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MerchantCircle and WebVisible partner to bring local business owners unrivaled online advertising options

MERCHANTCIRCLE AND WEBVISIBLE PARTNER TO BRING LOCAL BUSINESS OWNERS UNRIVALED ONLINE ADVERTISING OPTIONS

Deal Gives the Largest and Fastest Growing Network of Local Merchants Increased Visibility on Top Search Engines including Google and Yahoo!

Los Altos, CA October 23, 2007 – MerchantCircle, the nation’s largest online business network, and WebVisible, the leading technology provider to the local online advertising industry, today announced a partnership that will provide local business owners with increased and more effective online advertising options. The deal exemplifies MerchantCircle’s continued commitment to providing local merchants with simple, scalable solutions to harness the power of the internet to attract new customers

“WebVisible’s successful partnerships with AT&T and New York Times Company prove that they have the expertise to deliver effective, scalable advertising solutions,” said Ben T. Smith, IV, Chairman and Co-Founder of MerchantCircle. “This partnership instantly provides a turn-key advertising solution to MerchantCircle’s 250,000 merchants, and represents our commitment to connect local business owners with more customers.”

The addition of WebVisible-supported advertising services further bolsters MerchantCircle’s innovative product lineup.  In addition to search engine advertising, MerchantCircle recently launched their Web Identity Manager (WIM), aggregating reviews from several consumer related sites, so that merchants can view them on their MerchantCircle page.

“WebVisible and MerchantCircle are like-minds on the value of localized online advertising to small businesses,” said Kirsten Mangers, Co-Founder and CEO of WebVisible. “Our partnership with MerchantCircle gives us tremendous marketing strength, but if there is one thing our partners look for in us - it’s scalability in a software platform.”

WebVisible's software platform and services team manage the entire lifecycle of order management, ad creation, deployment and optimization, ensuring a small business is effectively represented on Google, Yahoo!, MSN and other valuable Internet audience locations.

Details of the deal include:

  • Search Engine Marketing – MerchantCircle will launch three search engine marketing packages that allow merchants to advertise Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Ask.com and 30 other search engine networks. Subscription levels offer increasing levels of visibility and clicks.
  • Listing Submission – Automatically lists customer web pages in algorithmic search results for all major local internet directories.
  • Custom Budget – Provides merchants a custom budget plan based on their category & geography to maximize advertising results.

About MerchantCircle
Founded in 2005, MerchantCircle is the largest online network of small business owners in the nation, combining social networking aspects with a customizable web listing that allows merchants to attract new customers. More than 14 million MerchantCircle business listings across the country are easily accessed on major search engines. Currently, over 250,000 merchants on the MerchantCircle network upload pictures, blog, build coupons, and newsletters, while also connecting with other business owners. MerchantCircle also gives business owners the power to manage their online reputation by aggregating reviews and increasing visibility across the web. MerchantCircle is located on Main St. in downtown Los Altos, Calif., and is funded by Rustic Canyon Partners, Scale Venture Partners and Disney's Steamboat Ventures.  Learn more at www.merchantcircle.com.