iminlikewithyou: Hot or Not for the Web Savvy

When I was in college, the site Hot or Not became wildly successful based on a very simple premise: is the person in this picture hot or not? A new service, iminlikewithyou, takes the same idea, and massively expands upon it - creating something that can best be described as a hotornot-meets-facebook-meets-ebay-meets-game, hybrid.

iminlikewithyou describes itself as:

"It's a competition, a chase, a game - where you make up the rules of attraction, and you choose the winner.

And if you're playing someone else's game, send charming messages, photos and video their way - and then bid to show you're really interested. You have a limited number of points, so the more you bid, the more you're in like.

When the game is over, one lucky winner is chosen. Only then can you trade messages. Use texts, e-mail, and even have real phone calls. Don't worry, we will always hide your email address and phone number.

So look around. Make a game - or play someone else's. Bid or be bid on. Find someone to be in like with!"

One of the requirements upon signing up for iminlikewithyou is that you upload a picture of yourself. This picture will become very important as it is your main identification for the site. Sure, all the other vitals are there (name, age, location, etc) but the your picture is displayed very prominently and even moves to further grab visitors' attention.

The other key facet of your profile is your 'Catch Phrase'. You'll want to choose this wisely as it is displayed along with your profile picture when using the site. If you have a webcam, iminlikewithyou also has a tool called Camtoy that lets you create videos with effects such as fire and bubbles. These videos are displayed right under your picture on your profile.

Once you sign up for your account you'll notice that you're given a stipend of red gems (the iminlikewithyou currency) and then questions immediately start flying at you in the lower right-hand side of your screen. These question are simple yes or no inquiries such as 'Do you like to fly?' and 'Do you like scotch?' that help build up your profile in a somewhat entertaining way. Each question you answer also give you more of the red gems.

The main page of iminlikewithyou lays out 'Games You Might Like'. Games are the key to the site; it is through games that you will be able to meet and interact with other site users. In iminlikewithyou, games are essentially competitions in which the game creator asks a question and other users answer the question and place some of their red gems down for the right to win contact with the game creator. At the end of the game, the top 5 bidders are sent to the game creator for them to choose who the winner should be based upon their answer (and/or their picture if the creator is so inclined).

You can either start a game or take part in one. For example I started a game with the simple question: 'Who wants to be in an article?'. I figured this was a good way to both test out site and find a user to give me some feedback for this article. You can set the length of a game to be either 3 day, 1 day, or 3 hours. I chose 1 day for my game and waited for the bids to roll in. A few hours later I got my first one, this was almost immediately followed by a second bid topping the first one - it was actually pretty exciting to see people bidding over my question.

By the end of the one day I had received five bids, two of which were from the same person, who clearly wanted to win and upped their bid accordingly. I was sent the list of the top 5 bidders and asked to pick a winner from that group. The winning bid ended up being 80 red gems - a fair amount, but nowhere near the hundreds of gems that are commanded by some games (most of which I noticed were started by females - take from that what you will).

The person I chose as the winner was then added to my contact list and I received information about how to contact them if I so desired. It was about this time that I started to see the true genius of iminlikewithyou. The prospect of making friends and finding dates online has long been a staple of the Internet, but it's always been a fairly bland, if not technical process. iminlikewithyou has created a way to spice up online interaction and make it very proactive.

The limiting of interaction (you simply can't contact anyone unless you've won their game or they've won your's) seems like a bad idea at first, until you create a game or take part in one and you see that creating a relationship via a fun competition makes it more meaningful. You are limited in the number of red gems you have, so you don't want to dish them out to just anyone - you want to give them out to someone you truly wish to meet. Likewise you will only gain gems (beyond the stipend you get for logging in each day and answering the little questions) if you ask questions that others find meaningful and wish to interactive with you because of it.

iminlikewithyou addresses this issue in their own words:

* 3. At first, you can't contact anyone directly. In order to contact someone you must win one of their games, or they must win yours.

The game works this way to prevent spam. Isn't your MySpace mailbox full of junk mail?

Girls, you probably have tons of message from guys that are trying to hit on you all the time, and of course you're not interested in all of them. Guys, you probably have tons of messages from fake women who really want to meet you on their webcam (for $5.99 a minute!). That's lame, and it's definitely not a good way to find and flirt with someone you might actually want to hang out with.

The game also works this way to make sure people only contact other people they are really interested in. Guys, let's face it, you'll send a message to every girl on the front page of Craigslist just to see if one of them writes back. That's not cool. It's wasting their time, and yours. In this game, because you only have a certain amount of points, you really have to decide who you want to contact the most.

The game questions go far beyond the simple one I asked. The typical fare ranges from 'Finish this joke...' to 'Who likes Genesis?' to 'Who wants to get dinner with me?'. As you can see, the games range from humorous ones just for fun to serious date proposals. I was waiting to see a 'Who wants to marry me?', but I never saw it (still I fully expect someone to get engaged using this service once it launches).

Hitting the browse button in the main navigation takes you to a page that showcases all the latest games that are currently active. You can filter these results by gender, age range, and locational proximity. If someone catches your eye but you don't wish to play that particular game they are offering, you can tag them with the 'Watch' button and indicate how interested you are in watching them on a 1 to 3 heart scale. Lest you think this feature is conducive to stalkers, there is also an option to block any user.

Some other things of note:

It's interesting just how many high-profile people from the Internet community there are participating in iminlikewithyou. I won't name names, but clearly these people think highly enough of the service to use it in their spare time.
I'm not sure I've ever seen a site that utilizes sound better than iminlikewithyou. The dings, beeps, and boops sound a bit like a video slot machine, but do a good job keeping you on your toes and interacting with the site.
Sticking with the trends of todays social sites, iminlikewithyou also allows for updates via SMS and has a mobile version of site to make sure you can get updates 24/7.
There is also an option to share your photo slideshow on either MySpace or Facebook.

iminlikewithyou does a great job pushing a creative means of interactivity. Sites such as this point to a future where web browsing is less about browsing and more about engagement. While there is clearly a tendency towards the dating tip, iminlikewithyou could do very well as a simple meeting new people site as well.

The obvious thing to say would be that i'm in like with iminlikewithyou.com - but instead I'll just say that it beats the pants off of Hot or Not.

[iminlikewithyou is currently in a closed beta that is invite-only.]

Enjoy the post? Here are some more that may interest you.

There are no trackbacks for this post yet.

Jason, May 7, 2007

It is great to see innovation epically in this area of the web. There has been too many classifieds type portfolio dating/communities sites (MySpace, PlentyOfFish, etc.) trying to bring together a user base on this older dating-server method. Kinda like those old dating video profiles... If I did not hear about this site till now I would have agreed that Facebook is the only site trying to force community interaction. Great review!

MG Siegler, May 7, 2007

Thanks Jason, your comments are pretty much spot-on. eHarmony this is not. Not that there's anything wrong with eHarmony, iminlikewithyou just starts to explore some new methods...

Rufus, May 7, 2007

Great post MG, I wasn't able to read all of it as it was a bit long and I am on vacation but I want to check this out, just for the heck of it and see what it is like.

Ilya Lichtenstein, May 7, 2007

iilwy is great because it's just so much FUN to use- everything from the moving profile pictures to the random questions it asks exude an aura of lighthearted fun- just like flirting should be.

MG Siegler, May 7, 2007

@Rufus - Thanks, my apologies for the length, I spent quite a bit of time using the site so I wanted to get it all out there.

MG Siegler, May 7, 2007

@Ilya - yeah there is definitely an emphasis on the creation of a flirtation-like experience, good point.

Paula Neal Mooney, May 8, 2007

I'm in like with you is a cute concept.

I started thinking that guys (and dolls) who create sites like this and run Adsense (or whatever) can make money hand over foot without having to create much content.

But they do have to be savvy developers...

Some of the people on my new list of bloggers' salaries have a site or two like this -- and it's paying off for them.

< a href="http://digg.com/technews/PaulasListofBloggerSalariesAreyouonthe_list"> I don't think you Pronet guys are on my list: Paula's List of Blogger Salaries...Are you on the list? Paula

Niki Scevak, May 9, 2007

What about the person who won your game? How come they weren't mentioned in the article?

MG Siegler, May 9, 2007

@Niki - Yes unfortunately I had to publish before they got back to me, but I've talked with them now I'll try and throw it in there. Didn't want to run their name/user name or anything without their permission.

markus941, May 9, 2007

You lost me at "seems like a bad idea at first..."

You're a beta tester, not an average user.

I'll put my money on Hot or Not any day of the week - the simplest easiest to understand concept ever - that also made a boatload of money off a concept that requires FAR less explanation than this.

MG Siegler, May 10, 2007

I wouldn't consider the way I was using the site to be beta testing. I wasn't checking for bugs, just checking out the features like any new user would.

I'll agree that it might seem complicated at first to use - especially when compared with Hot or Not - just because of everything going on, but after 10 minutes getting acclimated you are good to go. In actuality it is really not that complicated at all.

It'll be interesting though to see what new things Hot or Not has in store...

Jobo, May 15, 2007