Germany-based myON-ID Media has raised an undisclosed seven-figure sum in a second round of funding from T-Online Venture Fund to expand its online reputation management platform. MyON-ID is actually more of a combination between a people search engine and an alert service for keywords mentioned across the web.
I quicky tried out searching my own name on the English version of the search application, and the results were a bit messy to say the least. From what I understand, all the engine does is perform a meta search on services like Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, LinkedIn etc. along with traditional and blog search engines like Technorati. MyON-ID aims to make money from offering a premium version and advertising on the free service.
I’m not so sure what prompted a reputable investor like T-Online Venture Fund and previous backer Nexum to fund such a simple service, unless I’m missing something here. The Munich-based company claims it’s very strong in Germany, and hopes to repeat this success with other localized versions (in English, French, Italian, Polish, Dutch, Spanish and Turkish).
There are far better tools out there for online reputation tracking and management, in my opinion. One example is Trackur, which offers advanced tools to monitor social media. Other providers off the top of my head include Brandseye, Radian6, Attentio, Buzzcapture and Chatterguard.
The people search engine market on itself is already a crowded one: alternatives include Wink, Spock, Naymz, PeekYou and Pipl.
I have serious doubts if myON-ID has what it takes to compete on an international level.
Hi Robin, thanks for the kind words about Trackur! We’ve gotten this far without any VC funding!
Try and keep it that way.
I agree. I’d rather keep building it and sell it completely than sell part of my soul off.
Might be a good idea to hire a designer??
And don’t forget TweetBeep.com for watching Twitter for your name, company, products, etc.
http://tweetbeep.com
Hey there. Well great to hear Radian6 is top of mind. Thanks for including us. Cheers. David
Hi Robin,
Have you seen Techrigy SM2? It’s a social media monitoring tool with the most robust analytics & reporting. It also offers historical results.
I’d be glad to demo it for you. We have a Freemium version http://sm2.techrigy.com
Connie ~ Community Strategist
Connie@techrigy.com
There is also Social Mention (http://socialmention.com) for monitoring keywords in real-time.
Hi Robin, thanks for covering our company here at techcrunch.
Don´t be afraid about the T-Venture money. You should stay tuned for a while as there will be some significant changes in the platform soon. Pretty sure you´ll like.
We like the services of Trackur and Radian6, but myON-ID is not comparable to them. Naymz is quite close to our concept.
PS:
The UK site you checked out is only a test for us. The search engine there is just playing around with some API´s.
Congratulations Mario!
Looking forward to seeing more.
Stefan
http://www.123people.com
Online reputation tools might become the Killer App of Social Media. Think about it as Bob of DELL mentions – Google is now your home page( for companies and individuals).
All Companies will have to monitor the Social Web realtime – all the the time. It takes one Blog Post by a unhappy customer and few hours to destroy a companies reputation on the Web today.
We have created 2 Flash Animations on Social Media Monitoring
http://vizedu.c...dia-monitoring/
and other a AIG case study
http://vizedu.c...ia-guns-on-aig/
depicting the growing importance of online reputation.
Tracking your online reputation is only part of the the ORM process. The other part is making sure you are professionally represented online when people search your name. I have multiple online profiles and use a site called LookupPage that aims at representing you professionally online and making sure you are found every time someone searches your name. You can check it out if you like
Services like myon-id and Trackur are great tools for monitoring your online rep, but why stop there? Swaplogic (www.swaplogic.com) lets you build your online reputation yourself! You can use Swaplogic to market yourself or your business by posting classified ads and negotiating contracts for goods and services, and then publish your track record by documenting your personal and professional dealings online.
I attempted to use the UK site and got nothing. I like the idea but hope it works a lot better in full production.
ye same
I like Trackur -it is online – nice and simple dashboard – moreover they have a 14 day trial period.
Buzz Manager is what uncovered the fake Shaq on twitter and then we convinced THE_REAL_SHAQ to launch his presence to great success. Reputation Management is Sports Media Challenge’s core business for Sports, Entertainment and Lifestyle markets. Our service, Buzz Manager combines proprietary technology and human analysis and for those serious about building and protecting their brands SMC provides indepth consulting. Our nice works well for properties, sponsors, media and anyone in those markets.
no one really understands in germany why they got a 7 digit funding, this is awasome, because so far its not a product its still a beta idea.. .so no one knows what the folks at telekom had in mind when they closed such a funding.
I haven’t tried the other services but myON-ID worked great for me. It came up with a youtube video of my boss drinking out of a beer bong on TV.
Have you tried yasni.com? Yasni is the world leader in the people search category (the European version of their site receives 24 million page views per month according to Alexa.com). They recently introduced a U.S. version at http://www.yasni.com.
This is nothing new and nothing special. I don’t understand how they got funding for this. Must be ‘connections’…anyway, i honestly think Trackur is a much better service both in terms of results and usability. (and without funding! bravo!!). Naymz i’ve gotten best results with in terms of people search.
The search results are quite bad on myonid. I got far better results using trackur and Wink for people listings.
Claimid, pipl, spock, Naymz, trackur, brandseye, radion6, attentio, buzzcapture, chatterguard, peekyou, wink, molly…..I think the t-online people don’t do their homework!!
How can they say ’successful in Germany’? that is absolutely not true! they have been around now for over a year and there has been no growth since then! Sheesh! talk about self promotion…
‘Google profiles’ has just started baby!