- Strands
Infobox Website
name = Strands
url = http://www.strands.com/
commercial = Yes
type = Recommendation & Community
language =multilingual (~10)
author = CommunalStrands, Inc. is a developer of social recommendation technologies founded in late 2003 by Dr. Francisco J. Martin.
Strands develops technologies to better understand people's tastes and help them discover new things they will like. Strands has created a social recommendation engine that provides real-time recommendations of products and services through computers, mobile phones and other
Internet -connected devices.The company provides these services across three verticals including personal finance (moneyStrands), social media (lifestreaming site Strands.com, and online and mobile music discovery site MyStrands) and business solutions (Strands Social Recommender).
Funding and Staff
Strands has received $55M in funding so far, $49M in 2007. The main investors are Spanish media mogul Antonio Asensio (owner and CEO of Grupo Zeta), and
Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (a multinational Spanish banking group). With headquarters inCorvallis ,Oregon andBarcelona ,Spain , Strands currently employs about 150 people in theUS ,Spain andFinland .Features/Products
Strands offers personalized recommendations based on a
collaborative filtering approach built upon the notion that complex networks of human-generated links between items are the best mechanisms to analyze how our society considers and uses the products it creates and consumes.Strands.com
Strands is a life streaming service that helps users discover new things based on what their friends like and do, and allows them to see what's hot among the people they care about.
MoneyStrands
Strands personal finance solution, moneyStrands, is an online money management solution that allows users to aggregate their online financial information in one place, providing them with an instant snapshot of all their finances. It provides users with personalized recommendations of financial products and services.
Strands Social Recommender for eCommerce
Strands Social Recommender is a
SaaS plug-and-play recommendation engine that can be quickly installed by eCommerce and Media Web sites, through the Strands API or by adding personalization widgets to a retailer’s siteMyStrands - Music Community and Recommendations
The
website enables music discovery through the company's collaborative filtering engine, or through the listening history of other members. The website also provides tools for members to find other members with similar musical tastes to their own, track what those members are playing, and contact other members as desired. It includes a desktop application that supports the Windows, Mac, andLinux operating systems and theiTunes ,Windows Media Player ,Winamp , andAmarok players.MyStrands' features are also available in mobile versions, supporting a number of phones with Symbian, Windows, and Java-enabled mobile technologies.
MyStrands allows independent artists to create their presence on the website as well, allowing the potential to be recommended alongside all the "big name" artists, from
ABBA toZappa . To help expose independent artists, MyStrands offers their personalized Indie Radio.MyStrands TV
One of MyStrands' latest products is their TV, which interfaces with
youTube via the MyStrands public APIs and their OpenStrands web services to deliver personalized video viewing. Users can simply enter an artist name and immediately begin watching videos from that artist. The TV, like other MyStrands products, makes recommendations for videos from other artists similar to the one being played, and users can watch these recommended videos or choose other artists or genres.OpenStrands
OpenStrands services allow users to programmatically perform many of the same functions available through the MyStrands website using a browser. The platform currently includes account, catalog, recommendation, playlist, tagging, and community services. Use of OpenStrands is free to registered MyStrands users.
Labs/Patents
Strands shows its potential future technologies on its labs pages. There users can visit and experiment with technologies as they are being developed. Also shown on the labs page is a listing of the various patents filed by Strands.
Awards
April 18 ,2007 ." [http://blog.mystrands.com/2007/04/18/winners-of-the-orange-innovation-contest MyStrands Social Player wins Orange Innovation Contest] ".March 19 ,2008 ." [http://blog.strands.com/2008/03/19/mobile-rules-winner MyStrands Social Player wins Nokia's Mobile Rules! 2008] ".References
*"Business Week",
September 11 ,2006 . " [http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/sep2006/tc20060911_735858.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_technology MyStrands Adds Music to Web 2.0's Mix] ".
*"M-Trends",March 14 ,2007 . " [http://www.m-trends.org/2007/03/mystrands-launches-social-player.html/ MyStrands Launches Social Player] ".
*"Go-Mo News",March 15 ,2007 . " [http://pushingthebarrier.typepad.com/pushing_the_barrier/2007/03/mystrands_socia.html MyStrands Social Music Player brings community and music discovery to mobile] ".Further reading
*Pearce, James Quintana, [http://www.moconews.net/entry/419-mystrands-closes-24-million-funding-round/ "MyStrands Closes $24 Million Funding Round"] , mocoNews, December 4, 2007.
*Salz, Peggy Anne, [http://www.msearchgroove.com/2007/06/19/mystrands-gets-funding-is-recommendation-ready-for-primetime/ "MyStrands Gets Funding & Sharpens Focus; Is Recommendation Ready For Primetime?"] , MSearch Groove, June 19, 2007.
*MacManus, Richard, [http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/mystrands_revamp.php "MyStrands Revamp - More Integration Between Mobile, Online and Physical Worlds"] , Read/Write Web, January 23, 2007.
*Roberts, Bena, [http://pushingthebarrier.typepad.com/pushing_the_barrier/2007/03/mystrands_socia.html "MyStrands Social Music Player brings community and music discovery to mobile"] , GoMo News, March 15, 2007.
* [http://news.mobile9.com/s60apps/2007/02/01/social-player-by-mystrands/ "Social Player by MyStrands"] , Symbian in Motion, February 1, 2007.External links
* [http://www.strands.com Strands Site]
* [http://blog.strands.com Strands Blog]
* [http://www.mystrands.tv MyStrands.TV Site]
*Recommender Systems
* [http://recommender-startups.strands.com Call For Recommender Start-Ups]
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