Press Releases

Press  >  November 1, 2005 Release

Germantown, MD — November 1, 2005 — WeatherBug, the leading provider of live, local weather information services, today announced the launch and immediate availability of WeatherBug Labs. Located at labs.weatherbug.com the new showcase serves as a public forum for WeatherBug productv development and innovation between WeatherBug employees and WeatherBug users. Here, WeatherBug engineers, researchers and other employees showcase their “pet projects” to solicit feedback and collaboration from consumers and the developer community. The online forum enables participants to discuss and explore ideas that can leverage the proprietary network of 8,000 WeatherBug Tracking Stations, which stream live, neighborhood-level weather.

User-submitted ideas, comments, suggestions and innovations are sent to labsproducts@weatherbug.com. Feedback on these prototypes is a crucial and valuable step of the development process.

Favorable user responses can lead to ultimate integration of a project into WeatherBug’s product portfolio. While some projects may move on to official product development, others may be dropped due to lack of interest or traffic and production issues.

WeatherBug Labs premieres with the following innovations:

• WeatherBug RSS - WeatherBug data provided by Really Simple Syndication (RSS) via any RSS reader such as Newsburst, Pluck, Rojo and others. Graduated to released product October 19, 2005.
• WeatherBug on IM – Skype and AIM – an automated WeatherBug contact that you can add to your IM for instant weather reports and forecasts.
• WeatherBug Lite Mac – the Mac version of WeatherBug Lite.
• WeatherBug Podcast - a daily, one-minute audio recap of nation’s weather, focusing on severe weather each Monday through Friday.
• Weather Games – fun games about weather, including a fun memory challenge to match up weather condition tiles to reveal a user-submitted weather photo.
• WeatherBug API - tools that enable software developers to integrate live, neighborhood-level WeatherBug data into software applications, enhancing content, relevance and efficiency.

About WeatherBug^®

WeatherBug (www.weatherbug.com) ensures that individuals, schools, businesses and communities always get the most precise live weather conditions, the most relevant reports, and the earliest weather warnings to safeguard their property and their lives. WeatherBug owns the world's largest exclusive weather network, which has over 8,000 live WeatherBug Tracking Stations and more than 1,000 cameras that generate neighborhood level reports every second versus other weather providers whose data is up to an hour or more old. This network powers various products and services, including: WeatherBug, the number one weather Internet application, with over 60 million downloads, that streams live neighborhood conditions to its home and work users; WeatherBug Media Services, which delivers live weather information to over 80 million U.S. households through partnerships with more than 100 local television stations; WeatherBug Education, which provides engaging weather information and educational tools to schools and colleges, including an online learning program for K-12 schools called WeatherBug Achieve; and WeatherBug Professional Services, which uses the company's unique weather network and software to provide high-value solutions for vertical industries such as energy, transportation, and first response. WeatherBug is a brand of AWS Convergence Technologies, Inc. www.aws.com.

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Press Contacts:

Debra Eisenberg
WeatherBug
301-250-4017 - Office
301-523-9224 - Cell
deisenberg@weatherbug.com

Alyce Menton
WeatherBug
301-250-4127 - Office
301-648-5102 - Cell
amenton@weatherbug.com