New Features At ArcticIndex
ArcticIndex, our database and a network of Nordic and Baltic startups, service providers and investors, has been growing steadily with new members. We have also added some new features together with Kisko Labs that have been asked for every now and then. Here's a little run down on what we've released and some plans where we intend to go with the service.
Some new additions to the service include:
- Availability to set a location for your company - this means you can choose a Nordic or a Baltic country from the drop down list to mark the home turf your company. This will come in handy in the future as we bring in more localised services to ArcticIndex.
- Possibility to filter out companies and people based on their nationality - this feature has been asked for quite a bit and we agree, it is only the beginning in adding better ways to drill down to the database with keywords of filters of your choice. However, now when you go to either the companies page or people page, you are able to filter the nationalities with the tool on the left hand side.
- Company specific URLs - this will help those smaller companies get more visibility through Google and other search engines. Unfortunately we can't write about every startup there is, but that is no barrier for good online visibility. Just enter your company name as it should be in the field provided and the service will render the company page URL so that it matches your company name. A small step towards better SEO.
- Company specific ArcticStartup blog posts - we matched the companies in the database together with the blog posts in ArcticStartup through tags. This means that, for example on Spotify's page you will now be able to see the latest ArcticStartup blog posts regarding Spotify. This will make the content more relevant for everyone and useful.
We have a roadmap of new features that are going to be implemented in the near future, but what are the things you'd like to see in the service - where would you like us to take it? We're going to be releasing embeddable boxes (like the one you see about Spotify and Kisko Labs below this post) to everyone in a bit, so other startup bloggers can also share the love. We've also been playing with the idea of bringing in tools for startups to take better control over their own page and start using it as a marketing platform, or a recruiting service. But now's your chance - give us your input, where would you like us to take the service and what are the features you'd like to see implemented?
10 Comments
Add your comment
1) QuantCast stats, please... Compete.com is a "wild guess" while many of the web sites are already participating to QuantCast's tracking (similar to GA), so the data is "valid" for several companies. For companies that operate something in Finnish, stats from TNS Metrix and/or Oindex.fi would be nice too. Same goes for Swedish, etc -- use their countries' "own TNS Metrix" charts (KIA Index in Sweden? TNS in Norway, that I do know.. )
2) Multiple URLs for localized versions of the services (add ISO country/language code to the data to make it easier to find, say, all companies that operate Spanish sites) to and/or if the company owns several properties. A separate URL for the "company URL", if there's one.
3) Link to a wikipedia article about the company, if there's one. Again, allow multiple localized links if the company is covered by several wikipedia editions.
4) Well, the obvious here in Finland, even tho some of us might not like it ;-) Link to an inoa.fi information. (might as well add more "official" link to PRH too)
5) Mashup stuff, some stats from various site's APIs: Technorati, Twitter, ..
6) If there's a city and a country info available, map would be nice, showing where each company is located at. (and maybe a quick list of AI companies operating in same city)
dRD - thanks for the excellent tips!
QuantCast is not any better than Compete if your traffic comes from outside of the USA. Or are all Arctic Startups really aiming for the North American market only? Google Trends is a lot better measure, but unfortuantely not updated very often.
@Jani: It is, if you measure your traffic with their tag ("quantified publisher") like several major sites do (if you browse their list at http://www.quantcast.com/top-sites-1 -- the small "diagram logo" means that it is directly measured and also means that you'll get U.S. _and_ global stats for the site's page). Guys like digg.com, Hulu and Answers.com are participating..
Idea about traffic statistics: Arctic Index could make a co-operation deal with Oindex and provide a more detailed traffic listing of those services listed in the Index that wanna publish their GA traffic data - if there just is enough of those startups.
Asmo - I've thought about something similar. The problem is that not everyone wants to share them voluntarily. But nevertheless, an option worth digging into.
Antti, yes, I guess there might be quite few that would participate but even still there could be an option like that.
Hi Antti,
I'm one of the Oindex developers and we are willing to co-operate if you're interested in using statistics from Oindex in ArticIndex. We already have a simple API for querying data, so drop an email to antti[ät]mediashake.fi if you would like to hear more.
Cheers Antti - will be in touch later today.
Hi,
I think you are on the right road with ArcticIndex! The number of companies and people you have attracted with it seems very promising. I have a few questions, if you like, in addition to the brief e-mail discussion we had last month:
1) Who are you targeting with this service? I think this question should be asked prior to defining desirable features. I'm not an expert on web services, but I think that generally too much features in any service is a signal that the service is not well enough targeted. If the developers do not know who to reach, they'll just pile features that will "surely" serve someone. On the web this is very easy and inexpensive.
2) Answering to 1) myself, could the number one target user be an informal venture capitalist, such as a business angel? I think this question reveals a lot of hints as to where the service could go. It would be awesome if there was a well built service without too much fuss for startups to market themselves to a keen investor community, assuming that there exists such investors.
Log in or Sign up to leave comments