$100 Billion Catalog Shopping Business Re-Imagined for iPads by TheFind

CATALOGUE app Debuts from TheFind on Apple and Android Tablets; t-Commerce Arrives on a single app with all your catalogs

San Francisco, Calif., May 23, 2011 – TheFind, a leading facilitator of online, mobile, and offline commerce and partner to thousands of stores and brands, today launched CATALOGUE – the only app that re-imagines the $100 billion catalog shopping experience for iPad and Android tablets. At launch, CATALOGUE includes the spring collections from national retailers, catalogs and brands that include Crate and Barrel, Williams Sonoma, Sephora, eBags, Stella & Dot, Sundance, Tea Collection, Uggs, and many others. Currently, CATALOGUES is focused on the brands and catalogs that match the early demographics of tablet ownership. As of the initial release, 30 catalogs are included in CATALOGUE, while TheFind is actively working with more than 70 titles, all of which are expected to appear in CATALOGUE within the next 30-60 days.

“Many retailers report that already half of what they consider to be mobile traffic is coming through tablet devices,” wrote Sucharita Mulpuru, vice president, principal analyst with Forrester Research, Inc. in the January 2011 report, Five Retail eCommerce Trends To Watch In 2011. “This is likely to lead to a new subset of mobile commerce: tablet commerce (you read it here first: T-commerce)…enabling easy browsing in a living room, during a bus commute to work, or at an airport.”

“We are very excited to partner with TheFind on creating a unique tablet shopping experience that leverages our strengths in merchandising with TheFind’s demonstrated capabilities in mobile and tablet commerce,” said John Seebeck, vice president of eCommerce for Crate and Barrel. “We’re impressed with how TheFind re-imagines the catalog shopping experience for the new and promising tablet medium.”

Backed by a patented and searchable index of some 500,000 stores and 450 million products, and buoyed by the success of its highly rated and popular mobile apps, which have been downloaded more than one million times, TheFind is uniquely positioned to deliver a tablet shopping experience that stimulates consumer demand across hundreds of stores with the sort of tactile discovery and inspiration that drives retailers’ existing paper catalog businesses.

“Even today, catalog shopping is a $100 billion business, with more than 20 billion catalogs being printed and delivered via the postal service to people’s homes,” said Siva Kumar, CEO of TheFind. “Retailers continue to invest in this business because they stimulate demand and inspire consumers in a way that no other medium has matched; but the emergence of tablets with their tactile approach and high resolution screens presents an opportunity to revolutionize and reinvent a massive retail channel.”

Beyond tablet shopping, Kumar noted that TheFind is also investing in a similar application for Facebook, recognizing a parallel opportunity to create a socially-curated shopping experience on tablet computers that leverages ‘Likes’ from Facebook and the deep index of TheFind’s CATALOGUE app for tablets.

Catalogue is available for free download at http://www.thefind.com/tablet as well as in the iTunes App Store, Android Market and Amazon app store.

About TheFind
TheFind makes it easy to shop, for anything you like, in every store, all at once. Made possible by patented search and discovery technology, TheFind is the fastest growing top-tier shopping engine and the one people return to more than any other according to comScore’s measure of comparison shopping engines. Ranked number 12 on the 2010 Inc. 500 list of fastest growing private companies, TheFind was founded in 2005, has been profitable since late 2008, and was venture funded by Bain Capital Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Redpoint Ventures. TheFind is a San Francisco and Silicon Valley-based company.

Stopped by Good Day Sacramento this morning to show off some of the coolest new apps you should have on your next road trip!

“News Republic,” the top-ranked personal news discovery app, hits all Smartphones and the Android tablets

After reaching more than 350,000 users on iPhone and Android, “News Republic” extends its reach on Smartphones and launches its Honeycomb edition for Android tablets. Thanks to its TagNav© news tracking system, which learns your particular news preferences and displays the stories most relevant and of interest to you first, News Republic is now the top-rated news app in the Android Market.

News Republic, the best-rated news app on Android worldwide, is now available across all major Smartphone platforms including Blackberry, Nokia OVI, Samsung Bada. The WP7 edition will also be available soon.

News Republic has taken its “open news for the end user” approach to the Android tablets, bringing together content from various high quality sources and pairing it with its renowned TagNav© system—allowing users to hop from topic-to-topic and source-to-source and read the news all from the same screen. Ultimately, the app provides a perfect world of news that lets readers view all sides of a story from a variety of sources. And now, News Republic’s new fully-customized version features a slick user interface especially designed for Android Honeycomb tablets and a stunning photo gallery of top stories.

“In a world of information overload people want to receive timely and accurate information on subjects that specifically interests them. News Republic does all of that and addresses the natural need for users to have full and complete access to information on the subjects they really like, instantly,” says Gilles Raymond, CEO of Mobiles Republic.

With the TagNav© system, readers can delve deeper into the stories that are most important to them by selecting highlighted keywords (Google, Cannes Film Festival, or even Lindsay Lohan) to pull up a slew of targeted articles related to that topic. Over time, News Republic is able to “learn” users’ preferences on topics and sources, so that instead of having to dig around to find what interested him, the app can display those stories for them.

News Republic’s global approach paired with local content lets users get the news pertinent to them from top sources like the Associated Press, Reuters, WENN, Tech Radar, and more—all from a single app. Its aim is to be the premiere news app for smart and savvy readers who wish to stay informed of the breaking headlines in both international news and local news.

News Republic At-A-Glance

• Fresh, global and local content: updates from the most respected newswires worldwide providing thousands of daily top stories in US News, International, Business, Sports, Technology, Entertainment, and more.
• Your personalized news channel: endless customization options with your myNews channel as you pick the topics, people, or events that you want to read about.
• Surf the news: the TagNav© system allows you to explore specific topics related to news stories you’ve read and add them to your own myNews channel.
• News Encyclopedia: whatever the topic, you also have the option to go deeper and search and discover more. With over 120,000 topics covered, you can search and reference related articles and themes across the entire web to discover more on any topic you choose in an instant.

With its many smart features, NEWS REPUBLIC meets the current need to be able to access any information, anytime, anywhere and as instantly as possible, while remaining fun and practical:

• Users use it twice more than any other News app available and are 80% more accurate (source: Flurry analytics).
• They also don’t hesitate to recommend it since it is currently listed as the News application with the highest rated on the international Android Market worldwide (average 4.6/5) and App Store in Europe (average 4.3/5).

Pricing and Availability
News Republic is free and available worldwide.
The iOS version is available on the iTunes App Store.
The Android version is available on the Market, as well as independent stores (GetJar, Appbrain, Androlib, etc.) in the News section.

San Francisco, CA – SpotWorld – The “Global Social Travel Guide” is a new take on the classic travel guide concept. Incorporating today’s location-based technology and the need for social connection, SpotWorld enables iPhone users to discover, learn about, and interact with media of the world’s best travel spots.

SpotWorld is the travel tool to have for users on-the-go. Users can browse community-generated itineraries of the best spots in the various destinations around the world, including those across North America, Europe and Asia. SpotWorld includes multimedia for over 500,000 global locations and places of interest, such as museums, local landmarks, zoos, attractions, amusement parks, eateries, shopping districts and famous city streets.

To take advantage of the full experience within SpotWorld, users are encouraged to not only create and customize their own personal itineraries, but also share them with friends and the SpotWorld community.

In addition, users can always discover and interact with spots near them.  They can add tips, photos and ratings, while checking-in to nearby locales and earning points in SpotWorld’s location-based travel game. Every SpotWorld destination gives the user an opportunity to start as a “Newbie” and gain status through check-ins.  By checking-in to multiple places during a trip, SpotWorld users can track and share their location with friends while competing for flags and points.

SpotWorld – The Global Social Travel Guide allows travel enthusiasts to explore the world and share their travel experiences in a whole new manner.  SpotWorld is available as a free download in the Apple App Store and is optimized for iPhone and iPod Touch with IOS 4.0 and up.

About SpotWorld Inc.

SpotWorld Inc. is a mobile-first travel guide and social network which helps users find the best spots, anywhere.  Our growing base of location-based, rich media is served “from the cloud” to mobile devices and the web. Online at SpotWorld.com, Twitter and Facebook.

Viddy Inc. (www.viddy.co) announced today the launch of its iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch application on the Apple app store. Viddy is a video creation and life sharing mobile application that makes it easy for consumers to transform raw mobile video into stylized clips with the tap of a finger and then share them with friends, family and the world.

Viddyis fast, free and easy to use:

1. Shoot or Select a short video clip from your phone

2. Apply a production pack and audio track

3. Customize the special effect and audio intensity

4. Share with friends and the world

5. View a real-time public feed of entertaining videos

6. Be Social: Leave Comments, Like Videos, and Follow Interesting People

Viddy is free to download from Apple for iOS devices and will soon be available for Google Android, Blackberry, Microsoft and Windows Mobile devices. Download Viddy at: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/viddy/id426294709.

“Personal Camcorders are becoming outdated and Cisco recently shut down Flip Digital,” said JJ Aguhob, Co-Founder of Viddy. “Everyone has a cell phone, it’s always with you, has a built in HD camera and is connected to the Web. Viddy is a perfect solution to share key moments of your life in a creative way.”

Viddy enables users to beautify their videos using Adobe and Final Cut style visual effects that are pre-bundled into one click production packages, like Instagram filters for Video. Special effects include graphics, color correction and audio tracks. Production Packs at launch include Black & White, Crystal, Hued, Vintage, Junkd and 3D. Users can add titles, tags, and geo-location with Foursquare and then share on the Viddy network, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. More production packs, audio tracks and sharing networks are coming soon.

“Imagine a Twitter-style feed of videos from friends, family, celebrities and ‘Viddyographers’ from around the world. Instead of telling people what you are doing in text status updates on Twitter or Facebook, Viddy enables a new form of life-casting that lets you share and view socially relevant and entertaining video clips,” said Brett O’Brien, Co-Founder of Viddy.

Since its Beta launch a little over two weeks ago, Viddyhas been downloaded over 150,000 times in over 80 countries.

Viddy recently completed a $1.6 million first round financing from Battery Ventures, Bessemer Ventures, Qualcomm and Angel investors including Jarl Mohn and early team members from YouTube.

Website: http://www.viddy.co Facebook: http://facebook.com/viddyinc Twitter: http://twitter.com/viddyinc