Conduit (Web site)

Infobox Company
name = Conduit

type = Privately held
genre =
foundation = Tel Aviv Israel (2005)
founder = Ronen Shilo
Gaby Bilczyk
Dror Erez
location_city = Tel Aviv
location_country = Israel
location =
locations =
area_served =
key_people = Ronen Shilo (Founder and CEO)
Dror Erez (Founder and CTO)
industry = Technology
products = Web Syndication solutions
services =
market c

revenue =
operating_income =
net_income =
assets =
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homepage = [http://conduit.com/ conduit.com]
footnotes =
intl =

Conduit is a privately held company that offers on-demand, browser-based website syndication solutions to web publishers "via" customizable community toolbars. [cite web |url=http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/09/hear-about-conduit-yet |title=Hear about Conduit yet? |accessdate= |author=Michael Arrington, TechCrunch.com |date=2007-01-09]

History

Conduit was founded outside of Tel Aviv, Israel in January 2005 by Ronen Shilo, Gaby Bilczyk and Dror Erez. [cite web |url=http://www.crunchbase.com/company/conduit |title=Conduit Company Profile |accessdate= |author=CrunchBase.com |date=2007-01-09] Conduit was initially funded through angel investors and The Yozma Group. [cite web |url=http://venturebeat.com/2006/11/06/conduits-custom-toolbar-sees-strong-uptake/ |title=Conduit’s custom toolbar sees strong uptake |accessdate= |author=Matt Marshall, VentureBeat.com |date=2006-11-16] The company received additional funding in January of 2008 from Benchmark Capital. [cite web |url=http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.aspx?feed=ACBJ&date=20080117&id=8055690 |title=Benchmark Capital invests $8M in Conduit |accessdate= |author=MSN Money |date=2008-01-17]

Current Status

In 2006, Conduit opened a U.S. headquarters in California and now is dually based in Israel and the United States. Currently 140,000 publishers and 12 million users in 120 countries around the globe use the Conduit platform. [cite web |url=http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/01/16/toolbar-company-conduit-raises-8m-more/ |title=Toolbar Company Conduit Raises $8M More |accessdate= |author=Mark Hendrickson, TechCrunch.com |date=2008-01-16] Notable publishers using Conduit’s platform are: TechCrunch [cite web |url=http://www.techcrunch.com/toolbar |title=TechCrunch Toolbar |accessdate= |author=TechCrunch.com |date=] ; Answers.com [cite web |url=http://www.answers.com/main/toolbar.jsp |title=Answers.com Toolbar |accessdate= |author=Answers.com |date=] ; Habbo [cite web |url=http://www.habbo.com/groups/habbotoolbar |title=Habbo Toolbar |accessdate= |author=Habbo.com |date=] ; Greenpeace [cite web |url=http://www.greenpeace.org/australia/take-action/spread-the-word/web-browser-toolbar |title=Greenpeace Toolbar |accessdate= |author=Greenpeace.org |date=] ; Major League Baseball [cite web |url=http://toolbars.mlb.com/teams/mlb |title=Major League Baseball Toolbar |accessdate= |author=MLB.com |date=] ; Jib-Jab [cite web |url=http://www.jibjab.com/toolbar/ |title=Jib-Jab Toolbar |accessdate= |author=JibJab.com |date=] ; Lufthansa [cite web |url=http://lufthansa.ourtoolbar.com/ |title=Lufthansa Toolbar |accessdate= |author=Lufthansa Airline |date=] .

Conduit has received various awards, including being selected as a finalist for the inaugural Forrester Groundswell Awards in 2007 [cite web |url=http://blogs.forrester.com/groundswell/2007/10/winners-and-fin.html |title=Complete list of winners and finalists for Forrester Groundswell Awards (2007) |accessdate= |author=Josh Bernoff, Forrester Research |date=2007-10-12] for USA Cycling’s deployment of their community toolbar. In 2008, Conduit was also selected for the Red Herring 100 Europe [cite web |url=http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS145224+15-Apr-2008+BW20080415 |title=Red Herring Reveals Companies Selected for the Red Herring 100 Europe 2008 Reuters |accessdate= |author=Reuters.com/BusinessWire |date=2008-04-15] , an award given to the top 100 private technology companies based in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa).

Products and Services

Conduit, the inventor of the community toolbar concept [cite web |url=http://techaddress.wordpress.com/2007/01/31/interview-with-with-ronen-shilo-ceo-of-conduit/ |title=Interview with with Ronen Shilo, CEO of Conduit |accessdate= |author=TechAddress |date=2007-01-31] , provides web syndication solutions that help publishers increase website traffic, revenue and brand loyalty [cite web |url=http://www.conduit.com/News/MediaBuzz/MarketingNews0815.aspx |title=Go Along for the Ride |accessdate= |author=Marketing News |date=2007-08-15] .

Conduit offers an on-demand platform that allows web publishers of all sizes to create and maintain a customized community toolbar [cite web |url=http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-9767221-2.html |title=Conduit improves its toolbar |accessdate= |author=Rafe Needleman, CNET/WebWare.com |date=2007-08-28] that reflects the content of their website on the browser without the cost and complexity of custom software.

The publisher-branded community toolbar enables publishers to communicate with their user base and deliver content tailored to fit the needs of their community members. Publishers leverage the users’ familiarity of toolbars to allow easy subscription to any part of their sites (such as web search, personalized login information, RSS feeds, widget, podcasts). In addition, publishers can use Conduit’s API to integrate any content to their community toolbar including software, web applications, multimedia and games from virtually any online library.

Web publishers can also use the Conduit platform to “gadgetize” their content and make it available for other publishers and users in the Conduit Network.

References

ee also

* Conduit
* Toolbar
* Web 2.0 Toolbar
* On-demand

External links

* [http://www.conduit.com Conduit Platform]
* [http://www.benchmark.com/portfolio/consumer.shtml Benchmark Portfolio clients]
* [http://www.vator.tv/pitch/show/Conduit Vator TV profile]
* [http://www.youtube.com/ConduitConnect Conduit YouTube Channel]