AutoTrader.com, PointRoll, put ad response into Overdrive
Canadian startup powers latest Groupon feature
A quick piece of Groupon news with a Canadian spin: the group-buying powerhouse purchased a Vancouver startup called OpenCal in Sept. 2011. Last month, Groupon began a pilot test of “Groupon Scheduler”, which the Canadian website TechVibes says is directly based on OpenCal’s software.
Groupon Scheduler is an online appointment service that provides merchants with an easy way to manage their schedules and accept bookings from consumers.
OpenCal launched at the end of 2010, so the acquisition was quick, although probably not overly lucrative. OpenCal was co-founded by Shiva and Simon Vallee, who also helped to found Sitemasher, another Canadian web service, which was acquired by Salesforce.
Ad-supported content on an article-by-article basis from new Toronto startup
The ongoing debate in the online content industry over whether to offer content for free or a fee has in the main focused on an “all or nothing” approach. Either an article is available for everyone to read or it’s locked behind a pay wall – whether immediately or after a certain number of visits per month. A Toronto startup wants to move the choice from the publisher to the reader on an ad hoc basis. Continue reading
Adicio launches custom mini-mobile sites
Classifieds technology provider Adicio has a new service for its publishing clients: custom mini-mobile sites.
Adicio’s recruitment, automotive and real estate Web platforms are already optimized for mobile. With the new service, Adicio clients can now offer advertisers their own branded mobile classified presence, with custom content, vanity URLS, flexible color themes, instant alerts and more. Continue reading
