Operating under the belief that users are getting bored with stagnant Web browsers, Mediadome is offering a new form of branded browser that creates a contextual 3-D environment.
Mediadome 1.0, which launched last month, can create a branded environment that includes a pre-installed media player, the standard browser icons and six of the user’s favorite sites.
By putting these pieces together, “we're offering a unified software interface,” said Cynthia Spence, chief marketing officer at Mediadome, Santa Clara, CA. “What you're seeing is a trend of simplification. Consumers have their favorite five or six sites and that's it. We can put them all in one place.”
These browsers not only offer the convenience of having a number of sites and tools at one destination, but they also offer graphics designed to keep the consumer entertained.
For example, the “dance-club” environment, which is one of the most popular plug-ins available at AOL's Winamp.com, has a computer-animated dance floor. A handful of cartoon dancers alternate their dance steps according to whatever song the user selects on his media player. Space-age computer screens hover in the background featuring six Web sites that the user can access.
This environment automatically delivers Web content to the six screens based on the consumer's interests. For example, if the James Bond theme is selected on the media player, a 007 promotion available at a movie site is served up in addition to various offers deep within sites such as Amazon.com.
These sponsor-driven and advertiser-driven offers are more appealing to consumers than the traditional means of online marketing because “banners smell of advertisement and repel the consumers. This is a better experience,” Spence said.
All of the consumer's activity within the browser is tracked. “We can provide detailed aggregate customer data,” Spence said. “We can track who's using a specific screen and how long they're there.”
Spence summed up Mediadome as “a branded browser entity that offers a new revenue stream and granular data analysis on the end-user.”
Consumers can download the browser from a client site, Mediadome.com and Winamp.com. A branded icon then will sit on the user's desktop, serving as his gateway to the browser. The company is in negotiations with a number of companies, although none have officially signed on.
Search capabilities will be offered in the fourth quarter. The company had yet to determine the cost of the licensing fee for this technology.
