Okay, so it's been just about one month since you wrote those resolutions... hopefully some of them in the love and romance department. What happened to them... are you on track or have you fallen off the wagon? Now...

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Userplane has announced the availability of online two-player games within the Userplane Webmessenger instant messaging platform. Users can now play games right from the IM window.

Userplane Webmessenger users have their choice of four two-player games: Fruit Mixup, a popular “match three” puzzle game; Seabattle, a game in which users try to locate the position of battleships; Truth, a question-and-answer game designed to help two people get to know each other; and Trivia, which tests trivia buffs’ brainpower.

“Userplane is always looking for ways to enhance online user interaction. These new two-player games offer users a fun and safe way to interact with each other,” said Michael Jones, CEO of Userplane and vice president of AOL.

Users of the free, ad-supported Userplane Webmessenger client can now play these games on their current instant messaging client. For larger online communities that do not use the ad-supported version of Webmessenger, site administrators can choose to turn on the online gaming feature for their users.

The games are powered by Bunchball, who has a non-exclusive partnership with Userplane. Userplane will most likely be opening up value-added features powered by other vendors to enhance the core Userplane products.

Bunchball recently raised $2 million. Here’s the Bunchballl presentation from iDate.

Spark Networks have enabled the gaming feature for JDate, AmericanSingles and CollegeLuv. Except more dating sites to turn on the gaming service in the near future.

bunchball, innovation, userplane

OkCupid.com is looking for a Director/VP (depending on experience) of Advertising Sales who will report to the Chief Executive Officer, overseeing and executing all of the company’s advertising sales. We are looking for a dynamic, successful and experienced sales professional to fill this critical position and lead the development and implementation of the advertising sales strategy.

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES
- First and foremost: maximize advertising revenues.
- Source leads and close deals.
- Understand clients’ marketing objectives to position optimally the company’s advertising services.
- Create innovative advertising opportunities and programs for performance and brand marketers.
- Ensure high levels level of client service and satisfaction.

QUALIFICATIONS
- BA/BS required
- A minimum of 5 years of internet advertising sales experience required.
- Community-based, social networking, or online personals ad sales a plus.
- Significant network of (agency and client) contacts that could lead to quick sales.
- Experience managing a large number of accounts in a fast paced environment.
- Demonstrated ability to create and execute on a sales strategy.
- Proven success with top consumer brand marketers and agencies.
- Strategic thinker, proven track record of driving results in rapidly growing environment.
- Analytical skills and experience with contract negotiations.

Apply via LinkedIn.

Jobs, okcupid

TechCrunch has a review of ProfileLinker, a Boston-based (for now) company working on aggregating your social networking experience.

You tell ProfileLinker your site credentials and it pulls your bio, friends and other information from those sites and centralizes it. You then use ProfileLinker to manage your activity on those networks: aggregate and manage multiple social profiles; discover new social networks and communities of interest within social networks; and receive notification of messages and friend requests from multiple networks.

This is very similar to what Opinity (past client) and various other companies have been trying to do. It’s really so simple, but most companies are too focused on revenue, traffic building or their own in-house myopia when it comes to bridging social and dating networks. Suck in the data, add some value and republish across the net. Strong value proposition that until now nobody has been able to execute on well enough to get traction.

ProfileLinker pulled in my Myspace profile pretty well, there are some bugs in what is imported when you use custom skins for example. The password fields only allow easy-to-hack characters which is a simple oversight I hope they fix quickly.

Users can also sign up for Photobucket during the setup process. You can also import Yahoo contacts or any comma-delimited list from your address book.

ProfileLinker also offers a pc-only toolbar, like we need one more of those. Why not make it a simple bookmarklet?

I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on ProfileLinker. When there is enough value to most casual social networks, we’ll see some big deals happen with partners. Until now it’s good to be small while they get their business model sorted out.

Remember, there have been several sites that have tried to aggregate profiles. It’s straightforward to accomplish, but why should anyone do it? Would you trust a roomful of hackers with credit cards to manage your online life?

Identity, innovation, opinity, profilelinker

Markus says that Lavalife is for sale. Actually, the whole company, Vertrue, is on the block.

Vertrue could fetch around $640 million including debt or around $43 a share, The Post said quoting its sources.

However, its sources said the company could get more than $50 a share given its estimated growth rate, the Washington Post added.

More at Reuters.

Finance, lavalife, vertrue

PerfectMatch announced it has partnered with Be Better Guys to provide lifestyle advice to it’s male members.

BeBetterGuys brings its expertise in men’s fashion, grooming, dating, and etiquette directly to Perfectmatch’s more than four million members. The BeBetterGuys “Game Plan” provides a nuts-and-bolts how-to approach guide to help Perfectmatch’s male membership prepare for, and enjoy, a more successful in-person experience.

Cheaper than launching Happen Magazine, this could be a good deal for PM’s male members. There are many other male lifestyle sites out there I would probably chosed over BBG, the site appears light on content since it’s been around less than a year. Judging by the cost of ad space, the site doesn’t get many visitors.

At the moment, PerfectMatch doesn’t link to Be Better guys from their homepage, so much for promotion.

bebetterguys, Features, perfectmatch

Readers know how fond I am of Boston-based HeyLetsGo. I found an event on the site called Speed Friending.

It’s kinda like Speed Dating, but it’s not about dating…it’s about making new friends and connections! Hey, that’s what we’re all about! That means it’s OK for girls to talk to girls, guys to talk to guys, girls to talk to guys, and guys can even talk back to the girls. It basically go like this:

We’ll pick a bar and set up “stations” around the perimeter. When you arrive, we’ll tell you if you’ll be Stationed or Moving. There will be 2 people at each station. Then, we’ll blow the whistle and you’ll have 5 minutes to talk to that person. That’s just enough time to get a “feel” for them and see if maybe they might be someone you’d like to get to know as a friend. Then, the whistle will blow, and the Movers will move on to the next station and meet the next potential friend! We’ll give each of you a “Score Card” so you can write down each potential friend’s Lunch Club username. Learn more about it SpeedFriending.com!

After we complete the round of Speed Friending, we’ll all just hang out in the bar and party! Since it’s not about dating, there will be none of that awkward stuff, and you can just hang with the people you met and keep in touch through our site, if you like! Easy, simple and fun!

It’s like speed dating, without the pressure. Everyone talks about bringing online and offline dating together, but what about social networking sites? You don’t see these kinds of get-togethers on Myspace very often.

Dating Events, speed+friending

Matchdigits is the latest anonymous calling company to enter the dating space. Typical of the telcom market, WebPoint Communications are hedging their bets with several other *Digits products, including HopeDigits for battered women, OfficeDigits for SOHO users and FreeDigits, for the rest of us.

From the Press release:

MatchDigits is the first service to offer free phone numbers that online daters can use to talk with each other without ever revealing their real telephone numbers.

Individuals can obtain a free phone number for personal use that will ring to the phone of their choice. This solution is ideal for anyone who isn’t comfortable with giving out their personal digits, yet wants to give possible suitors a way to call. MatchDigits users are able to go beyond the email phase of online dating and still feel secure in knowing that they won’t be subject to unwanted phone calls if things don’t work out.

MatchDigits offers users the ability to ring to any phone so no new phone service is required. Additional features of MatchDigits include the ability to change phone numbers at will and voicemails are delivered as email MP3 attachments.

I like that voicemails are delivered as email MP3 attachments. The old DateNumber used to do this. Compared to Jangl, Matchdigits sounds kind of clunky. Who needs millions off phone numbers? Will people pay more for a local number? I don’t think so. You know my zip code already.

WebPoint is currently in negotiations with several online dating companies who are interested in offering our services to their user base.

Webpoint should know that Match is already using Jangl to power their anon calling service.

anonymous+calling, audio&video, innovation