Anaconda Partners LLC
is a Massachusetts company that constantly produces execellent, affordable scripts that will enhance almost any kind of website. Anaconda Partners headed by Kevin Patch and Adam Stanhope produce software that is used at over 5000 web sites and even though they have experienced fantastic growth they still provide technical support in a prompt and friendly manner that many large corporations would do well to emulate.

Software from Anaconda Partners has been used on the Verita Network for almost two years to increase user loyalty, page views and banner ad impressions. But what exactly does Anaconda do, and how can it benefit your web site?

THE SOFTWARE
Anaconda first came to our attention as we noticed more and more web sites using their Amazon.com Associate script. At the time, we were loyal affiliates of Barnes and Noble and so we disgregarded Anaconda, they were also unknown to us and we were reluctant to purchase software from a what appeared to be such a small company. However, some positive reviews meant that Anaconda would be bookmarked for monitoring - we were interested in their software but needed to make sure they would stick around. They did, and have gone from strength to strength.

Amazon
The Anaconda Amazon.com Associate program is a small script that you install on your web server which allows you offer your visitors the facility to search for books supplied by Amazon.com but have the results integrated and displayed on your own site. There are two major advantages to this method rather than just linking to Amazon.com, 1) you generate more page views at *your* site which means you can display banners as your visitors are searching for books and 2) the Anaconda program allows you to earn the maximum of 15% commissions on books purchased through your site, rather than the reduced rate that Amazon pays once a visitor has moved from your site to Amazon.com.

Barnes And Noble
After several months of checking at the anaconda.net website we noticed the release of a Barnes And Noble version of their Amazon.com script. We were still very loyal to B&N at that time and this new script was too good to miss. It worked the same as the original Amazon program but with *our* chosen book retailer. We purchased, installed and were delighted. The great thing with these scripts is that you can refer your users to book searches without losing them, for example, say you have a page about astronomy, instead of sending your hard-earned visitors off to Amazon for related books, you just point them to your own book search page courtesy of Anaconda. You show at least one extra page and the user is still just as likely to purchase a book as they would have been had you directed them straight to Amazon or Barnes And Noble. In many cases, your users will generate multiple page views at your site before heading off to Amazon or Barnes And Noble for the final purchase.


FOUNDATION
Anaconda
were not content with book retailer affiliate scripts, they are a company that set high targets for themselves and they better those targets with every new release of their software. Anaconda is also a smart company, they understand user loyalty and offer most upgrades free of charge. When you consider the amount of effort that must go into producing software of this quality the free upgrades are a welcome change from established practices and effectively demonstrates that purchasing from a small, dedicated company beats the canned email responses which are prevalent in many large corporations. Anaconda is as loyal to their customers as customers are to Anaconda.

Back to Foundation... this is an highly successful attempt by Anaconda to ease the frustration of installing scripts on a web site. Many web masters have gone through the nightmare of configuring and testing cgi scripts, working through vague documentation and in the end figuring out things that the programmer could have mentioned in the documentation if they could have been bothered! Anaconda is different, it's more than different, it's special, their Foundation system allows a web master to install their scripts with the minimum, and I mean minimum of effort. As web masters our lives would be a lot easier if all scripts had been designed with as much care and attention to the end user as Anaconda instinctively does. It's almost plug 'n' play, and in the cgi world that's a fantastic acheivement.

The Foundation method allows you to upload your Anaconda scripts to your web site cgi-bin directory, set the file permissions (explained very well in their documentation) and your off! Want to add an MP3 search engine, just upload that as well, it works, it's configured, it's amazing. So you want supply news headlines on your site, buy it, upload it and watch your page views increase.

WHAT'S AVAILABLE

The Open Directory
Anaconda offer a wide variety of scripts designed to seamlessly integrate into your own website. We have purchased several scripts, but for us, the jewel in the Anaconda crown is Foundation Directory. This awesome script is like nothing seen before. To set the stage we need to refer to dmoz.org, aka The Open Directory, this site is a revolution in itself and gives any web site owner to ability to integrate the largest human edited web directory into their own site. Many web sites owe a debt of gratitude to dmoz.org (operated by Netscape, now owned by AOL), but that's for another article. Anaconda has built a script that allows a web master to pull apart and integrate any or all sections of The Open Directory and display the results in their own site. We are not just talking about simply editing headers and footers, this system goes much further than that. If you take a look at Verita.com you will see that our directory is built around dmoz.org and it's all created with the power of Anaconda. You do not even need to stay with a directory format, using Anaconda you could build a very large search engine with just a fifteen minute installation of the Anaconda Foundation Directory script.

You need to take a look at some demonstrations provided by Anaconda to get a true understanding of the power and flexibility of their scripts. Or ask a question in their forums, Anaconda customers are a friendly bunch, and usually very happy to show you their implementations of the software.

Clipper. News Headlines On Your Site.
The Anaconda
programmers must be perfectionists, how else would they come up with Foundation Clipper? This script will let you supply a news headline search engine combining the vast resources of Moreover.com, iSyndicate.com and Newshub.com and show the results integrated into your own site. That's more than what I've come to expect from most headline providers, but Anaconda go one step further. The Clipper software comes with an in-built news meta searcher that not only features headlines and links but also a description of the current story. It's totally amazing and as far as I know not available anywhere else.

MP3, Comparison Shopping, Weather And Lots More...
This article *must* end soon, so we'll finish off with Foundation Search. This piece of scripting magic needs an article in itself but with only a paragraph we must summarise it's capabilities and therefore commit an injustice to it's exellence at the same time. Foundation Search is split into several modules which will provide you with an awesome array of search tools to offer your visitors. At the present time we have only purchased the software and MP3 modules but all other modules work in a similar way and each one can be plugged-in easily. As far as the Verita Network is concerned, the MP3 module has produced the best results. Recently updated, this script, added to any music, general portal or entertainment based web site will produce fantastic results in terms of page views as users search for their favorite MP3 music files. As with all Anaconda software, MP3 search is a meta searcher which means it relies upon the search results returned from many servers, and MP3 metasearching is a difficult task but one Anaconda Partners seems to relish. Their MP3 search software is updated often to exlude old sites and include new ones - meaning your visitors will always have access to the latest MP3 downloads.

We really need to wind-up this article now, but we'll be writing more about Anaconda and their products in coming articles. Let us just say that if you want to provide comparison shopping, auction searching, MP3 downloads, job finding, weather forecasts and much more then you really need to check out Anaconda.

IS THERE ANYTHING NEGATIVE TO SAY ABOUT ANACONDA PARTNERS?
From our perspective the clear answer is no. Let's give credit where it's due. As far as we know, Anaconda Partners is a small company, but a small company that sells quality software at great value, treats it's customers with respect, replies promptly to technical support questions and has a thriving user base who also form part of it's support. We highly recommend them.

This is the first article that I have written, and I chose Anaconda Partners
as the subject because I have purchased from them, will continue to purchase from them, and above all I trust them. Anaconda Partners could probably write a manual on customer care, but let's hope they stick to producing great software... I'm sure they will.


Simon Marcantonio
simon@verita.com

http://www.verita.com/business-portal/


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