AboutUs.org

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AboutUs, Inc.

Type	Private
Founded	2006
Founder	Ray King, Jay Westerdal
Headquarters	Portland, Oregon, United States
Revenue	unknown
Employees	32
Website	www.aboutus.org
Alexa rank	<1000
Type of site	Wiki Web directory
Advertising	Google AdSense
Registration	Optional
Available in	multilingual
Launched	May 9, 2006; 4 years ago (2006-05-09)
Current status	active
Screenshot Screenshot of aboutus.org home page

AboutUs.org is a wiki Internet domain directory. It lists websites along with information about their content. As a wiki, AboutUs allows Internet users to add entries or modify information.

Ray King, Jay Westerdal, & Paul Stahura founded AboutUs in 2005. Later in 2006 a small staff of five people in Portland, Oregon developed out the site, United States. The staff has since expanded to more than thirty people and two continents with an office in Lahore, Pakistan. In May 2007, Ward Cunningham, developer of the first wiki, joined AboutUs as its chief technology officer.

AboutUs.org attracted at least 1.4 million U.S. visitors in July 2008.

[edit] Website contents

There are more than ten million entries on AboutUs.org as of March 2008, and new pages are added at a rate of about 25,000 a day. Most entries were created by a web robot (bot); web searches by users direct the bot to create a page for a web domain. In many cases the content is simply a republication of the contents of the "About us", "About me", or similar page on the website. Such pages typically describe the entity that owns the site, and may include self-promotional information, which AboutUs.org does not restrict. In many other cases the content of an entry consists of the whois data for the website.

[edit] Data use

Some websites that analyze domains and traffic link to AboutUs.org as a point of additional reference. Notably, the "Whois" site DomainTools now references the Aboutus.org listing along with standard server information, domain ownership and history, and additional data. AboutUs has also referenced whois data content from the registrars Network Solutions and Register.com.

[edit] Malware domains

To prevent users from visiting malware domains, editors work with McAfee SiteAdvisor and PHSDL to identify such domains. Once a malware domain is identified, an AboutUs MalwareSite template is placed to warn users.

[edit] Popularity

AboutUs.org is an open directory, and does not restrict website owners from writing in their own comments, or referencing commercial information that is not necessarily notable; webmasters are permitted to engage in self-promotion in terms of highlighting their website's features.

AboutUs.org fills the gap for webmasters by encouraging the posting of information about all websites regardless of notability or commercial interest.

Because of the open editing policy, and inclusion of commercial sites, it has grown rapidly in its content. It is also popular among webmasters or website owners seeking to include their "about us" information on AboutUs.org, as a central point of summary information on the web.

[edit] Funding

In November 2006, AboutUs closed its initial financing round for one million dollars.

In January 2009, AboutUs secured a $5 million funding round from Voyager Capital.

[edit] See also

• Open Directory Project
• Alexa Internet

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• AboutUs.org
• Marshall Kilpatrick, "AboutUs: A Wiki About Every Website," TechCrunch, 11/14/2006.
• "AboutUs.org gets $1 million funding - excuse me?," CenterNetworks weblog entry, 11/14/2006.
• "AboutUs Launches a Business Plan; I'm Still Not Sold," CenterNetworks weblog entry, 01/10/2008
• "AboutUs.org - Is it Ethical?," Ajay - On the Road called Life! webblog entry, August 25, 2006.
• Information Week article from 2007-01-27
• Google Maps Street View of Headquarters