Digital Media: Austin

Bazaarvoice released a press release touting 500 million product reviews served by their systems in July 2007 alone. What exactly does that mean? Well, according to the company’s website the company “develops outsourced technology, services, analytics, and expertise to encourage and harness word of mouth marketing and bring it closer to a company’s brand and customer experience.” The company’s client list is impressive and includes many retail giants such as Dell, Home Depot, Sears, Macy’s etc….

Essentially the company hosts and provides the social networking technology behind the customer review portions of its clients’ websites. Along with ratings and reviews, the company also provides technology enabling users to ask and answer product questions not answered in product descriptions.

The most fascinating product they offer is called SydicateVoice which “is a comprehensive program of technologies and services that extend the reach and findability of your review content to attract shoppers looking for authentic advice on products.” Here’s a picture:

The purpose of this service is to take advantage of the “long tail” in search which the company says generates 60% of sales. Anyways, pretty interesting stuff.