Binghamton University students can now quickly access their favorite daily Web sites, social networking tools and even school links — all in one convenient location.
CampusLIVE.com/binghamton, launched in early September, is a customizable Internet home page with a BU theme.
In addition to providing integrated access to Web sites such as Google and Twitter, the Web site offers quick links to Binghamton TV listings, movie showtimes and call-in dining services.
A bar at the top of the page also lists links to school-related material, such as BU’s Brain, Blackboard and library systems.
“It’s very well-built, and I like how they placed everything that a student may need, academically, in one spot,” said Greg Horowitz, a junior history major. “It makes organizing and getting yourself together so much easier.”
According to Boris Revsin, co-founder and chief operating officer of CampusLIVE, the Web site started receiving requests for a Binghamton version six weeks ago from around 50 students.
The company then sent out a “recon team” to Binghamton to study the school to see if it fit their demographic — dorms in close proximity, school spirit, high attendance at student athletic events and students interested in the product.
Revsin said these factors are important for helping the site grow, since CampusLIVE relies on advertising through cross-promotions with school organizations.
“People telling their friends about the site is one of the only ways for it to spread,” he said.
CampusLIVE’s Web development team then took input from the 50 students and built BU’s own version of the Web page in one day.
Binghamton University is currently the only SUNY school and one out of five New York schools represented on the Web site.
CampusLIVE was founded in the summer of 2007 by Revsin and Jared Stenquist, two students and Web developers at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
“We kind of realized that students were going to a million different sites each day, and we were too,” Revsin said. “Why not spend the summer writing a Web site where everything is in one place?”
After months of work, the two students only had $20 left to market their new creation, which they used to buy a tarp.
They hung the tarp over the garage door of the house they lived in on campus, which displayed the message “CampusLIVE.com — UMass Amherst student homepage.”
Within two weeks, Revsin claims half of UMass Amherst was using the site.
“We figured we had a hit,” he said.
In the same month, Revsin and Stenquist decided to expand the site’s operations to include such universities as University of New Hampshire, University of Rhode Island and Boston College.
Today there are 700,000 users using the 87 nationwide campus pages offered on the Web site, according to Revsin.
“We’re very targeted towards the New England area, but we’re now branching out to New York areas,” he said.