Media Giants Team With Pluck to Connect With Facebook and OpenSocial

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Pluck® Corporation today announced it will connect the Pluck SiteLife social media platform with recently announced Facebook and OpenSocial APIs to link the audiences of the world’s top media properties and social networking sites. As a result, Pluck customers, which include over 200 of the world’s largest media web sites, will be able to share social media contributions and audiences with top social networks, such as Facebook and MySpace. The first media companies to test and take advantage of the new APIs to expand their reach online include Gannett, Reuters, Discovery Communications, The Washington Post, The Economist, Freedom Interactive, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Rodale and Meredith Corporation.

“Integrating the value of our timely and trusted news content and the social media contributions generated by our readership with social networking audiences represents the future of media on the web,” said Peter Lundquist, vice president of Content & Product Development at Gannett Digital. “Using the expanded SiteLife capabilities from Pluck, we are able to expand the realm of social participation for our readers, while also attracting new audiences to our content.”

On a monthly basis, the combined audience of the participating media companies represents tens of millions of users fostering social media interactions across a broad range of media content. The ability to extend these contributions to social networking destinations such as Facebook and MySpace creates a powerful “boomerang effect” as audiences move between leading media properties and major social networks.

“Just like social networking sites, our media properties attract unique audiences from around the world,” said Kevin Loftis, senior vice president of Interactive Technology, Discovery Communications. “We can now enhance the already-rich viewer interactions on our sites by delivering integration to Facebook and OpenSocial networks.”

“We believe audiences moving back and forth between sites will prove to be a win-win for traditional media companies and social networks,” said Dave Panos, CEO of Pluck Corporation. “The integration of Pluck SiteLife with Facebook and OpenSocial will make this possible for media companies around the world.”

Availability

The Pluck SiteLife integration with Facebook will be available to Pluck customers in Q1 2008, with support for OpenSocial available in mid-2008.

Pluck’s SiteLife Social Media Suite is the industry-leading solution for enabling rich interactivity and social networking for online publishers, brands and retailers. SiteLife includes a comprehensive set of capabilities for blogs, story comments, photo and video submissions, forums, ratings, recommendations and reviews, all tied together with social networking via user Personas.

About Pluck Corporation

Pluck Corporation social media solutions empower leading media companies, brand marketers, and retailers to integrate open content, community and social networking into their web properties driving audience traffic and revenue. Clients include CBC, Circuit City, Cox, The Economist, FOX News, Gannett, Scotts, and The Washington Post. Awards include a Red Herring 100 and AlwaysOn Media 100. The privately held company is based in Austin, Texas with funding from Austin Ventures, Mayfield Fund and Reuters. More information on Pluck offerings can be found at www.pluck.com.

Pluck is a registered trademark and BlogBurst and SiteLife are trademarks of Pluck Corp. All other company and product names mentioned are used only for identification and may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.