Webware Radar: Nielsen sees job site traffic jump
Also: FortiusOne launches "ObamaMeter" to monitor presidential success; FanSnap offers discount ticket prices for MLB games; and M3X Media raises $10.5 million.
Research firm Nielsen Online announced the results of a study that found 20 percent more people visited career development sites in January than in the same month last year and unique visitors grew from 41.5 million to 49.7 million in the same span.
According to the firm, CareerBuilder was the top career development destination in January with 20.8 million unique visitors, followed by Yahoo HotJobs and Monster, which captured 11.7 million and 9.5 million unique visitors, respectively. Ironically, the number of unique visitors aged 65 and older who used career sites grew 41 percent year-over-year and was the largest increase of any age demographic Nielsen studied.
FortiusOne, a "next-generation location reference," announced Thursday that it has launched the GeoCommons News Dashboard, which the company says will map all breaking news stories from around the world. Its first feature will be the "ObamaMeter," which will keep tabs on the U.S. and global economies, as well as the success of the stimulus bill through the company's visual maps, which show employment, foreclosure, and other important data displayed in different colors. The service is available now.
FanSnap.com announced Wednesday that fans of Major League Baseball teams would be able to buy tickets for Opening Day at their favorite team's ballpark at a steeply discounted price. According to the company, it found that the average price of an Opening Day ticket around the League is approximately $260, while Opening Day tickets for the Mets or the Yankees is $1,216 and $962, respectively. To eliminate that high cost, FanSnap claims its new search engine for tickets will allow Mets fans to get into the game for a little more than $250 and Yankees fans will pay $275. The site also features discounted tickets for other team's games.
M3X Media, a company that provides digital entertainment and services, announced Thursday that it has raised $10.5 million in a round of funding that was led by the Agile Opportunity Fund. According to the company, it will use the funding to build a new technology platform that will "bring together all the popular forms of digital entertainment, downloadable music, music videos, interactive games as well as a multifaceted social networking capability." The platform, which is currently known as GruvMe, is in a semipublic beta, but its official launch should occur by the middle of the year.