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Pet-Lovers Now Enjoy Instantaneous Communication with No Security Risk; Users Can Interact
in Real-Time Without Exchanging Personal Information
LOS ANGELES, CA (September 28, 2006) -
Userplane, a premier communication
platform for online communities and a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL, today announced that
Dogster and sister-site
Catster have become the
largest pet destinations to roll out real-time, one-to-one instant messaging and audio/video
chat.
Dogster, the Web’s fastest-growing pet destination, is a social networking site
where dog lovers create profiles for their pooches and interact with the owners of 200,000
other dogs. The Catster companion site features nearly 90,000 cats. Both sites deployed
Userplane’s Webmessenger IM software in August.
Users can now see which of their friends are online and initiate either a text-based
or audio/visual conversation – without having to exchange personal information
or figure out which IM client to use.
“Dogster and Catster are already the largest social networking sites for pets, but
having built-in, no-hassle IM and chat gives us an even bigger competitive advantage,”
said Ted Rheingold, Dogster founder and CEO. “We really like that Userplane’s
solution is Web-based, so our members can start talking as soon as they meet –
without exposing their phone number, email address or IM user name.”
“We are thrilled that Userplane technology is enabling Dogster and Catster members
to communicate faster, better and safer,” said Michael Jones, Userplane co-founder
and CEO. “Live text and audio-visual communication is a powerful way for social
networking sites of all sizes to foster a sense of community and keep audiences engaged
on their sites for longer and longer periods.”
Userplane Webmessenger leverages Macromedia’s robust Flash Communication Server
technology and web scripting, enabling site developers to seamlessly integrate the application
with existing user databases, login systems and buddy lists. Rheingold handled the technical
implementation of Userplane Webmessenger by himself, in his free time.
The Dogster and Catster IM player is highly customized to solve a unique challenge: namely,
that one user often has several profiles. Each profile uses a particular pet’s name,
along with the pet’s photo, as the avatar. Owners of multiple pets usually create
separate profiles for each pet. Dogster and Catster designed the IM functionality so that
each pet – not each owner – could initiate conversations.
“Userplane’s clever technology serves the IM application, along with all
these bells, whistles and scripts that run entirely on our servers and that we have complete
control over,” said Rheingold. “Our IM player is so highly customized that
most Dogsters and Catsters would assume we built it ourselves.”
Userplane provides Web-based instant messaging and live audio/visual chat to more than
100,000 online communities, including MySpace.com, Honda and Date.com. AOL acquired Userplane
in August.
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About Userplane
www.userplane.com
A wholly owned subsidiary of AOL, Userplane is the world’s premier communication
platform for online communities. The company’s hosted applications enable instant community
and communication for websites of any scale and audience. The combination of instant and elegant with
robust and powerful has made the platform a must-have for thriving sites worldwide – supporting
millions of daily users. Founded in 2001 by long-time partners Michael Jones, Nate Thelen, and Javier
Hall, Userplane is a diverse and talented team headquartered in Santa Monica, Calif.
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