Thanks to GageIn’s enthusiastic and loyal Private Beta users, a lot of great questions have popped up. We decide to devote the next few blogs to address them, along with many exciting new features in our next major product release in two weeks.

Q: Will GageIn enable real-time news alerts?
A: A few users have requested real-time alerts sent through email or SMS. However, we have found that most GageIn users believe a daily or weekly email alert is sufficient for now, due to their extremely demanding daily schedules. GageIn is exceptionally serious about distributing only relevant and valuable content to users instead of just adding to the volume of items users must filter on a daily basis. We will proceed cautiously to find a fine balance over time, and we will continue to evaluate similar user requests and make necessary changes accordingly.

Q: What’s the difference between GageIn and media monitoring services?
A: Great question by a PR guru. Media monitoring services are usually designed for marketing and PR organizations to monitor media mentioning of a certain company and its competitors. It measures PR campaign efficiency and evaluates company business strategy success. GageIn designs its services to deliver critical and actionable business news and updates so that users are able to act upon mission-critical initiatives when triggered. Users can follow any company, customize how they want to filter news and updates, and organize the news in ways that work best for them.

Q: Will GageIn have a mobile version?
A: Yes, GageIn views mobile access as key channel for users to access its service. We plan to release mobile versions on top smart phones with user-friendly interface shortly after the Public Beta, probably in Q1 of 2011.

Q: Will GageIn provide the ability to upload a list of companies to follow?
A: Yes, this is a frequently requested feature by sales organizations, and we will implement it before the public beta. It will significantly save users time searching and following companies.

Q: Will GageIn integrate with CRM systems like Salesforce.com?
A: The integration with CRM systems like Salesforce.com is on our road map, and we are evaluating possible time lines for its release. We welcome your comments or suggestions regarding this matter.

Q: How can I control what information I want to share on GageIn?
A: At GageIn, we highly value your privacy. You can customize your privacy settings by going to “Account” and then “Privacy”. You can choose to have only certain type of users (or nobody) access your profile, your followed companies, your colleagues, and your connections. You can also decide if you want to publish your basic profile to search engines.

We hope this helps answer some of your questions, and feel free to send us more questions or comments. Stay tuned for more questions and answers in our next article!

This guest blog was written by Anurag Agrawal, CEO of Techaisle, a market research and consulting company focused on Emerging Markets, Emerging Technologies, Global SMBs and Consumers. Anurag is a veteran Market Research executive with over 25 years proven track record in market research, data analytics and offshore call-centers.  He was the Chief Operating Officer at AMI-Partners, Senior Vice President of Operations at Knowledge Networks, Vice President of Worldwide Research at Gartner, and Worldwide Research Director at IDC.  He most recently became a board member at GageIn.

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Orkut and many others have successfully transformed us into a world where persons seen and unseen, heard and unheard, known and unknown, close and distant get connected instantly. They may or may not follow each others’ activities, recommendations, introductions but they all want to connect and “remain in touch”. All of these applications are extremely good at what they do – connect persons who are friends, relatives, acquaintances or business associates. However, none of them actually keep one updated about the other’s business, company, and firm. There are three phrases that people invariably ask when you first meet with someone new in a face-to-face setting. 1) Are you on Facebook? 2) What is your Twitter handle? 3) Are we already connected on LinkedIn? However, in our kind of business just being connected to a person is not enough. And I am sure that is true for almost every business. Question is – are we connected to the business of our client, our vendor, our partner? Are we following them to gain knowledge, understanding and intelligence? And if yes we are following them then how are we doing it? Through press releases, through news aggregation services, through informal media such as blogs, forums? Why can there not be one platform that helps us all follow businesses and business personnel for mutual growth.

And the above conundrum has plagued me for a long time. However, having harbored that riddle and lack of an answer I chanced upon two executives, good friends of mine who had set out to solve the very problem with a clearly defined vision. The result is GageIn.

As I mentioned earlier, there are many large and some niche players in business news aggregation and business relationship management. However, what I believe has been missing in the space is an integrated platform which could align and streamline all pieces together that allows one to follow companies, receive business news, take actions to find and engage in business opportunities, track competitors’ latest movements, benchmark strategy and performance against the market, industry, or technology trends. In my opinion, GageIn is addressing exactly what the business market needs today.

I have had the privilege to be part of GageIn’s private beta launch. Although limited in functionality currently, I found the site focused on organizing people and news around companies and enabling users to search and follow companies for daily business news updates. The user interface is simple and easy-to-use. It seems that I could receive news from most large companies immediately upon following them while it takes a few days to start receiving news feed from small and medium-sized companies. News that is closely relevant to my interest.

I strongly urge you to try it out, apply for private beta.

You are cordially invited to join GageIn Private Beta trial.  GageIn is an integrated online platform to track businesses, connect businesses and grow businesses.

GageIn Private Beta trial starts off with limited features including:

• Search and update business information
• Follow and add business news updates
• Build and utilize business connections

By joining GageIn, users can access current business information, receive relevant business updates, obtain business intelligence, drive actions through business connections, and ultimately achieve business growth.

We are looking for beta users who:

• Believe they will benefit from GageIn service
• Will devote a few hours weekly using GageIn platform and providing periodic feedback about our services
• Will invite business people they know who will benefit from GageIn service

Santa Clara, California, May 25, 2010 – GageIn, the world’s first integrated online platform for users to track businesses, connect businesses and grow businesses, today announced its launch of a private Beta trial. Candidates who are interested in participating in the trial can register through an application form and be invited to join with a Beta invite code.

The private Beta version initially offers the following features:

* Search and update business information
* Follow and add business news
* Build and communicate with business connections

The company will continue to improve its service offering and deliver the best user experience throughout its Beta trial.

“I have been using the Beta version on an internal staging server for a few days and I am very excited to see it go live after extremely intense work for approximately six months,” said Dr. Luosheng Peng, CEO & President of GageIn. “We appreciate the initial interest and feedback from our prospective users and will further engage our expanding user community in the coming months”.

About GageIn

GageIn, promoting proactive and insightful business engagement, is the world’s first integrated online platform for users to track businesses, connect businesses and growth businesses through effectively staying informed of market trends, uncovering business opportunities and expanding business relationships. By joining GageIn, users can access current business information, receive relevant business updates, obtain business intelligence, drive actions through business connections, and ultimately achieve business growth. For more information about GageIn, please visit our website at www.gagein.com.

Media Contact
Angie Yuan
Director of Marketing
GageIn Inc.
Phone: 408-317-9529
Email: marketing@gagein.com