FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Jocelyn Hutt, Editor 617-559-1102 jhutt@homeportfolio.com |
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HomePortfolio Introduces Collaborative Room Search | |||
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NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS, January 31, 2008 —
HomePortfolio®, the leader in collaborative search for home design products and services, today announced Collaborative Room Search, a free Web-based system that lets homeowners discover, save, and share design ideas. As with HomePortfolio’s pioneering product search technology, Collaborative Room Search makes it remarkably fast and easy to find what you want, and to collaborate on projects. It is available starting today at HomePortfolio’s flagship Web site (www.homeportfolio.com).
Room images are tagged using HomePortfolio’s powerful dictionary of attributes. Consumers search room photos using words and combinations of words (cozy, sunlit, contemporary, L-shaped, etc.). Or they select images they like and click on “Find Similar” to see photos of rooms with similar attributes. HomePortfolio’s Collaborative Room Search technology, data, and tools can also be used to power partner Web sites (manufacturers, retailers, newspapers, magazines, TV programs, trade shows, and events). “It’s like being able to rip pages out of magazines, but it’s interactive and alive,” said Rolly Rouse, HomePortfolio’s Co-founder and CEO. “Room photos are just the starting point. You find an image of a room you like, and you use that room as a tool for finding similar rooms and for finding similar products.” “Our mission is to help you create a home that’s authentically you — a home that expresses your tastes and aspirations. Finding, saving, and sharing photos of rooms is an integral part of this process. Collaborative Room Search makes it easier for you to show your architect, interior designer, or builder exactly what you want,” said Rouse. For the launch, images are courtesy of product manufacturers. In the near future, retailers, interior designers, architects, builders, and media partners will all be able to upload and tag their own room images. While HomePortfolio’s initial focus is on kitchens, the Collaborative Room Search system will quickly expand to include the full range of rooms, including home exteriors and outdoor spaces. Users save their favorite rooms to a personalized Home Design Portfolio® (HomePortfolio’s electronic clip file), just like they save products at HomePortfolio.com. They share this Portfolio with members of their design team (partner, spouse, architect, interior designer, builder, and friends). They rate room photos and product options (love it, like it, or not my style). They add notes and distribute them to members of their design team via email. “Collaborative Room Search offers tremendous new power to media partners,” said Rouse. “For years, consumers have wanted to be able to use gorgeous room shots — like the ones they find in magazines — as a tool for getting concrete about design options. Now they can. They can use digital room photos to search for photos of similar rooms, and to search for similar products. They can find nearby retail showrooms that carry those brands. They can quickly learn where they can touch, feel, and buy the products they love.” HomePortfolio is in discussions with a growing number of media partners about powering search on their Web sites as part of a unified Home Design Network™. “Imagine how much better newspaper, magazine, and TV program Web sites will be able to serve their audiences once their image archives are powered by HomePortfolio’s Collaborative Room Search platform,” said Rouse. “HomePortfolio’s syndicated services make individual partner Web sites more useful and powerful. Anything you save at any partner site is automatically saved into your master portfolio at HomePortfolio. This makes search and collaboration more exciting and efficient for everyone.” As part of building its Search Network, four weeks ago HomePortfolio announced it would power a first of its kind Interactive Product Guide for the Architectural Digest Home Design Show, March 7-9, 2008. Two weeks ago the company unveiled a new Customized Collaborative Search service for local retail showrooms. For information on both of these new services, visit www.homeportfolio.com/PressRoom. About HomePortfolio HomePortfolio — an independent, privately held company — is the only Internet search company focused on home design collaboration. HomePortfolio’s pioneering Web platform for collaborative search showcases 700,000 products from 2,055 of the best manufacturer brands, as well as information on 100,000 local showrooms. Consumers, architects, interior designers, and builders use HomePortfolio to find exactly what they want and to collaborate on new homes, renovations, and redecorating projects. It’s like tearing pages out of magazines, but the products that are saved and shared are interactive and alive with information and connectivity. HomePortfolio’s personal Home Design Portfolio® helps users save time and avoid costly mistakes. # # #
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