14 DAY TRIAL // The web is build around advertising but, as a medium, it's still relatively new and rapidly evolving at the same time. This creates a need and an opportunity to come up with new models and ad technologies which are better suited for the environment besides the established search and contextual ads, either in text or display form. One startup that aims to create a new niche is Pixazza, which can turn any blog photo into a product ad of sorts. The company, backed by Google's venture capital fund, is now opening up its services and expanding its offerings by giving websites the possibility to set up a customized storefront for products featured on the site.
With Pixazza, any website or blog can insert ads with the photos they normally serve on their sites. Pixazza uses an army of people to tag the photos depending on the products featured in them and then serves links to shopping sites where readers can purchase the same or similar products. The idea is simple enough and could actually prove useful for the readers as long as it doesn't get in the way of enjoying the actual content.
The technology has been tested on several celebrity gossip sites, but now the company is expanding its offering, making it available to any publisher. Pixazza is also launching the new Shopdot program which allows sites not only to serve the integrated ads, but also to set up a custom store with the most popular products on the site. This has several advantages, on the one hand, it makes it easier for the users to find a product which they saw earlier or just browse the popular items on the site. On the other hand, it can be a lot more profitable for the site hosting the store rather than just serving the ads.
"Pixazza's new Shopdot storefronts bring celebrity fashion photos together with trendy new products, creating a unique shopping experience that will have consumers dressing like stars in no time," Bob Lisbonne, Pixazza CEO, said. "Until now, the engineering required to launch an ecommerce storefront has been too complex and costly for most publishers to consider. Partnering with Pixazza allows publishers to increase page views, add ecommerce revenues, and create sponsorship opportunities as readers return time and again to explore these custom storefronts."