Thanks to the awesome team at Engage.com, we now have a revamped site that looks like a million bucks and is really fun to use.  Engage is the Web’s first introductions platform and we’ve been at work making the site better, easier to use, and, as always, super fun.  Our simple aim: introduce the world, one wonderful person at a time.  Please click around the site and check out our new look — and let me know what you think. (By the way: we’re still updating our registration flow pages, so those will look like the old site for a few more days.)

Also, if you use Facebook, hop on over and take a look at our new Facebook application called AwesomeIntros, a fun game that relies on your intuition to introduce people to a person they’ve never met before. You just vote on the person you think Engage should introduce to the guy or girl in the poll and we do the rest… you can even put yourself in the game.  You could help us out a lot if you take a moment to “fan” the application, and if you have a few minutes, jump on and play.  AND, if you like it, go share it with all your friends!

Thank, in advance, for the show of support.

InternetGeekGirl, Stephanie Agresta, who is a pal of mine, has a new blog post up on the WeTV “1 Woman. 1Vote.” site that I think you’ll love.  It’s all about the current political season and her passion for the candidacy of Barack Obama.  The trouble is, she’s dating a great new guy who’s for John McCain.  In dealing with this conflict in points of view, she shared some inspiration she got watching the recent interviews of the Presidential candidates by Pastor Rick Warren at his Saddleback mega-church in Southern California early last week:

“Warren started the event with some good advice: We can disagree without demonizing. That resonated for me!  Wouldn’t it be great if members of Congress would abide by that credo? How much more likely would I be to find relationship success if I do the same thing? “

It’s clear from an earlier study Engage did regarding dating and politics that these sorts of discussions can be dangerous ground for folks on opposite sides of the aisle.  But with a disproportionate number of woman registered as Democrats in the U.S. and about the same disproportionate number of men registered as Republicans, such conflicting political viewpoints are bound to come up when dating.

Warren, who is famous for his “Purpose-driven Life” books, offers great advice, as Stephanie shares in her blog post.  And because she’s is so committed to increasing the number of people who vote in this November’s election, she also offers this advice of her own:

Encouraging those around you to vote is critical, but you have to be willing to accept the fact that they may not vote your way. It’s more important to respect those around you for being willing to get involved and have a point of view, (versus having the exact same point-of-view as you). Trust me, this is not always an easy task - but, then again, neither is dating!

Wisdom all of us could benefit from!

Thanks to the extraordinary efforts of our team here at Engage, we now have a new app available on Facebook, called AwesomeIntros.  It’s sort of a “1.0″ effort, so we’d really appreciate it if you could hop on over to Facebook, give the app a test run and then give us your opinions (just write on our group wall on Facebook) about how we could improve it.

You should feel comfortable giving the app a try regardless of your relationship status.  One thing to remember: if you click on “Put me in a poll”, we WILL do that, so only go through those steps if you’d genuinely like to be in a poll like the one above.

Also, please note that removing apps from your Facebook profile is super easy, so no worries on that front.  Finally, when you agree to add the app, we prompt you to invite friends to play with you on the app; you have the option to SKIP this part by clicking the “skip” button, which is located at the top and bottom of that page.

If you’re able to spend a few minutes to help us out, that would be… well… awesome. Thanks!

If you’ve recently returned to Engage, you no doubt noticed a few changes to our service.  The awesome team at work here at Engage is constantly striving to make our service more fun, easier to use and the best place for introductions anywhere on the Web.

While we hope you like some of our upgrades, the best is still yet to come… but I’ll get to that in a moment.  One thing I want to especially point out is the fact that we’ve begun charging for the first time for a few of our premium services (for instance, “see who’s expressed an interest in being introduced to me”).  Over time, we’ll be adding to our premium services which you can access without any interruption to your Engage experience for a very low price: just $5.95 per month.

I’m clear some folks will not love having to pay for our more premium (and let’s face it, some of our most compelling) features.  But we are, after all, a business, and charging for our more premium services allows us to earn our keep.  Nevertheless, I think you’ll continue to find our Engage introductions platform delivers a lot of fun and real results you won’t find elsewhere for what is a very low monthly subscription rate. I look forward to hearing from you on this front.

Now, as to what’s yet to come…

First, our creative team of Will (graphics), Alicia (copy) and Estelle (front-end engineer, which is Silicon Valley-speak for the person who makes it possible for you to see on your computer all the pretty things Will designs) are at work on a whole new look and feel for Engage.com.  This will include a new logo and tagline, a whole new color palette and some slight revisions to how the site is organized — all of which we think will make the site easier and more fun to use.  These changes are also about emphasizing what makes Engage special and unique — that we enable introductions on the Web, helping friends and family to introduce people they know to interesting new friends (or maybe even that special new person in your life.)

Second, Engage is taking its show on the road.  Our intrepid engineers Patrick, Mike and Eric are hard at work building versions of the Engage experience that will live seamlessly inside the social networks you may call home-on-the-Web, including Facebook, MySpace, and / or your iPhone, among others. Our first effort is focused on bringing Engage to Facebook, which we’re very close to launching, so if you hang out there, be sure to keep an eye out for us!

Finally, we’re going to be undertaking a campaign to encourage all our users to invite their friends and family to join the fun on Engage.  Engage is only as good as the community that embraces it — and we can only hope to achieve our mission of “introducing the world, one wonderful person at a time” through you, the people we seek to serve.  All of us at Engage are clear we have to earn your participation and so we remain hard at work creating an environment that makes it both fun and easy to make introductions — changing lives for the better as a result.  Please continue to let us know how we can make things better and better here on Engage.com and via our new versions of Engage on Facebook and beyond.

Engage. Nice to meet you.

In a new study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and featured on the Science Daily Website, researchers showed that men were more likely to view their current girlfriend or wife negatively immediately after meeting an attractive, available woman who flirted with them.  Women, conversely, were more likely to protect their current relationship upon meeting an attractive, available man who flirted with them.

Once again, we have proof of the whole “men are from Mars, women from Venus” nostrom.  Researchers, however, are quick to point out that men should not necessarily be judged harshly for such propensities:

“One interpretation of these studies is that men are unable to ward off temptation. We do not subscribe to this. Instead, we believe men simply interpret these interactions differently than women do,” said lead author John E. Lydon, PhD, of McGill University in Montreal. “We think that if men believed an attractive, available woman was a threat to their relationship, they might try to protect that relationship.”

Whew!  Off the hook… still: ladies, beware!

In addition to all the recent improvements we’ve made to Engage, there are also exciting changes going on behind the scenes inside our plucky little start-up. Former vice president of product and marketing Derek Gordon has become our new CEO, and co-founder and former CEO Suneet Wadhwa has moved to the role of chairman of the board.

Fresh back from a vacation in Paris, France, Europe, Monsieur Derek is now providing vision and leadership for our team as we grow our introductions platform in exciting new directions. Translation: More great ways to get introduced are coming your way soon, so look out! Stay tuned for more details. Knowing Derek, he’ll be introducing himself to you here on the blog very soon so you can get to know him and share the excitement as Engage brings you even more new ways to meet.

As you know, we’re working on a completely new way to meet here at Engage. Anyone who’s single can use the site to get handpicked matches, decide who they want to meet, and get introduced. Anyone who’s not here to date can use the site to introduce their fave single friends to new and exciting singles about whom they have a great feeling.

Our introductions are 100% people-powered. That means everyone can cut through the fakey personals shtick, let your hair down, be yourself, and actually meet real people who fit your style and sensibilities. Plus, you get to look for people with friends by your side. So there’s always someone here to give you a much-needed reality check — and to help decide if someone’s both into you and worthy of your affections.

Carving out a whole new approach to meeting and dating is exciting and challenging and, we confess, a lot of work. But you’re worth it, dear readers. We have a friend crush on you and we want to see you with someone just as amazing as you are. So, because we heart you that much, we’re constantly tinkering behind the scenes — listening carefully to your feedback and funneling it into brand new improvements all over the site.

To that end, we recently made some more updates that you’ve been asking for. Here are the highlights… of course, you should really sign in and try them for yourself.

The biggest change we’ve made recently is a whole new way of organizing the site:

- Your matches tab - Where the magic happens for you if you’re single. Handpick matches for yourself, review matches that others have picked for you, decide who you want to meet. And meet them. Simple!

- Play matchmaker tab  - You can pick matches for friends, vote & comment on friends’ matches so they can narrow the field, and make quickie intros. What’s next is up to them!

- Profile - We heard what you said about editing your profile, so we’ve corralled all your key personal info and preferences in one place. Edit away!

- Other improvements - Now you can also more easily access your inbox and do searches to find cuties for yourself and others. You can also use our Friend Finder tool to look up pals who are already members of Engage.

So the site’s ready and waiting for ya. We can’t wait to see who you meet!

xo,

Engage

Engage’s VP of Love, Trish McDermott popped up on CNN last week to chime in on the mixed messages people receive when dating. It seems guys are confused about the signals women are sending in relationships. Says Trish:

“For all the communicating singles are now doing using the plethora of social media available to them, men and women still aren’t necessarily hearing each other. Most men still think they should pay for the first date, but most women don’t agree. On the other hand, women still expect gentlemanly courtesies such as having the door held open for them.”

Trish’s commentary helps men decode the signals. Of course, as our VP of Love, we think Trish is always fabulously insightful when it comes to the dating game. Her advice also illustrates why it’s so important to get a reality check from your friends when you’re dating. What if someone is really into you but you’re missing the signals?

When in doubt, ask a friend for their read on the situation and you might discover that the super cute and sassy object of your affection is totes reciprocating your interest — but you’re just so wrapped up in disbelief that you’re missing the super obvs cues. Or you could just subject yourself to a life of unanswered questions about “What might’ve been.” But where’s the fun in that?

Our recent Sex and the City survey results are popping up in articles all over the blogosphere. The Baltimore Sun’s BaltAmour blog concluded our survey results showed how “the sexual double standard” persists.

The MaconLove blog thinks “the show gave women greater confidence and equality. It showed that world that it’s OK to be an assertive woman that can ask for — and get — what she wants.”

While sites like the Hampton Report, Great Dating Services, and the M2W conference blog reported how SATC changed women’s attitudes towards dating, Slackmistress stands up for “NerdGirls” who didn’t find Sex and the City so revolutionary, because they were already used to different dating practices. (Although maybe this is one of those “exception proves the rule” situations?)

Thanks again for sounding off in our survey. We’ll keep you posted on the next opportunity to share your thoughts and weigh in on topics that impact social dating.

“Oh Canada!” Our very own VP of Love, Trish McDermott popped up on Calgary Today with Mike Blanchard. Download the show from SendSpace and listen to Trish’s expert opinion on the state of online dating and relationships. Pretty savvy, eh?