Pixazza Unveils Self-Serve Publishing Tool

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., July 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Pixazza, Inc., a web service that is changing the way that consumers interact with images on the web, today announced its self-serve publishing tool to allow publishers and bloggers to annotate their own website images using the Pixazza platform.  With the new self-serve tools, publishers of any size can take advantage of Pixazza's unique ability to turn existing, static images into useful and relevant interactive content, while generating incremental revenue.

Using Pixazza, publishers add a compelling new feature to their sites that allows consumers to simply mouse over an image and information appears to provide more detail and make a purchase. With Pixazza, publishers can increase session times, generate incremental revenue and drive additional traffic.  Pixazza helps publishers further engage viewers with the images already on their websites.

"Pixazza is empowering website publishers with simple tools to self-annotate their images and build an interactive experience for their audience," said James Everingham, CTO of Pixazza. "Just as websites can self-enable with Google AdSense™, they can use Pixazza to delight consumers with relevant information about the images on their sites, while bringing in additional revenue."  

How Self-Serve Works

Using the Pixazza platform, publishers learn how to easily identify, tag and match products within the body of online images and immediately link them to Pixazza advertisers' product inventories. Pixazza's platform aggregates datafeeds from dozens of merchants into a catalog of more than ten million apparel, home, electronic, sports, travel and automotive products. Pixazza also provides full text search to find similar products to those in the images on publishers' sites.

Publishers will be able to log-in to the Pixazza Publisher Dashboard to access specific self-serve tools that make it remarkably simple to choose an image, tag a product and immediately search across different vendors for similar products. There is no need to scour the web for an item that matches. Pixazza also automatically updates image information on publishers' sites in real time. If products go on sale or vendors offer free shipping, consumers always receive the most up-to-date information and the best prices, while eliminating the burden for publishers to persistently manage image content. The Pixazza Publisher Dashboard also provides an overview of site metrics including performance, visitors, traffic and earnings.

Pixazza Self-Serve enters private beta today. To request an invitation, publishers can go to www.pixazza.com and sign-up for an account. Pixazza is very easy for publishers to enable, requiring only one line of JavaScript. There are no data feeds to add, special mark ups or integration required, and no additional screen real estate is needed. Publishers continue to license, store, and host their own images. 

In a related release today, Pixazza also announced that it raised $12 million in Series B financing. The investment was led by Shasta Ventures, with Series A investors August Capital, CMEA Capital and Google Ventures also participating in the round.

About Pixazza

Founded in 2008, Pixazza, Inc. is changing the way consumers interact with images on the web. By enabling consumers to simply mouse over images to learn more and see related products, Pixazza has pioneered the use of images as real estate for brand advertising and ecommerce. Through its network of leading publishers, Pixazza currently serves more than 25 million unique visitors per month at a rate of 8 billion image views per year. Developed by technologists from Netscape and LiveOps, Pixazza's platform combines Internet and crowdsourcing technology to deliver the optimal content relevant to online images. Pixazza is a private company funded by August Capital, CMEA Capital, Google Ventures, and Shasta Ventures, with offices in Mountain View, CA. For more information, visit www.pixazza.com.

SOURCE Pixazza, Inc.