AboutUs.org
Encyclopedia
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.
data for the website.
" 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
.
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.
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.
.
In January 2009, AboutUs secured a $5 million funding round from Voyager Capital.
Wiki
A wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used collaboratively by multiple users. Examples include...
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
Jay Westerdal
Jay Westerdal is a domainer, entrepreneur and VC investor best known for his work creating DomainTools.com. DomainTools is a service that looks up historical ownership of a website. The whois service was integrated into Google's onebox in May 2008. He later sold the company in 2008 for a reported...
, & Paul Stahura founded AboutUs in 2005. Later in 2006 a small staff of five people in Portland
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
developed out the site, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The staff has since expanded to more than thirty people and two continents with an office in Lahore
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
, Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
. In May 2007, Ward Cunningham
Ward Cunningham
Howard G. "Ward" Cunningham is an American computer programmer who developed the first wiki. A pioneer in both design patterns and Extreme Programming, he started programming the software WikiWikiWeb in 1994 and installed it on the website of his software consultancy, Cunningham & Cunningham , on...
, developer of the first wiki
Wiki
A wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used collaboratively by multiple users. Examples include...
, joined AboutUs as its chief technology officer.
AboutUs.org attracted at least 1.4 million U.S. visitors in July 2008.
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 whoisWHOIS
WHOIS is a query and response protocol that is widely used for querying databases that store the registered users or assignees of an Internet resource, such as a domain name, an IP address block, or an autonomous system, but is also used for a wider range of other information. The protocol stores...
data for the website.
Data use
Some websites that analyze domains and traffic link to AboutUs.org as a point of additional reference. Notably, the "WhoisWHOIS
WHOIS is a query and response protocol that is widely used for querying databases that store the registered users or assignees of an Internet resource, such as a domain name, an IP address block, or an autonomous system, but is also used for a wider range of other information. The protocol stores...
" 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
Network Solutions
Network Solutions, LLC is a technology company founded in 1979. The domain name registration business has become the most important division of the company. As of January 2009, Network Solutions managed more than 6.6 million domain names.-History:...
and Register.com
Register.com
Register.com was founded as a provider of Internet services by brothers Richard and Peter Forman and Dan Levine in 1994. In 1999, the company officially changed its name to Register.com....
.
Malware domains
To prevent users from visiting malwareMalware
Malware, short for malicious software, consists of programming that is designed to disrupt or deny operation, gather information that leads to loss of privacy or exploitation, or gain unauthorized access to system resources, or that otherwise exhibits abusive behavior...
domains, editors work with McAfee
McAfee
McAfee, Inc. is a computer security company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, USA. It markets software and services to home users, businesses and the public sector. On August 19, 2010, electronics company Intel agreed to purchase McAfee for $7.68 billion...
SiteAdvisor and PHSDL to identify such domains. Once a malware domain is identified, an AboutUs MalwareSite template
Template (programming)
Templates are a feature of the C++ programming language that allow functions and classes to operate with generic types. This allows a function or class to work on many different data types without being rewritten for each one....
is placed to warn users.
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.
Funding
In November 2006, AboutUs closed its initial financing round for one million dollarsUnited States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
.
In January 2009, AboutUs secured a $5 million funding round from Voyager Capital.
External links
- AboutUs.org
- Marshall Kilpatrick, "AboutUs: A Wiki About Every Website," TechCrunchTechCrunchTechCrunch is a web publication that offers technology news and analysis, as well as profiling of startup companies, products, and websites. It was founded by Michael Arrington in 2005, and was first published on June 11, 2005....
, 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