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Kevin Skinner
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Universal Zoom expands the image browsing functionality of the Volusion shopping cart and joins Brand Labs’ ever-expanding library of plugins and web apps for the popular e-commerce platform.
Rochester, MI, August 12, 2008 — Brand Labs today released Universal Zoom, a Volusion plugin that allows consumers to browse expanded product images simply by hovering over them. While similar Volusion tools have been available for some time, this release marks the first time that this sort of functionality has been available outside of the product page.
“After we released RapidCart, our customers got all excited and started asking us for a whole range of different browsing options,†explains Ari Alderman, Brand Labs’ Merchandising Manager. “One of the things they wanted was greater display flexibility on category pages. Universal Zoom grew out of our exploration of that.â€
RapidCart is Brand Labs’ previously released image browsing plugin. Like Universal Zoom, it was released under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), allowing any Volusion merchant to use (and/or alter) the plugin, free of charge.
When asked about Brand Labs’ continued use of the LGPL, company president Kevin Harman offered this: “We had a great response when we released RapidCart under the CC license and we really like the idea of contributing to the Volusion community in general. So when Carson (Reinke, Brand Labs’ lead developer) wrote this great category image browser and it occurred to us that it could be used in dozens of other ways, we decided to offer it up and let people get creative with it.â€
In addition to using Universal Zoom as an image browser, Brand Labs has plans to utilize the tool for interactive promos.
Harman explains, “The idea is that you could hide discount codes throughout your site that could only be found when the customer mouses over certain images… like an online scavenger hunt.â€
Harman went on to list a half-dozen other uses Brand Labs has in mind for Universal Zoom, but made it clear that what he really wants is to “let the Volusion community loose on it. We’re pretty excited to see what people come up with.â€
Universal Zoom for Volusion is available at http://www.brandlabs.us/
About Brand Labs
Brand Labs is the market leader in design and development for the Volusion e-commerce platform. Offering a complete range of Marketing and SEO packages, but maintaining the ability to customize programs to suit every need, they serve both small businesses and million-dollar corporations. Visit www.BrandLabs.us, or call 1.877.837.4792 for more information.
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