For some time now, RivalSoft has provided NewsGator with a web application called RivalMap to help us to: monitor competitive intelligence, make better strategic decisions, stay more informed and improve internal communication.  Today, RivalMap 2.0 officially launches, and we’re happy about the type of integration they’ve done with NewsGator – bringing new and more powerful features to an already able product.

We have been using RivalMap here at NewsGator to add profiles for competitors, add feeds or news keywords to track, allow any of us to start clipping important news items or concerns – all of this shared with our team.  But several new features have been added to RivalMap 2.0 that we’re very excited about. 

First, an automated news engine has been created, which uses NewsGator’s API’s to pull in exisiting content; this integration now brings in relevant news and feeds into one place where they can be accessed and commented on collaboratively.

Second, RivalMap 2.0 adds Smart Feeds.  This is a keyword-based automated search that uses persistence searching to find specific keywords not only via traditional RSS sources, but also by aggregating Twitter updates, LinkedIn messages, and many more sources.  This is truly powerful stuff.

The key point here is that, though integration with our API, RivalMap is now providing us with a content news engine that aggregates multiple relevant sources of information allows us to comprehensively monitor our market and track important updates and trends.

We look forward to our continued relationship with RivalSoft and their RivalMap web application.

Check out the official press release here along with TechCrunch's & Mashable's coverage.  Or, check out Jeff Nolan's (VP of NewsGator's SaaS) post here.