Acquia - Gigya and Acquia Release Socialize Module, Enabling Facebook Connect, MySpaceID, Twitter and OpenID on any Drupal Site

Gigya, Inc., the leading technology for connecting content and consumers with the social web, today announced that its Socialize technology is now available as a module for Drupal. The Socialize module was developed in conjunction with Acquia, the enterprise guide to the Drupal Social Publishing System.

The new Socialize module enables site owners to authenticate users with a single point of access to Facebook Connect, MySpaceID, Sign in with Twitter as well as OpenID providers like Gmail, Yahoo! Mail and AOL Mail. Publishers using Socialize have increased site registrations by more than 30 percent.

?The Gigya Socialize Drupal module is a perfect complement to Drupal's social publishing features,? said Rooly Eliezerov, President and co-founder, Gigya. ?The module makes it easy for any site built on Drupal to add powerful social features, including pushing content and user activity out beyond the site and into the social networks, driving interactivity and viral promotion.?

Powerful Authentication, Social and Promotional Features

Gigya?s new Socialize Module for Drupal makes it easy for Drupal site owners to:

• Enable users to link existing accounts with social network and OpenID identities, and personalize the user experience by making it easy for sites to integrate user profile and social graph data.
• Increase user acquisition by enabling users to invite friends to the site, or to share site content or a specific event. For example, using the Socialize module users can choose to invite their Facebook friends to comment on a new post they created.
• Increase site traffic through viral promotion, enabling users to send status updates, tweets and newsfeed events to their social networks. The Gigya Socialize module has been fully integrated with Drupal's user action and trigger core modules so Drupal site owners can configure the viral promotion channels to work dynamically.
• Easily configure the user experience, design, and module functionality using the Drupal administration panel.

?Content and community are the critical components of many Drupal websites and the Gigya Socialize Drupal module connects Drupal-based communities with the leading social networks on the web,? said Dries Buytaert, Drupal project founder and Acquia CTO. ?Simplifying site authentication processes and integration with various networks and platforms can improve the user experience and extend the reach of every website.?

The new Gigya Socialize Drupal module is fully configurable and installs in minutes with no programming. The module is available, free of charge, on Drupal.org at http://drupal.org/project/gigya.

To learn more about how to use Socialize on your Drupal website, Acquia and Gigya are jointly hosting a webinar on August 4th, 2009 which will cover product features, implementation, and best practices. To register go to https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/550274306.

About Acquia

Acquia helps organizations of all sizes build social publishing websites quickly, easily and with a lower total cost of ownership by leveraging Drupal, the open source social publishing platform that blends content and community. Our products, services and support enable companies to leverage the power, technical innovation and economic value of Drupal while simplifying the experience, removing the complexity and minimizing the risk. Please visit: http://acquia.com. Download Acquia Drupal, the completely free Drupal distribution, at http://acquia.com/downloads.

About Drupal

The Drupal social publishing system has been downloaded over two million times since its inception and powers more than 400,000 web sites globally. Drupal includes an enterprise class content management system and is used to deliver a wide variety of web applications including single or multi-user blogs, wikis, community networks, digital media portals, e-commerce, and many more. Assisted by a thriving ecosystem of consultants and developers, a diverse set of organizations use Drupal, including SonyBMG, Warner Brothers Records, the New York Observer, Forbes, Disney, Intel, Harvard University, and Amnesty International. A huge community has grown up around Drupal, with thousands of active contributors to the open source technology. For more information, visit http://drupal.org.

About Gigya

Gigya?s technology opens the social web for publishers and marketers, providing powerful tools that increase audience reach and engagement. Gigya reaches more than 250 million people each month on its rich media social advertising network, enabling marketers to engage consumers in social environments and enlist them as brand advocates. The company?s Wildfire and Socialize products enable publishers to syndicate and track their content across more than 70 unique platforms and to integrate and promote their own websites with social networks including Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. Publishers and advertisers working with Gigya include: CBS, Coca-Cola, DoubleClick, Electronic Arts, Hyundai, JCPenney, Levis, MTV, Photobucket, Samsung, Turner, Unilever and Walmart. For more information, please visit: www.gigya.com.