New community tools! MIVA toolbar and shopMIVA.com

[James Harrell]

Greetings MIVA Merchant Users,

I wanted to take a moment to let you know about one of the many new initiatives and programs we have been planning at MIVA Small Business.

There has been a lot of excitement in the air at our new offices and we can?t wait to start sharing these new programs and providing you with more ideas and resources to help you grow your business. I?m proud of the hard work and enthusiasm displayed by the entire team and with your input and feedback we?ll continue to roll out new and innovative programs to help you become even more profitable.

The first new enhancement we have created is www.ShopMIVA.com, which includes a toolbar to help MIVA Merchant store owners find and patronize other MIVA Merchant store owners. For the past several weeks we have been spidering MIVA Merchant stores from a list generated by our license manager in order to make this happen. If your store doesn?t show up this month, please be patient, as it will likely show up next month. From this new site, you?ll also be able to search the forums. We are aware that the built in search function has some limitations, and with this new tool you should have much better results when searching the forums.

Make sure to download the toolbar while you are visiting shopMIVA.com (http://www.shopmiva.com/download/). The toolbar provides instant product search, a pop-up blocker, and quick links to the last 15 posts to our forums via the RSS feed.

I?m pleased to announce ShopMiva.com and encourage you to visit the site. Your feedback and input are always welcome and please stay tuned for more announcements on other programs in the near future.


Cheers,

[chucklasker-BANNNED]

ShopMIVA name only partly accurate

This would be really cool if there weren't any "sponsored results" at the top with competitor ads. For example, search "children's clothes," and the sponsored results include http://www.adamsuniqueboutique.com, which is not a MIVA Merchant site. The lack of real differentation between the sponsored ads and the real results, and the location of the sponsored ads above the true results (taking up almost all "above the fold" space), pretty much kills the site's intended functionality. It's the same issue as AOL's new banner ads in email, where in effect their system feeds competitor ads based on email content.

Search "fur coat," and my client, aspenfashions.com, comes up in the natural results, but only after seeing ads for shop.com, sourcetool.com, thefreedictionary.com and ebay.com.

Maybe if you changed "Sponsored Results for ..." to "Non-Miva Shops Results for..." and "Top Results for..." to "Top Miva Shop results for..."

Or, is the "MIVA" part of the name meaning "MIVA sponsored search?"

[James Harrell]

The advertisers are MIVA customers too

Hi Chuck,

The advertisers are MIVA customers too, though not all are MIVA Merchants. Some are MIVA Merchants: http://www.team-maui.com/ advertises via MIVA AdCenter (formerly known as MIVA Marketplace). You'll find them listed if you search for sweaters.

That's one of the things I love about this project, MIVA Small Business provides the landing site and front end to the algorithmic search, MIVA Media provides the PPC sponsored results, and our MIVA Direct division provides the spider, search engine & toolbar. Good stuff to see all of these teams really working hard and working well together, it's a sign of exciting times to come.

But the important part is that for the first time ever - if you want to buy almost anything from a MIVA Merchant, stop by www.shopMIVA.com and go shopping - or even easier use the toolbar. Don't know if you have, but you ought to try it. The Forum RSS feed part is pretty cool.

Regards,

[chucklasker-BANNNED]

I LOVE the RSS Forum feed. Much better than email notifications, and I don't have to subscribe to every thread to be informed of a post. Any way to get rid of the popup blocker so it takes up less of my browser header?

I'd still prefer that the headings for the shopMIVA.com site be different to clarify which sites are MIVA Merchant sites, and which sites are MIVA PPC sites. I understand, of course, which is which, but I'm not sure every user will. So, I can easily see a Merchant user thinking they're ordering from a fellow MIVA Merchant user, when it's just a site that's paid MIVA for advertising that isn't using MM. Even worse is a client of mine seeing a multi-million dollar site and thinking it's MM, and wanting a feature that isn't affordable or possible with MM...

But, I'm not the boss!

[netblazon]

Is the toolbar based on adware.starware? I just installed it and now I'm getting warnings from Norton AV. I googled for this adware, and in addition to the toolbar it says that it can hijack search results, and display ads on pages. (Neither good, IMO!)

I assume this adware came about because of my installation of the MIVA toolbar, since it happened just after. James, can you confirm/deny and offer any more information?

Thanks,
Susan

[netblazon]

Ooh - Do you guys own starware.com?

[d_host]

Hmmm, indeed, it appears to be registered to [email protected] (Miva Direct, in NY).

[James Harrell]

Hi Susan,

The MIVA Merchant Search toolbar is provided by MIVA Direct: http://www.mivadirect.com/products.shtml

Norton AV has inappropriately categorized this toolbar as adware. No adware features exist in it. The MIVA Merchant Search Toolbar provides only three features, none of which will hijack search results or display ads on pages:
1) Direct search box in the toolbar that takes you to http://www.shopmiva.com with the search completed
2) MIVA Merchant Forum RSS feed
3) PopUp Blocker

You will see MIVA ads on the search results page as described above, but this is a feature of the www.shopmiva.com site in general, and not related to the toolbar.

Regarding Starware, here's a recent Wall Street Journal article titled "Seeking a Safer Internet" that disputes the label Starware received as being "AdWare":
http://online.wsj.com/public/article...html?mod=blogs

Regards,
James

[wmgilligan]

You will see MIVA ads on the search results page as described above, but this is a feature of the www.shopmiva.com site in general, and not related to the toolbar.

James

james,
Please have the TOS updated at shopmiva. It is very different from what you are saying.

bill

[Dave Slifka]

The terms of service have been updated. Sorry for the confusion.

http://www.shopmiva.com/help/terms.html

[Vic - WolfPaw Computers]

But how many customers are going to be aware of that article?

I just installed it and McAfee went nuts. I'd say this is a SERIOUS issue that needs to be addressed.

You cant simply expect people to answer yes when your product flags popular anti-virus and spyware programs.

Hi Susan,

The MIVA Merchant Search toolbar is provided by MIVA Direct: http://www.mivadirect.com/products.shtml

Norton AV has inappropriately categorized this toolbar as adware. No adware features exist in it. The MIVA Merchant Search Toolbar provides only three features, none of which will hijack search results or display ads on pages:
1) Direct search box in the toolbar that takes you to http://www.shopmiva.com with the search completed
2) MIVA Merchant Forum RSS feed
3) PopUp Blocker

You will see MIVA ads on the search results page as described above, but this is a feature of the www.shopmiva.com site in general, and not related to the toolbar.

Regarding Starware, here's a recent Wall Street Journal article titled "Seeking a Safer Internet" that disputes the label Starware received as being "AdWare":
http://online.wsj.com/public/article...html?mod=blogs

Regards,
James

[netblazon]

James,

Thanks for the explanation on the toolbar, and the link regarding StarWare. Am I correct in my understanding that Norton is responding to the MIVA toolbar? I'd like to confirm that, regardless of the product's "standing" as spyware or not.

Thanks,
Susan

[chucklasker-BANNNED]

Am I the only one who's RSS feed stopped working in my Miva toolbar?

[James Harrell]

Hi Chuck,

Mine stopped Sunday - I reported it to MIVA Direct, they're looking into the bug. FYI, simply re-installing fixes it. Something to do with if the RSS feed doesn't respond in time, then the feature stops displaying.

I'll post again when I know more.

Cheers,
james

[seahawkfan]

Listed

So how do you get listed in the natural search? Is it automatic or do I need to submit a request?