WeatherBug launched a new enterprise version of its desktop weather application,
hoping to take corporations by storm.
Gaithersburg, Md.-based WeatherBug has a network of over 7,000 weather stations that it has installed in schools across the United States. Data from those weather stations and other sources are instantly available
through the downloadable WeatherBug application, either as a free ad-supported download or through an ad-free premium
upgrade.
WeatherBug Enterprise is intended to make the weather application easier
to manage and deploy across the enterprise. The new version can be pushed out to users via an enterprise’s existing
corporate software distribution system. It also enables IT administrators to use the
system to push essential information to user desktops via live audible and visual alerts.
According to Pete Celano, WeatherBug vice president, some IT managers have been blocking access to downloadable
applications like WeatherBug.
“It was a change over the last six months that we’ve detected, whereby IT guys quite understandably
are getting more rigorous,” Celano told internetnews.com.
“So it’s essential for us to be on the right side of those decisions.”
The company found its services in higher demand for updates as severe hurricanes whipped through the southeast. Severe weather has drove traffic to WeatherBug’s principal competitor, Weather.com. According to a recent weather.com press release, as Hurricane Ivan neared the U.S. coast on September 15th, its site set records for downloads of its own downloadable desktop weather application with a 400 percent increase over an average week.
For the month of August, WeatherBug’s online properties were the 20th most visited site in the U.S., according to comScore Media Metrix. The most trafficked weather property was weather.com, which comScore ranked 12th (at 26.4 million) and Nielsen//NetRatings ranked 10th (at 26.7 million users).