Weekly News Digest

Hoover’s, Inc. (www.hoovers.com), a D&B company, announced the official launch of Hoover’s Connect, a business networking tool that helps users get introduced to and establish relationships with targeted prospects. This coincides with Hoover’s agreement to acquire Visible Path (www.visiblepath.com), the company that had been powering Hoover’s Connect Beta for the past year. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Hoover’s Connect has only been available in Beta on Hoover’s free site. It is now also available to Hoover’s subscribers. Hoover’s Connect is designed to provide an effective, nonintrusive way for its users to connect to a person through someone the prospect may already have a strong relationship with and who is therefore best suited to make that introduction.

Hoover’s Connect is easy to use. When the user goes to a particular Hoover’s company record and clicks the "Connect" button, various referral paths appear that highlight the strongest path within that user’s network. The service allows users to build their networks actively (by inviting colleagues to join) as well as passively (through an Outlook plug-in that applies unique social networking algorithms to automatically rate relationship strength).

The company says that what distinguishes Hoover’s Connect from other professional business networking tools is its ability to identify users’ strongest relationships by evaluating their Outlook systems such as email and calendars. The service then assesses the strength of those connections and rates them accordingly, all while maintaining customer privacy. Hoover’s Connect lets users evaluate in advance the potential of a particular networking opportunity and tailor communications accordingly, ultimately enhancing the success of online relationship building.

For a demonstration of how Hoover’s Connect works, click here:
http://cdn.hoovers.com/images/i/landingpgs/cs95/vph_new_main.html.

Note: Visible Path supplies the Relationship Manager feature in ExecRelate by LexisNexis (http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/nbReader.asp?ArticleId=37079). Visible Path also offers a free service for individuals at its website. According to a Hoover’s representative, the company will "continue to offer VisiblePath’s Professional product free to individuals. Users can sign up at www.visiblepath.com, www.hooversconnet.com, or at any of our partner websites for this product. We also plan to continue to support networks distributed by our partners, including LexisNexis." 

Source: Hoover’s, Inc.