OpenX Announces Major Ad Server Update

   Launch of OpenX 2.6 Features New API, Dashboard and Other Enhancements



    PASADENA, Calif., Aug. 13 /EMWNews/ -- OpenX Technologies, Inc.

(OpenX), the world's leading independent ad server for web publishers,

today announced the launch of version 2.6, a major update to its free, open

source software. The release contains dozens of new features, including a

new application programming interface (API), a dashboard and a faster ad

tag.



    



    "OpenX is committed to providing the tens of thousands of publishers in

our community with powerful new ways to control the advertising on their

websites, display more relevant ads to their users and maximize their ad

revenue," said Tim Cadogan, chief executive officer, OpenX. "The launch of

version 2.6 represents a significant milestone and is the result of even

more community involvement than ever before. In particular, the new

features will benefit publishers by making it easier to integrate the ad

server into their business, serve ads more efficiently and quickly view key

statistics about their ad servers."



    "From a newbie's perspective, it's been simple to get results quickly

with the new OpenX API," said Ket Majmudar, technical director, Ethical

Junction. "Within the hour after becoming familiar with the API, I had

already automatically created advertisers and publishers. The API saves me

so much time managing the content. We have a separate database for our

membership, and now that I can hook that data directly through the API, our

administration time is going to be cut down dramatically. I'm also

pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to automate repetitive tasks, a big

plus in the way we use OpenX. I've just created a new zone and added ten

campaigns to it, taking me three minutes to write the API script!"



    Key Features in OpenX 2.6



    API



    The new OpenX API makes it easier for publishers to integrate the OpenX

ad server into their overall businesses and make it operate optimally with

their other business systems, such as customer relationship management or

financial systems. For example, with the API, developers can write third

party applications that create campaigns, retrieve statistics and control

their ad servers. Using the API, publishers can also bulk load objects into

the ad server such as large numbers of banners.



    Dashboard



    One of the most visible changes in 2.6 is a new dashboard, a concept

originally suggested by the community. Publishers can see, at a glance, key

statistics about their ad servers. Widgets are a key feature of the new

dashboard and contain instant information on campaign statistics and

overviews, the latest forum posts and the latest news from OpenX. Future

releases will build on the dashboard's initial framework to enable

publishers to further customize it to meet their needs by making it

possible for them to create and add their own widgets.



    Faster Ad Tag



    Since, on average, most websites serve at least three ads per webpage,

OpenX's new, faster ad tag is a highly useful feature. The single page call

ad tag only makes one request to the ad server for each webpage, even when

there is more than one ad to display. The result is faster, more efficient

ad serving, reducing the bandwidth between publishers' websites and ad

servers, while also providing a better experience for their users.

Publishers can access the option to create a single page call tag in the Ad

Tags submenu under Websites.



    Downloading OpenX 2.6



    OpenX 2.6 is available immediately as a free software download. Full

system requirements and more information on OpenX 2.6 can be found at:

http://www.openx.org/download



    Upgrading to OpenX 2.6 from Earlier Versions



    Upgrading to 2.6 is easier than ever before. Information on how to

upgrade to OpenX 2.6 from OpenX 2.4 or above, Openads 2.0 or phpAdsNew can

be found at: http://www.openx.org/support/upgrading

    About OpenX



    OpenX is the world's leading independent ad server for web publishers.

Building on the strength of our open source heritage, we offer our vast

community of publishers comprehensive, customizable and free to use ad

serving technology. The OpenX ad server empowers our community of more than

100,000 websites across the Internet with the ability to take control of

their ads and maximize their ad revenue and relevance. The OpenX ad server

products are translated into 25 languages, used in more than 100 countries

around the world, and serve more than 250 billion ads each month.



    OpenX Technologies, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of OpenX Limited,

is based in Pasadena, California, with offices in London and Poznan,

Poland. OpenX is backed by leading investors including Accel Partners,

Index Ventures and O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures. For more information,

please visit: http://www.openx.org



    OpenX is a trademark of OpenX Limited.