James (JR) Ridinger, president and CEO of Market America, Inc. announced today the company has reached an agreement with Google Inc. to implement the Google Search Appliance™ (GSA) hardware and software on www.marketamerica.com. The deployment of the GSA will apply Google’s industry leading search engine capabilities to Market America’s website.
The partnership will allow real time comparison shopping among the millions of products offered on www.marketamerica.com. Customers will be able to search for exclusive Market America products and those from over 2,000 partner stores and have all results shown in an easy to compare format, including the price of each product on one page. Shoppers will also have the ability to use advanced search features, including sorting products by price, brand and store.
“Market America is continually looking for technology applications that will solidify marketamerica.com as the ultimate online shopping destination,” said James Ridinger. “This initiative using Google™ technology allows Market America’s customers and UnFranchise® Owners to utilize many of the same benefits they enjoy from Google.com, with specific enterprise enhancements made that will make search easy, useful and intuitive. Having this type of advanced, but easy to use search capability will permit Market America to more effectively match products with people.”
"We are pleased to work with Market America to deliver search capabilities to the over 3 million customers that shop there," said Nitin Mangtani, Head of Google Enterprise Search Products. "Together we are implementing a search solution that will revolutionize the way Market America's customers shop online."
Search engine enhancements on marketamerica.com will include:
Results Grouping – Allows customers to navigate search results easily and clearly using intelligent grouping of products
Automatic spell-check – Allows the searcher to avoid missing results through typos or misspellings
Advanced Boolean Search – Customer can perform sophisticated queries with over 10 special query terms, including Boolean AND, OR, and NOT searches
Number Range Search – Customer can restrict search results by a number range, making it easy for users to restrict by price range or other numerical values.
Synonyms – Pre-defined synonyms for Market America specific terminology will be displayed to the user as suggested alternative search queries
Market America will make a formal announcement of its initiative at Market America’s sold out annual conference, February 6-9, 2008, at the American Airlines Arena in Miami, FL.
ABOUT MARKET AMERICA, INC.
Market America is a product brokerage and Internet marketing company that specializes in One-One-Marketing. With more than three million customers and 160,000 Distributors worldwide, the company has generated over $2.4 billion in accumulated retail sales. Headquartered in Greensboro, NC – the company employs over 500 people globally with international operations in the United States, Canada, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Australia. Through its revolutionary One to-One Marketing concept, Market America combines the Internet with the power of people – creating the ultimate online shopping destination. More information is available at www.marketamerica.com.
ABOUT GOOGLE INC.
Google's innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google's targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.google.com