nRelate and Harris Interactive teamed up to take a closer look at consumers’ online content discovery behavior. The results of the Behavior Shift: Getting Content in Front of Consumers announced today showed most Americans are gravitating toward an exploratory, contextual information discovery process. So where are they finding the online content? A vast majority of Americans (76%) are clicking on links to related stories they’re already reading. Next to search results, these related links (often located at the bottom of an article and leading to a similar one) are the preferred method of discovering information online.

Check out the full report to see findings around how much time consumers spend looking for content, what helps a consumer to click on related content and the types of content that best draws their attention.

- nRelate Team

nRelate joined the Ask.com family as a scrappy start-up less than three 3 months ago. The nRelate team has steadily been working on our product suite to help publishers, readers and advertisers make better use of high-quality content. We are proving, yet again, that we can roll with the big boys with the announcement of our partnership with CBS Interactive! We’re thrilled to add CBS Interactive to our publisher network of almost 50,000. And this is just the beginning…

We’re seeing more and more brands producing their own content with 80% investing in content production but they tend to fall short when working to distribute that content. Simultaneously, brands are recognizing that user consumption patterns are changing, the online discovery process is much more fragmented, social and serendipitous. This is where nRelate can take the baton. We see content discovery platforms as the next evolution of the paid search model; a pay for performance system where everyone benefits: readers, publishers & marketers. It’s this approach that has helped nRelate’s reach triple in size in just the past 6 months — further empowering content marketers (especially brands) to engage a diverse mix of consumers exploring mainstream media, expert content, and tens of thousands of trusted niche blogs.

It’s an exciting time for nRelate and we invite more content producers to check out what’s under the nRelate hood.

Just about three years ago, we started nRelate with the mission of helping people find more of the kind of content they were looking for, while at the same time building a company that actually rewards the content creators.

Since that time, we feel pretty good about how far we’ve come: we’ve amassed a network of 35,000 publishers using our products, with more than 150 new websites signing up with us a day. Still, running things as a bootstrapped team does present a challenge to pacing our execution with our passion and vision for this product. Which makes today’s news all the more rewarding.

Today, we are thrilled to announce we’ve found a partner to help make all of our next steps a reality: nRelate has been acquired by Ask.com (an IAC company). You can read more about this announcement on Mediapost.

These last few years have been a wild ride, and one of the most fulfilling aspects has been getting to know all of our amazing publishers — the folks who inspire us to keep pushing the limits of where content discovery can go. We appreciate all our publishers who have worked with us as true partners, and are beyond thankful for the opportunity you’ve given us to make a difference in your business.

So what does this news mean for our loyal customers? First, we’re not going anywhere. The core nRelate team is staying in place and looks forward to working with all of you for years to come. We are not planning any major changes to our products, other than to accelerate product development, build more infrastructure to better support them, and deliver new and improved features, faster. (For all of you who have asked for new features that we haven’t gotten to yet, expect to be hearing from us soon!)

In short, we are ecstatic about teaming up with Ask.com, a company who knows quite a bit about connecting people with content, and shares our vision and passion for developing great products (check out Ask’s take on the deal here ). In a nutshell, we are thrilled to have access to the technology and resources to truly make our vision for content discovery a reality.

Thank you to all of the bloggers, publishers, and advertisers who have supported us along the way. There is something almost magical about getting people to where they want to go on the web and we are still amazed that we do that for more than 20 people every second of the day. We look forward to continuing to grow that number and we know we would not be where we are today without you — so thank you — the best is yet to come!

Neil Mody, CEO, Co-Founder
Oliver Wellington, Co-Founder

When you normally center a div with CSS, it’s pretty simple since you probably know the width of the div.  This becomes a bit more difficult with nRelate since we have so many different styles on different sites, which makes it impossible to determine the width.

The best way to center nRelate is to increase the LEFT MARGIN.  Add this code to your themes STYLE.CSS file.  You will probably need to change the 10px to whatever works for your theme.

CENTER NRELATE INCLUDING TITLE

.nrelate {

margin-left: 10px !important;

}

CENTER NRELATE (NO TITLE)

.nrelate .nr_inner {

margin-left: 10px !important;

}

.nrelate_related

.nrelate_popular

.nrelate_flyout

The Flyout plugin is preset to only show on Single Posts.  If you want it to show up on other Posts or Pages you would use the following two filters to change the display:

• nrelate_flyout_is_loading
• nrelate_flyout_should_inject

Show on WordPress PAGES and SINGLE POSTS:

function show_nrelate_flyout_custom($load_nrelate) {
 if ( is_single() || is_page() ) {
 $load_nrelate = true;
 }
 return $load_nrelate;
 }
 add_filter('nrelate_flyout_is_loading', 'show_nrelate_flyout_custom');
 add_filter('nrelate_flyout_should_inject', 'show_nrelate_flyout_custom');

Show on a CUSTOM POST TYPE (“Events”) and SINGLE POSTS

function show_nrelate_flyout_custom($load_nrelate) {
 if ( is_single() || 'events' == get_post_type() ) {
 $load_nrelate = true;
 }
 return $load_nrelate;
 }
 add_filter('nrelate_flyout_is_loading', 'show_nrelate_flyout_custom');
 add_filter('nrelate_flyout_should_inject', 'show_nrelate_flyout_custom');

All nRelate products are designed so you can totally change the style by just changing the CSS.  Follow these steps if you are using nRelate with Blogger:

1. Log in to your blogger dashboard
2. Go to Layout
3. Find the nRelate widget, and click on the widget’s “Edit” link. A pop-up will appear and you can update the Content textarea to setup your customizations.

For example:  To increase the font size for the Related box title, and change the text to black, the code is:

<div id='nrelate_related_backup_placeholder'/></div>
<style type="text/css">
.nr_title { font-size:20px !important;}
.nr_text { color:#000 !important;}
</style>

One of the awesome features of the nRelate plugins are the Style Galleries.   With just a click of your mouse you can easily change the look of nRelate.

We’re always looking for new styles, so if you are a designer and want to submit some new ones, read on:

1) Get Your Idea Ready:

Install the latest version of our plug-in and give it a test drive! Then take some time and create the best layout you can imagine by modifying our CSS. We cater to a large and diverse community of publishers, so creativity and versatility is your key to getting a design accepted.

2) Create your new style and publish on a public site:

It needs to be public, so we can see it.

3) Submit Your Design to nRelate.

Email Your Submissions to:  support@nrelate.com Please make sure you include your name, the URL of the website that is using your custom CSS, and the custom CSS itself in an attachment.  The only thing you should need to submit is a CSS file, and appropriate images.

4) If we select your design:

For EACH design selected:

• Your design will be integrated into our plug-in with full credit.
• We will feature your website on the nRelate blog.
• You will be the envy of your peers.
• You will have our undying appreciation.

TECHNICAL SPECS

• Don’t worry about IE6
• Feel free to use one of our current stylesheets as a guide.  Links to all of them can be found in our plugins Style Gallery.
• We have lots of options, so remember to test with all of them (ie Do not display title, Do not display excerpt, etc).
• Consider all thumbnail sizes.
• Our plugin is packed with CSS classes, so check out our style guide.

Check out some current designs for inspiration:

Have a question?

Email us anytime at support@nrelate.com Thanks again for your interest in our plug-in and we eagerly look forward to seeing your work!

LEGAL TERMS AND CONDITION

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS. You may submit as many entries for consideration (the “Submission”). Each Submission may include (i) a CSS file (ii) and background images (collectively, the “Submission Materials”). The Submissions must be the original work of the Participant and must not contain any obscene or pornographic material. Submissions containing prohibited or inappropriate content as determined by nRelate, in their sole discretion, to be inappropriate will be disqualified. By making a Submission, the Participant hereby grants to nRelate and their agents the right to publish and use the Submission in any way in connection with nRelate,  in any and all media and products.  Occasionally, due to technical requirements, the Submission may need to be adapted, edited, modified or compressed, however nRelate will do everything in its power to maintain the integrity of the Submission. Submissions that do not include all required information and adhere to the foregoing and following requirements may be considered void and not considered.

DESIGN TERMS OF SUBMISSION. By making a Submission, the Participant agrees to the terms and conditions specified on this Website. As a condition to submit a design, each Participant represents and warrants that the Participant owns all right, title and interest in and to the Submission including the CSS and Images contained in the Submission.

All nRelate WordPress plugins are ready for translating/localizing, and we’re looking to our community to help.  If you would like to translate an nRelate plugin into your language, here’s some information to get you started:

Tutorials:

• Translating WordPress (official codex page)
• Translating WordPress Plugins and Themes.

.Pot and .mo Files:

.po Files:

Just like all WordPress widgets, the nRelate widget is simple to use.  Just drag it over to the widget area you want and press SAVE.  Settings for the widget are configured on the standard nRelate settings page.

A common question is: How can I have the nRelate widget only show up in my sidebar (or any widget area) and not under posts?

1. Go to the nRelate settings page.
2. Scroll down the the LAYOUT SETTINGS area.
3. Under “Which pages should display related content?“, check all the boxes where you want nrelate to display.  The widget will only show up on the page(s) you check, this way you can easily target the areas of your website to display nRelate.
4. Also under LAYOUT SETTINGS, make sure both “Automatic” layout settings (“Top of post” and “Bottom of post” ) are UNchecked. Leaving them checked will automatically add nRelate to your posts.
5. Press SAVE CHANGES, and that’s it!

nRelate uses some specific logic to determine which image to show in our thumbnails.  The first thing we look for is an image set in a custom field.  Here’s how you can easily tell nRelate which image to use for thumbnails.

ADDING IMAGES TO A CUSTOM FIELD:

1. Upload your image.
2. Create a custom field, and add the FULL url (including http://)

** Here is a good explanation on how to use custom fields.

WHEN YOUR THEME CREATES THE CUSTOM FIELD:

Sometimes your theme or a plugin creates nice looking fields for your image url. These are standard WordPress custom fields, just prettified.  Here’s how to find the custom field name:

1. Go to you EDIT POST screen
2. Click on the SCREEN OPTIONS tab in the upper right.
3. Check the CUSTOM FIELDS box
4. Scroll down the page, and you should see your custom fields displayed.