Hatena Inc. announces the release of "Hatena Star" and "Hatena Message" for English speakers at http://www.hatena.com/

Hatena Inc.(CEO: Junya Kondo/Palo Alto) has expanded its service to
English speakers, and today released "Hatena Star" and "Hatena
Message" under the domain "hatena.com."

Hatena Star
http://s.hatena.com/

Hatena Message
http://m.hatena.com/

Hatena
http://www.hatena.com/

**Hatena Star

Hatena Star is a feature that makes blogging easier and more fun.
This service can be used with any JavaScript enabled blogging service.
Just by adding a simple code in a blog template, the user will have
the capability to add stars to blogs. The star can also be used to
designate trusted users who can post comments to a user.

Other users that have had stars added during the past month will be
listed as a user's "Favorites." If a Favorite person gives a star to
the original user as well, then both automatically become "Friends."
When a user visits the blog of a Favorite person, there will be a
"Comment" button next to the "Add" button, allowing the user to leave
a comment just by a click of the button. This provides for a secure
site where users will receive comments only from their Favorites, and
only their Favorites can view their comments.

We are planning that in the future Hatena Star will not only be
limited to blogs, but will also be used widely on the Internet as an
Information Visualization System.

http://s.hatena.com/　

**Hatena Message　

Hatena Message manages all messages sent to a user from within Hatena.

Currently, this service receives notification from Hatena Star every
time someone posts a comment on a user's entries or comments. By
logging in and visiting the Hatena Message page, a user can view the
comments. A message will also be sent automatically to the user’s
registered e-mail address, so the user can view the comments either
through e-mail or by accessing the Hatena Message page.

We will be expanding the function of Hatena Message in the near future
so it will be able to receive messages from other services within
Hatena as well.

http://m.hatena.com/


**Hatena Portal

Hatena is an Internet services company established in Japan in 2001.
In Japan, we currently provide over ten services including blogging,
RSS feed reader, and social bookmarking to 530,000 registered users.
Until today, Hatena was only provided in Japanese at www.hatena.ne.jp,
but we have now made it available in English at hatena.com. We hope
that many English-speaking users will make use of our services.

This new hatena.com portal we are presenting to the public today is a
site for English-speakers, and users from all parts of the world can
register.

The only requirements for registration are a username, password, and a
valid e-mail address. The user can set the time zone in which he or
she lives, and the site can be easily accessed from anywhere in the world.

We plan to continue to perfect the two services we released today so
that we can better provide a safe and fun environment on the Internet.

http://www.hatena.com/


Hatena Inc.
992 San Antonio Rd. Palo Alto, CA 94303
http://www.hatena.com/

Media contact:
Reiko Kondo
hatenapr@hatena.ne.jp