We were terribly disappointed last Thursday that massive flooding in West Cork prevented us from attending the 2009 Golden Spiders Awards. The awards are the most high profile in Ireland and a win can have serious business benefits locally.

So imagine our shock to hear that we won the e-business category! We were up against some incredibly impressive competition. Getting this recognition from our industry peers on the judging panel really is satisfying.

The LouderVoice customer reviews system for business has moved into high-gear in 2009. Clients are deploying our EasyReview widget on their e-commerce sites every week. Our first US customer will go live this month along with many more Irish sites. Our second UK site will go live early in the new year.

The most recent research by Internet Retailer tells you everything you need to know about how important reviews are to businesses.

This is the press release that went out to traditional media yesterday:

Guest reviews drive up sales and promote hotel online.

Castlemartyr Resort, the most luxurious hotel in Ireland, now has the market’s most advanced customer reviews solution on its web-site through an alliance with fellow Munster companies LouderVoice and Hotel Consult.

This Friday 13th and Saturday 14th sees the Good Wine Show take place in Cork.

LouderVoice has collaborated with hosts Bubble Brothers, Curious Wines and Karwig Wines to enable everyone attending the show the chance to review everything they drink and eat. It couldn’t be simpler. Customers can text or twitter their opinions on the 100+ wines and food available.

Yes you can! Renowned SEO expert Richard Hearne of Red Cardinal did exactly that this afternoon with the LouderVoice EasyReview system.

Think you can beat him?

The Golden Spider awards’ shortlists have been announced. We’re delighted to be shortlisted in the “Best e-business Website ” and “Best Professional Services Website” categories this year.

We’ve been very busy here and so are only getting around to announcing this now. You may have noticed we’ve had a makeover recently. We love our new look.

Huge thanks and all credit due to the wonderful design guru Sabrina Dent and also to David Kelly of Ambient Age for the backend coding.

Have a look at reasons why you should have reviews on your website, the various ways of getting reviews on your website and then give it a go. It couldn’t be easier to get reviews on your site now and increase sales.

We’re delighted to announce that LouderVoice has been shortlisted in the Irish Software Association Awards 2009 in the category for Technical Innovation. Great news and recognition resulting from our LouderVoice Review Widget, API reviews and Google Android Application.

Klipsch USA

Klipsch is a legend in American audio. They use the LouderVoice Review & Rate Tool on all of their product pages.

Today marks the launch of technology news and reviews site teic.ie, which has to be one of the best site names we’ve seen! It’s written by Adam Maguire who is one of the finest technology and business journalists in the country. Adam’s reviews are in-depth and extremely knowledgeable. The use of a blog format means he should quickly see a community forming around the site and there is no reason we won’t have a European Gizmodo or Engadget on our hands.