MarketWatch.com Integrates Ajax-Powered Contextual Module from Sphere

JavaScriptSearch
Thursday, November 9, 2006; 06:16 AM

MarketWatch.com, a leading provider of business news, financial information and analytical tools, has introduced Sphere's contextual blog search tool across its article and blog pages. The launch was announced yesterday afternoon at the Web 2.0 conference, during which Sphere's CEO Tony Conrad showed the contextual widget on the MarketWatch.com site.

"We are pleased to partner with Sphere to surface the best, most relevant blogs for our users, enabling them to connect with the larger conversation online," said Gordon McLeod, president, Dow Jones Online.

Sphere is a unique intuitive search engine that provides blog search results from related news and information sites, books, photos and podcasts. In addition, Sphere recently made its core technology available in a contextual widget or module format, providing additional flexibility in how Sphere can be integrated across any Internet site. The contextual widget enables publishers to showcase related site content, as well as timely posts from external blogs.

"We're thrilled to be working with MarketWatch.com as the first major media partner to integrate our contextual widget," said Mr. Conrad. "By integrating our blog search tool, MarketWatch.com can make available the most relevant blog posts that are contextually relevant to their articles. Connecting readers to the larger conversation happening in 'People Media' is a powerful user experience. MarketWatch readers can now dive into the topics that interest them through the diverse, timely and in-depth dialogue of the best bloggers on the Internet."

The Sphere widget, utilizing Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) technology, has been customized to integrate seamlessly within the MarketWatch.com site. Listed under every article page and blog post are sharing and tagging tools, followed by a "More Content: Related Blogs & Articles" link that launches the Sphere widget. Readers can then browse three areas of contextually-relevant information:

  --  Bloggers Talking About This Topic
  --  Related Articles from MarketWatch
  --  MarketWatch Blogs (Bambi's Blog with Bambi Francisco,
      Frank Barnako's Media Blog and Herb Greenberg's Market Blog)

The integration of Sphere's contextual module is the latest innovation on MarketWatch.com, which has added Digg, Del.icio.us and Facebook's "share" tool to the site in recent months. In addition, MarketWatch recently relaunched its search pages to integrate related podcast and video results, as well as results from top news and finance sites outside the Dow Jones Online network.