GigPark Blog

Who’s that guy with the 47″ LCD HDTV? His name is Daniel Rose and he is the winner of our latest contest.

Daniel has been sharing his recommendations on GigPark for over a year now. He’s made a bunch of good ones but my favourite is his recommendation for Vertical Thinking, an online print shop that does quality business cards, delivers great customers service, and offer reasonable pricing.

And if you’re looking for company that can design and facilitate a workshops to tap the collective intelligence of your organization, you might want to check out Daniel’s business, Omakase Group … it’s been recommended 4 times! :)

Thanks to everyone who entered the contest. We’ll be back with lots of great prizes in 2010.

And remember, if you come across any great businesses over the holidays (restaurants, hotels, travel agents, snow removal companies, heating repair, etc.), tell the world and do that business a favour by recommending them on Canpages or GigPark.

Happy holidays!

Photo by The Suss-Man (Mike)

Congrats to the winner of latest contest, Tara Joyce, who snagged herself a sweet HP Mini 10.1″ Netbook. Tara made 5 recommendations, including a unique one for custom, hand-made lingerie.

Tara is a writer and strategic coach from Toronto who helps business owners with marketing a web development support. You can recommend her business, Elastic Mind, here.

And as a reminder, we’re doing one last contest in 2009 – this time we’re giving away an LG 47″ LCD HDTV. Recommend now and recommend often to increase your chances to win.

Photo by kimrose…

As you may have noticed, we’ve been giving away lots of prizes recently. Well, we found room in the budget for one more contest and the prize is a good one … an LG 47″ LCD TV!

Make 1 recommendation, get 1 chance to win.
Make 2 recommendations, get 2 chances to win.
Make 3 recommendations, get 3 chances to win.
And so on …

You can recommend your favourite local businesses on Canpages and/or GigPark. And it only takes a minute or so to create a recommendation.

You only have a week though because the contest ends on December 21st.

Ho ho ho.

Photo by Malingering

Bhupinder Deogun made 194 recommendations last week (that’s a lot!) which means he had 194 entries in our draw to win $2000 cash. Well, it worked because he is our latest winner – congrats Bhupinder!!

Upon hearing the good news, Bhupinder said: “Get out of here!!! Are you kidding me? WOW! I can’t believe it.”

With his new fat wallet, Bhupinder has his eye on a new 52″ Sony Bravia LED TV. Good choice!

For the rest of you, you’ve got another shot to win this week as we’re giving away a slick HP Mini 10.1″ Netbook. Maybe you’ll be the next Bhupinder?

Photo by aresauburn™

Two weeks ago, we gave away a shopping spree to Best Buy.
Last week, we gave away cash.
This week, we’re giving away an HP Mini 10.1″ Netbook!

To enter the contest, recommend any business on Canpages or GigPark. Every recommendation is another entry to win (yup, 47 valid recommendations = 47 entries in the draw to win).

The contest is short – ending December 14th – so recommend now!

Buona fortuna!

A big congrats to Thomas Calvert who is the winner of a $2000 shopping spree at Best Buy!

Thomas, a REMAX real estate agent in Calgary, made 5 recommendations last week and so he had 5 chances to win.

On his shopping spree, Thomas plans on picking up camera equipment and a laptop to help with his business. He told us: “I’m so glad I joined GigPark!” We’re glad you joined too, Thomas :)

Thanks to everyone that entered the contest. Don’t forget, we’re running another contest right now to win $2000 cash! Like this past contest, every recommendation is another entry to win. This one ends on Monday, December 7th. Good luck!

Photo by atomicshark

It felt so good to give away a shopping spree at Best Buy and we’re still on a high from integrating GigPark’s recommendation functionality into Canpages, so we’re having another contest this week! This time we’re giving away $2000 in cold hard cash.

It’s so easy to participate! Here’s how it works:

• Every recommendation on Canpages or GigPark gives you another entry in the draw to win $2000 cash.
• Make a dozen recommendations, get a dozen chances to win.
• Contest ends on Monday, December 7th.
• Read all about the contest here.

Bonne chance!

Photo by guano

What’s the catch?
There’s no catch! Every recommendation you make between now and Monday (Nov 30th) automatically gives you another entry in the draw to win a $2000 shopping spree at Best Buy. We’re thrilled about the integration of GigPark’s recommendation functionality on Canpages, Canada’s fastest growing local search company, so we figured we should share the joy! All the contest details are here.

How do I enter?
Find a business on Canpages and recommend them.
Or, recommend any business on GigPark.

So if I make 20 valid recommendations, I get 20 chances to win?
Yes!

Why am I still reading this blog post?
You shouldn’t be. You should be recommending already. Good luck!!

Photo by seanaes

Things move quickly! When the celebrations finished, we got right to work on integrating GigPark with our new owner – Canpages. We’re excited to announce that today we released the first part of our integration.

Here is what’s new

1. Every business on Canpages can now be recommended – Here is an example of a business with recommendations. And here is an example of a business that hasn’t been recommended (yet!).
2. Recommendations for businesses on GigPark now also appear on their Canpages business profile - Here is an example of a business on GigPark and their recommendations also appearing on their Canpages.ca profile.

Why we think this is good news

• If you run a businesses, the recommendations of your business will be seen by thousands more people (Canpages.ca has well over 3.5 million unique visitors per month!)
• Because we’ve integrated with the Canpages business database we now have a very fancy autocomplete to help you write recommendations. Try typing the name of a business here. If you select a businesses from the autocomplete list then we add their contact information for you, automatically. This means faster recommending. Yay!
• To celebrate the integration we’re going to be running a series of pretty cool competitions. Stay tuned for more details very soon :).

Of course this is only the beginning. Now that we’re part of Canpages we have many bosses that make sure we work extra hard to keep improving things (and put cover sheets on our TPS reports). So, expect more big improvements in the months to come. Happy recommending everyone!

Big news for every GigPark user … GigPark has been purchased by Canpages!

Champagne in our coffee this morning! Yay!

Now we’re sure you have some questions, so here are some answers …

Who is Canpages?

Canpages is the fastest growing local search and directories publisher in Canada. On its way to becoming the market leader in local online search, Canpages’ website gets more than 3.5 million unique visitors per month and is a pretty awesome place to find a local business. Its iPhone and Blackberry apps are pretty sweet too. They also publish 84 print directories that reach 8 million households and business across the country.

And the icing on the cake is that Canpages is run by a bunch of really smart and nice people (shout out to our new colleagues!)

What’s going to happen to GigPark?

GigPark is not going anywhere. We will continue to be the easiest place to find the local services your friends use. And with Canpages’ support and resources, GigPark will become even more useful.

How will GigPark play with Canpages?

The acquisition enables Canpages to integrate GigPark’s recommendations into its online and mobile search platforms. Like we said, Canpages is already a pretty awesome place to find local businesses and the addition of GigPark will make this local search experience even better.

Beyond that, Canpages is also excited about the prospect of adding some of GigPark’s social functionality to better connect users with advertisers through recommendations from friends.

I’m a business owner on GigPark. What does this mean for me?

It means A LOT more people are going to see the testimonials for your business and you’ll likely get even more business. You’re welcome! :)

To finish off this very exciting blog post, we would like to thank everyone who helped GigPark get where it is today, especially our users. You are the heart and soul of our organization and we look forward to taking GigPark to the next level with you.  If you have any questions, as always, please feel free to email us at hello@gigpark.com.

Cheers from Pema, Noah, Paul, Tony, and Gianni!

UPDATE: There is a great story about the acquisition in today’s Globe and Mail. Also, here is the press release. And thanks so much for all of the congratulations you are sending via Twitter. You are too kind!