Gomez Supports New Internet Explorer 8 and Safari 4 Browsers in Web Performance Testing and Monitoring Solutions

Gomez Helps Online Businesses Overcome the 'Browser Wars'

LEXINGTON, Mass., March 23 -- Gomez, Inc. (www.gomez.com), today announced that its suite of web application experience management solutions now supports the recently-introduced web browsers Internet Explorer (IE) 8 and Safari 4 beta. Gomez is the only provider that enables businesses to test web applications before release and monitor their performance in production across all major browsers using the industry's largest and most distributed physical testing network of more than 80,000 measurement points. Gomez's ability to rapidly add support for new browsers -- within hours of the official release of IE 8 -- helps businesses ensure their business-critical web properties support the new browsers as soon as possible to keep online revenues flowing and customer satisfaction high.

In the last 12 months, new generations and versions of browsers have emerged, offering consumers greater choice for accessing and navigating the web. But for website providers, these "browser wars" create a burden because web pages can look, function, and perform differently in each browser and version, and many businesses lack the resources to test and monitor web pages across them all. For example, the newest breed of browsers including IE 8, Google Chrome, and new beta versions of Firefox and Safari offer increased connection parallelism which can overwhelm sites unprepared to deal with potentially dramatically increased loads at peak times. Gomez's on-demand solutions helps businesses ensure their websites look right and perform well in all major browsers, unlike some other web performance monitoring services which are hard-wired to just IE 7, enabling them to provide a quality experience for all web visitors.

Mike Frazzini, VP of IT at eBags, the world's leading online provider of bags and accessories said: "In online retail, especially in this economy, providing a less-than-quality web experience for some visitors just because they use a less common browser is just not an option. We can't afford to disappoint 20%, 10%, or even 3% of our customers. We know that visitors to eBags use a range of browsers, and we can correlate their experiences to conversion rates. We use Gomez's services to proactively protect our revenue and brand loyalty, and already we've witnessed a 10% increase in conversions that can be attributed to this."

Even in the midst of these "browser wars," organizations that use Gomez's on-demand services can launch new applications and features with confidence by:

  --  Previewing how sites render and perform in 500 combinations of
      browsers, operating systems and screen sizes.
  --  Testing to ensure that critical processes such as shopping carts work
      successfully.
  --  Conducting real-world load tests that simulate the impact of tens of
      thousands of users accessing a site using the increased connection
      parallelism found in new browsers.

Once their web properties are in production, IT operations and ebusiness/marketing teams can ensure they maintain top performance by:

  --  Monitoring performance from over 150 Internet backbone nodes and
      80,000 desktop computers around the world.
  --  Measuring customers' real-time web experiences directly from within
      the wide variety of browsers, helping to identify browser-specific
      performance issues and their impact on customers' behavior.

"The introduction of this new breed of browsers will deliver dramatic performance enhancements, but for the unaware and unprepared, it could spell trouble," said Imad Mouline, CTO of Gomez. "Without proper testing, an organization's web pages might not display or work properly in these new browsers, and its infrastructure could be overloaded. It's essential that companies load test their business-critical web properties and monitor their performance to ensure they can deal with these new browsers and satisfy their customers."

About Gomez

Gomez, Inc. is a leading provider of web application experience management services, which businesses use to test their web applications while in development and to monitor their web applications after deployment. More than 2,000 customers use Gomez's on-demand services to improve the quality of the web experience in order to increase their revenue from web applications, reduce their operating costs, and extend their brand reputations. For more information, please visit www.gomez.com.

Gomez and gomez.com are registered service marks of Gomez, Inc. All other trademarks and service marks are the property of their respective owners.

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Imad Mouline

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