Ayelet Noff interviews Copenda

read more: Mashable

Orange to open up mobile social net service

Orange is to launch a major push for mobile social networking in the UK, introducing a service which aggregates users' accounts across the major social networks.
Launched as a trial in France last month under the name MySocialPlace, Orange has now partnered with the biggest social networks - Facebook, MySpace and Bebo - to introduce the service in the UK in the autumn under the Orange World branded website.
UK users will also be able to access the chat service Flirtomatic and the photo-sharing site Pikeo, while Orange customers in France can use the Skyrock community, DailyMotion video site and dating service Meetic.

If you are a developer or site owner who wants to develop mobile aplications similar to Orange you will be able to use Copenda's API which will be released soon.
For more information please contact us : info[at]copenda.com.

Read the full article : The Guardian

One company unites millions

One company unites millions
By Vladimir Shvorin , the jewish Advocate Staff
People often use online dating
and friend-finding services when
they don’t have the time or interest
to meet people the old-fashioned
way. A new website,
www.copenda.com, is improving
on this time-saving idea by providing
a comprehensive search
agent that encompasses many social
websites, and allows users to
avoid the inherent shortcomings
of having to plod through those
sites one-by-one.
But don’t mistake Copenda for
another social network. It’s a social
index search website. Users don’t
upload pictures and manage their
pictures through the site. Instead,
Copenda operates much like
“Google” for example, by searching
through their database of preexisting
profiles of people from various
social networks.
Currently, Copenda users are
able to search for any person on
several networks including: Facebook,
MySpace, Hi5, Plentyoffish,
Match and Friendster.
Copenda is the first search engine
that allows people to view profiles
from multiple social networking
and dating sites in one
place. Members can filter through
general preferences, such as gender,
interests, age, as well as location,
and the profiles are aggregated
into one location.
While Copenda is still in beta
form, the site has gone through numerous
refinements since it was
launched as a novel tool in December
2007 by co-founders David
Kariv, Tal Cohen and Gadi Richman.
The duo of Kariv and Cohen
came up with the idea behind the
website while brainstorming one
day. After their plan was conceived,
they contacted Richman to provide
funding for development.
“Through discussions between
me and Tal [Cohen], the idea of
Copenda was born,” explained
Kariv. “We thought, ‘There is nothing
like this on the Web.’ We decided
that we should create something
to fill this void. Then we
called Gadi, who we thought could
financially support us so we could
get off the ground. He liked the
idea and decided to support us. Before
Copenda, you couldn’t find
anything like it.”
Aside from the large-scale
changes planned for the site,
Copenda has been steadily finetuning
and adding features. The
newly added “Contact me” feature
enables users to connect with social
networking users directly from
Copenda. With the “Claim my profile”
feature, users can manually
add and associate existing profiles
with Copenda’s search engine,
centralizing all of their relevant social
networking accounts in one location
called “My Copenda.” In addition
to these recently added features,
the website is developing
other unique features.
“We’re still looking to incorporate
a mobile device version of
Copenda, which will be very useful
for people that are looking to
search anywhere, anytime,” Kariv
said. “People could use it, not only
in the dating field, but to find
friends, gamers, businesses, etc.
For example, if you wanted to find
somebody to play a videogame online
with you, you could find the
type of gamer you’re searching
for.”
The benefits of Copenda are
especially apparent to those interested
in finding people with certain
features. For instance, if a
person was interested in dating
on the internet, but only wanted
to seek-out Jewish candidates,
they could do so.
“If you wanted to, you could
search strictly by religion to find
people who are just Jewish,” Kariv
explained. “You can search for all
of the Jewish people across the
networks that are included in
Copenda’s index. And you will
find the exact type of person
you’re looking for.”
Copenda is currently looking
for partnerships in the U.S. to better
establish and develop the business.
Still, without any funds budgeted
for marketing or public relations,
the website is growing strictly
through word-of-mouth. Each
week, thousands of users frequent
the site, and this number is rapidly
growing.
“I met somebody in the States
a few months ago, and he actually
started talking to me about
Copenda,” said Kariv. “He didn’t
know I was a founder. He sent me
links to our website, praising it. It
was a funny and special moment
when it happened.”
To visit Copenda, go to
http://www.copenda.com/.
To contact David Kariv, e-mail info[at]copenda.com.

Copenda’s New Features Ease Communication

At last we are live!!!

New features to the site include:

• Contact me – Enables one to contact social networking users directly from Copenda. All messages are flawlessly sent by Copenda through his or her social network account.
• Claim my profile – Members can manually add their profiles to Copenda’s search engine and associate existing profiles with their Copenda profile. After “claiming” their social networks and dating sites’ profiles, users will be able to oversee all relevant accounts in one, centralized location called “My Copenda.” Each claimed profile has a link to Copenda’s profile page which contains general information about the Copenda user.
• My Copenda – Users have a personal homepage in which they can manage their favorite profiles, edit their personal information and receive notifications.
  New filter option – Allows members to only have profiles in the search results from their favorite social networks or dating sites, which the user has identified.
• Cool people in this area – Shows people who are in nearby locations with similar interests; this information will appear on the profile page
• Invite my friends - Users are able to invite their friends to Copenda; their list of friends can be entered manually, imported from their email or from other social networking sites.

Here are some links for the Media covarge:

Official PR - http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/05/prweb943574.htm

Mashable - http://mashable.com/2008/05/15/copenda-relaunc/

AltSearchEngines - http://altsearchengines.com/2008/05/15/copenda-a-people-search-engine-for-love/

TMCnet - http://hosted-communications.tmcnet.com/topics/broadband-comm/articles/28236-copenda-upgrades-social-search-engine-site.htm

VCCafe - http://www.vccafe.com/5-israeli-products-get-the-spotlight/

Meet us at MashBash Tel Aviv

We're proud to be one of the sponsors of MashBash Tel Aviv , Mashable's first International MashMeet and it’s in Tel Aviv!

The event will take place on Wednesday June 11th, 7-10pm, at the Galina Beach Club, Hangar 19, Tel Aviv Port, Israel.

With a new version just behind the corner ,the timing is very good for us.

See you in Tel Aviv...


More details here

A sneak peak to the upcoming new version of Copenda - 4, Adding your profile to Copeda

One of the most frequent question asked by the users is how to add their profiles to Copenda.

Well...

The current answer was: it takes time but eventually our crawler will index all profiles.We knew it was not a good answer and we decided to allow users to manually add their profiles to Copenda. In addition users will be able to associate existing profile (allready in Copenda) with their Copenda profile. By claiming your social networks and dating sites profiles you will be able to Contact other users within the same network directly from Copenda,
Track your profiles and get notification when someone ,add new comment to your profile
Use future functionalities such as presence and more.

A sneak peak to the upcoming new version of Copenda - 3, My Copenda

The clock is ticking and the new version is just behind the corner.
Today I will expose one of the most important feature - MyCopenda.
MyCopenda is a personal area which will allow you to:

• Edit your personal information
• View and manage your favorit profiles
• Add your social network profiles to Copenda
• Invite your friends

In the future we plan to extend it to show an aggregated data from your social networks.

A sneak peak to the upcoming new version of Copenda - 2

On my last post I exposed the new "Filter by site" search option , today I want to expose one of the coolest feature of the upcoming version : "Contact me".
The new "Contact me" feature will enable you to contact social networks profiles directly from Copenda without leaving Copenda.
The massage will be sent via Copenda from your social network account. Any response from the user who got the massage will be delivered to your social network inbox.

Podcast: A Conversation with Copenda’s Greg Shverdin

A sneak peak to the upcoming new version of Copenda

For the last 3 months since we exposed the first version of Copenda we are working hard on a major upgrade to our platform which will be available very soon.

In the next following weeks until the release I will expose here the new functionalities that will be available in the upcoming version.

The first new functionality wanted to tell you about is a new filtering option.

Many of you asked us to add the ability to have search results only from your favorite social networks or dating sites. We added a new filter option which will enable you to have profiles in the search results only from your favorite social networks or dating sites.

Lessons From Entrepreneurs: Copenda

Steve Spalding the author of the successful blog How To Split An Atom recently interviewed Tal Cohen , one of the founders of Copenda.
Tal was kind enough to not only give him some insight into what Copenda is all about but also give us a backstage pass into what it’s like to be an entrepreneur in Web 2.o.

Read the full interview here

Happy holidays

Hi Friends,
I wanted to thank everyone who voted for us in the Open Web Awards contest , hosted by Mashable.com. Copenda succeeded to be among the top 3 in the social search category together with Facebook and Wink.

After the holidays we will expose new functionalities:

• You will be able to manually add new profiles and claim existing profiles
• My Copenda - personal user page with your favourite profiles , claimed profiles , profile management capabilities and much more.
• More filtering capabilities : for example you will be able to have search results only from specific sites.
• 2 New facebook apps and google gadget (I will be able to give you some more details very soon)

Stay tuned!!!

Happy holidays

From me and all Copenda staff

Please vote for us!!!

Hi,
We made it!!! thank to you we are on the final three in the "Social Search" category in the Mashable open awards contest.

Please help us and vote for us:
http://mashable.com/2007/12/17/owa-voting-finalists-1/

Thanks!!!

Please vote for us!!!

Hi,
We need your help , There are very important web contests and we need your help to vote for us.
Please help us to win these contests:

Mashable
http://mashable.com/2007/12/07/owa-voting-social-search/
Choose Copenda.

Techcrunch
Please vote for us in the following categories:

• Best new start-up of 2007
• Best international start-up
• Most likely to succeed

Don't forget to write: copenda.com

Copenda is Live!!!

Finally we launched today.
Here are the first reviews:

• Mashable: http://mashable.com/2007/12/03/copenda/
• Online dating post http://onlinedatingpost.com/archives/2007/12/dating-site-aggregator-copenda-launches-tomorow/
• killerstartups.com http://www.killerstartups.com/Web20/Copendacom---Social-and-Dating-Networking-Combine/

Fill free to add your review.

Copenda - Launch date

After a long development period we finally ready for launch , Copenda will be launched next week on the 4th of December.
Please be patient, It is beta and there might be some bugs.
On the following 4 weeks after the release we will add key functionalities that are currently not ready to the launch date:
My Copenda - a private dashboard which aggregates user personal data.
Ability to Claim a profile and get notification
Users will save profiles as their favorite and track them
Additional major site - we will add Facebook profiles to our search engine - we are currently indexing them.
Online Chat
If you can't wait and want to have a sneak pick into Copenda click here.
I will be more than happy to hear what you think about Copenda - what you like and more important what you didn't like.

A Kiss-Off to Online Dating

According to Sarah Lacy from BusinessWeek the era of Web 1.0 is over, online dating is dead. Going on sites like Facebook or MySpace it's like going to a bar with your friends, whereas a dating site is like walking past a bunch of animals in cages at the zoo. According to comScore, the number of people visiting online dating sites dropped 6% in September. Unique visitors to Yahoo Personals and eHarmony fell 21%, Match.com had a 16% drop, and True.com's visitors plummeted 46%. ComScore does show some names like Plentyoffish.com growing, but these are new sites with far smaller user bases.

here is her funny fictitious letter to the online dating sites:
"Dear Online Dating Sites,
I am writing to tell you it's over between us. It's not you. You've been great. You've helped me connect millions of happy couples and no one can take that away.
It's just that—well, I've changed. My needs and users are different now. And you were right when you asked about my relationship with MySpace and Facebook. I can't ignore the feelings I have for them any longer. Please don't be hurt. We had a good run, and you'll always be a part of me. But I'm moving on. I hope we can still be friends.
Love always,
The Internet "

I agree with here , I don't know if online dating will vanish but we cant ignore the recent statistics showing that the younger generation are using social networks to meet new friends and not using online dating sites.
Although many users use social networks for dating purposes, the social network user experience is not suited for this purpose.
We predicted this trend two years ago when we initiate Copenda ,
Copenda is a revolutionary social people search engine that allows people to search for their soul mate or new friends in social networks and dating web sites. Our complex algorithms crawl semi-structured data from multiple social networks and online dating sites.
Copenda will bridge the gap between social networks and online dating sites by integrating an innovative user interface with dating site features such as personality search and social network features such as ranking, comments and tagging.

See the full article

Google OpenSocial - new opportunities

Last week Google launched OpenSocial a new set of javascript API's adopted by the industry leaders. these set of API's will enable the development of cross platform applications.
So far the following websites have committed to the new initiative: Engage.com, Friendster, hi5, Hyves, imeem, LinkedIn, MySpace, Ning, Oracle, orkut, Plaxo, Salesforce.com, Six Apart, Tianji, Viadeo, and XING.
From our side it is a very good news , developing Copenda application for the leading social networks in on our roadmap and the new initiative will enable us to expose our app to broader audience.

Read more here

Copenda is just around the corner

As we promised Copenda will be ready very soon.

We finished the development of 95% of the modules planed for the beta and we already crawling profiles from 5 sites: Myspace,Match,Friendster,Plentyoffish and Hi5.

In the next few weeks I will update you with the Beta launch date.

In the meantime here are some screenshots:

More info here

Nokia launches mobile social network - MOSH by Nokia!

While all the big carriers are working hard to get existing social networks ported to play nice on their networks and handsets, Nokia seems to be taking a completely different approach. They’ve launched the first-ever social network launched by a handset maker - and who better to do it than the the most prolific mobile phone manufacturer on the planet? MOSH by Nokia aims to bridge the gap between the mobile and desktop social networking with their cross-platform design - upload, share, collect, or download various media from your mobile phone as well as your desktop (or laptop).
Recently I hear more and more about new Cross-platform social networks and dating sites - some of them such as MOSH are new and some are well known such as Myspace an Match.
Though mobile social networks are in their early stage and and their usage is still far behind the Internet we are working on exposing Copenda to mobile users. Copenda will enable people to search for friends or their next date directly from their mobile. The results will come from these cross platform social networks and dating sites.