I recently used Evite to send invitations for a party at my house. Overall, I was pleased with the experience. The selection of invitation styles was huge. The invitee tracking tool was informative. But the site's user interface made it too complicated to send an invitation. Worse, Evite hasn't really embraced the social networking space--there's no Evite app on Facebook nor Twitter integration. And the closest it comes to going mobile is sending SMS invites and offering a mobile site.
So I set out to find some alternatives to Evite to see if they could provide a better service.
Crusher provides a ton of options.
(Credit: Don Reisinger/CNET)CircleUp Though it's not specifically designed to provide invitations and tracking, CircleUp does let you invite others to an event and track their attendance. The page detailing whether or not invitees will be attending the event is especially good. But CircleUp simply isn't as useful as Evite, nor as convenient.
Crusher I like Crusher. It's simple and clean. Creating invitations can take less than a minute. But if you're the type who wants to tweak an invitation to fit your needs, the site also has a CSS editor. You can add video, chat, photos, and much more. It's great for the Web geek and the Web novice alike. And it's better than Evite.
Enclude Unlike Evite, Enclude lets you send e-cards. But its invitation creation tool doesn't provide as many planning options as Evite's. And if you really care about the design of the invite, you'll find fewer cards on Enclude. I also wasn't impressed with its invitee tracking tool. Simply put, it's no Evite.
Facebook Most of the people who I would invite to a party are my friends on Facebook anyway, so creating an event and sending out an invitation through the social network is quite convenient. Creating an invitation in Facebook takes less than a minute. Everyone can see who will be attending the party. Attendance tallies are updated as soon as the invitee responds. If you don't need to invite too many people outside of your Facebook friends list, Facebook is a fine invitation tool. It's much simpler than Evite.
Invitastic Invitastic is ugly, too simple, and unable to compete on any level with Evite. That said, it might come in handy when you want to quickly send out an invite to a couple friends and you don't want all the extras Evite provides. But even in those circumstances, I'm hard-pressed to find a reason to use Invitastic instead of other simple services, like Zoji.
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MyPunchbowl has a new service for remembering people's birthdays.
Designed to keep you from forgetting when it's somebody's special day, you can set up reminders that can be sent to both you and your friends. To do this, the service has employed a system that pesters your friends to add themselves to your personal database. In the process, the hope is that they'll join the system too.
Right now you can do this via e-mail, IM, Twitter, and Facebook. In all cases, it sends out a quick mm/dd/yyyy request to your contacts, along with the option for them to hide the year they were born. There's also the incentive for them to sign up, since when they're done putting in their birthday, it tells them when yours is, and gives them the option to squirrel it away by signing up themselves. Once they've done this, it's added to your database where you can filter them down into special groups like friends, family, college buddies, etc.
My one major beef with this service is that if you're trying to get birthday information from your friends on Facebook, it's likely already there. There are also a handful of apps within Facebook that offer this same functionality. Also, since November, Facebook has had its own weekly reminder service that you can sign up for that tells you whose birthdays are coming up. For that reason, MyPunchbowl's service ends up being a better solution for Twitter, although I'll be honest here--I don't care about the people I'm following on Twitter as much as I do about the friends and family I'm connected to on Facebook.
Where the system holds real value is that it's deeply tied into MyPunchbowl's other services. For instance, if it's someone you were never intending to get a gift or a real card for, you can simply use MyPunchbowl's eCard service and send it to them using the information you've already gathered. By contrast, you can also turn around and begin planning a party right away using the built-in tools. For that, there's some real value, which is what makes it worthwhile if you're already using the service to do the party planning. If not, you may be better off using a Facebook app like Birthday Exporter to take that birthday data to a calendar service you're already using.
MyPunchbowl lets you quickly add people's birthdays, either manually or by sending out requests via e-mail.
(Credit: CNET Networks)
When you want to send out a blast to your friends to get their birthdates you can do it via e-mail, or through Facebook and Twitter. There's also a link you can send through e-mail that will get them to the entry page.
(Credit: CNET Networks)
Web party invitation and management service MyPunchbowl on Tuesday relaunched with a new look. While mostly a new paint job, the big, new feature is the invitation designer, which has been renamed as a "studio."
Where the service's former system had users simply picking colors, pictures, and some ready-made templates, the results of using the new tool resembles a real life paper invitation. Users can still select things like the coloring and background, but there are new flourishes like colored ribbons, textured backgrounds, and various form factors that mimic proper card stock.
The new designer lets you tweak each aspect of an invitation, right down to the ribbon.
(Credit: CNET Networks)All of this amounts to little besides the invitation page people visit. It doesn't show up (much) in the e-mail, and you can't have it printed and sent out, which would make the whole experience feel a little more fulfilling. Your newly designed invitation will simply sit alongside the party details. The company is pushing the "green" aspect of this, but it's a shame you can't get your handiwork turned into a real-world good. Like Moo.com's mini cards, there's something fantastic about quirky designs for everyday things that could make MyPunchbowl stand out from competitors like Evite, Facebook, and Socializr.
Speaking of which, I think the service is still running up against bad public perception. Many people I know simply go to Evite because it's what they've always used. Also, when MyPunchbowl first launched, one of its stumbles was the e-mail invites, which were promptly being delivered to people's spam folders. Since then, it looks like the problem has been fixed, as I tried sending out an invitation to Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, and my work e-mail. All went through without a hitch.
The other big hurdle, which I've pressed on in the past, is the big competition from Evite and social networks like MySpace and Facebook which have integrated events management services. For many, including myself, this is just an easier option--even if it's not a better one. To its credit, MyPunchbowl has done a great job at letting people suck in contacts from elsewhere, then turn around and advertise it at those places from the very same tool. Going forward, it's simply going to be a question of whether or not people will be willing to go through all that just to have a better functioning invitation.
Here's a video of MyPunchbowl founder and CEO Matt Douglas talking about the new design tool. It's worth noting you can't use it unless you're a registered user.
Contour Venture Partners is the lead investor in Series A funding for Punchbowl Software, which is behind the event-planning and invitation site MyPunchbowl.
Total cash raised was $2.1 million; the other investors in the round include Intel Capital and eCoast Angels.
Previously, Framingham, Mass.-based Punchbowl Software had raised seed funding from Intel and eCoast.
MyPunchbowl's team said that the fruits of the Series A round will be visible soon, with new features and new hires on the way. But invitation start-ups are in a tough spot; IAC's Evite is as big as most of its smaller competitors combined, and Facebook's "events" application has become popular for casual and large-scale get-togethers.
MyPunchbowl's pitch is that it helps with the entire planning process, not just the invitation, and that there are plenty of people looking for that. "We've seen explosive growth since our first...funding last year," CEO Matt Douglas said in a statement.
I don't normally review Facebook applications. I also don't normally install too many on my profile unless I actually deem them useful.
This is an exception.
"Hangover," a Facebook application game created by invitation start-up MyPunchbowl, is utterly pointless and a bit convoluted, but I found it strangely appealing. Maybe that's because it's so off-the-wall.
Essentially, Hangover is like the Old School or Animal House version of kiddie card games like Pokemon. You start out with 10 virtual "cards," one of which you can display on your Facebook profile, and the point of the game is to amass a full hand of all 100 Hangover cards.
Each card represents an aspect of party-animal culture, from the "Walk of Shame" to "Quarters" (that's a drinking game) to "Wingman." Some cards are rarer than others. You can also wind up with multiples of the same card, and hence trade them with other friends who have installed the application. You can also buy cards with points, which you earn by sending friends invitations, or "partygrams." (Or by signing up for a MyPunchbowl account.)
In a funny little twist, you're more likely to get rare cards if you purchase them at "shadier" virtual outlets, which cost more. It takes 2,000 points to buy a pack of cards from a "supermarket," but 4,000 if you want to buy them in a "Chinatown back alley." Cute.
I'm sure Hangover will catch on among high school students who want to school themselves in the jargon of booze culture before going off to college. It's also one of the more amusing Facebook applications I've played with recently, but maybe that's just a symptom of how excited I am for those South by Southwest Interactive parties in a few weeks.
There's something to be said about Web services that have been set up to help people coordinate things in the least stressful way as possible. I dig sites like CircleUp (coverage) that offer a way to set up polls, or to solve quick logistical questions within a group, without requiring the creator or the users to agonize over the interface and execution. That's why MyPunchBowl's new checklist feature is pretty much the best addition to a party-planning service yet.
The idea is simple: you, as party creator, make a list of things you need for the party. This list is just for you, in a GTD sense. You can hit one button to add items to your "potluck" list, which is made public to all your invitees. Your party guests can then assign themselves to which items that they'll (hopefully) bring to the party, or add their own items. This helps you avoid making harassing phone calls or e-mails to coordinate the details.
The new checklist feature was launched along with several other updates. The service is continuing its foray into the world of themes with about two dozen Halloween templates and a new duplicate party feature that lets you clone and reuse a party page you've already made--which is helpful if you want to recycle things like a guest list and directions. There's also a bounced e-mail notifier to let you know if your party invitations never made it to your addressees' mailboxes.
I'm still waiting for a feature that will track your recipients' past replies to flag those who say they're coming and never do--and one that flags guests who show up without replying--to let you know when a call, personalized e-mail, or bouncer is in order.
Previous MyPunchBowl coverage:
MyPunchbowl adds themes, public events
Easy event planning with MyPunchbowl
Make a party checklist and indicate the items you want your guests to bring. They can add their own, too.
(Credit: CNET Networks)
Phonevite is a new free invitation and RSVP service that turns your Web browser into a personal assistant of sorts, letting you call a large group of friends, family, or contacts without having to spend all day on the phone. Instead Phonevite provides an asynchronous solution, giving you an easy way to record a personalized invitation message using your computer's microphone, and send it out to a list of hand-picked phone numbers. From there you can send out the "invitation" right away, or schedule it in for a later date.
When an invitation goes live, Phonevite will call all the numbers you've given it simultaneously. Your recipients (if they're there) will hear your name and recorded invitation and get the option to reply yes, no, or maybe. You can also enable an option for them to record their own voice message that you can listen to via Phonevite's tracking page. That same tracking page also lets you see whether or not the phone call was a success, the recipient's response, and an option to resend the invitation in instances where it failed.
The real Achilles heel of this service is how it handles voice mail. The response feature only works on live calls. Users still get your message, but not a way to respond without having to call you back. Luckily the service spoofs your number, so responding to the voice mail actually sends the call straight to you. Ideally, Phonevite could provide each user their own callback number that would give invitees the option to respond at their leisure.
Phonevite is a really simple service to use. It took me no time to record a message, and begin adding contact numbers (for Outlook buffs there's also the option to import them from a .CSV file). One caveat is the need to use Internet Explorer, as Phonevite's recording and message playback features require an ActiveX plug-in. For calling small- to medium-size groups of people (10 to 25) this service is a great way to garner a quick response. As for providing more publicly available information about and event, like an RSVP list, and Web map, I'd stick to Evite and MyPunchbowl.
Once your invite has gone out, you can keep track of who got it, who didn't, and listen to their responses right in the browser.
(Credit: CNET Networks)- MyPunchBowl adds themes, public events. The invitation service we've been keeping an eye on since its January launch has updated with several user-requested features (75, according to its blog). One of the new additions is themed invitations, a feature we asked for in our original hands-on MyPunchBowl review. Also new is the option to create public events, so people can share a party's URL instead of requiring the host to manually go in and send out invites. Our favorite theme? Pretzel Day.
- Clipmarks gets searchy with ClipSearch. Clipmarks, the Web bookmarking service, has added a search engine to its service called ClipSearch. The new tool searches through user-submitted Clipmarks content to pull up results. Users can also add tags to their bookmarked items to help the engine out. Read our Clipmarks hands-on review for more information.
- PBwiki integrates Yackpack. PBwiki, The popular wiki service, is adding Yackpack's walkie-talkie widget to user wiki pages. The goal is to make it easier to communicate with wiki contributors and visitors. We covered the widget last month, and it's a really simple solution for adding instant voice chat to a blog or social networking profile. Related: Wetpaint adds private messaging to Wiki service.
- Quintura adds results from Blinkx. Quintura, the cloud-tag enabled search engine, has partnered with Blinkx, the video search service, to bring Blinkx results to all Quintura searches. Interestingly enough, Quintura hasn't chosen to replace its own video search tool with Blinkx's, as there's still a video search option next to the new Blinkx tab.
(Credit:
CNET Networks)
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