAYSON continued to lead the media industry in innovation by introducing a social network where members can connect and engage. ALWAYSON is also revolutionizing the media business by applying its open-media principles to its executive event series (STANFORD SUMMIT, ALWAYSON HOLLYWOOD, ALWAYSON MEDIA and GOINGGREEN) and quarterly print “blogozine” by empowering its members to post and share their ideas and meet each other online. As our loyal readers know, ALWAYSON is committed to the free-market, merit-driven approach to reporting and event programming. No other media brand has dared to create such open interaction with its readers and event participants.