An Easy Way to Meet Hot Chicks…Using ‘Tagged’

Lot’s of research has been done on “new” digital environments, also known as Social Network Sites (SNS), which enable people to display themselves publicly through the use of personal profile space. Danah Boyd, a well respected researcher on this defines these sites as:

Web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system.

Scholars from a variety of disciplinary fields have examined Social Network Sites in order to understand the practices, implications, culture, and meaning of the sites, as well as the users’ engagement with them. One thing is sure and instantly noticed from whichever angle or disciplinary field you look at the sites. SNS’s have a very promising feature for everyone who uses the software; that is the ease to search for, find and meet other people. Whether searching for a friend or a complete stranger, SNS’s enable individuals to locate others online. Whether looking for old classmates, people who share interests or just simply searching for hot chicks, these digital environments make it possible in an easy and sometime fun way.

Take the social network site Tagged, which allows users to send messages, leave comments, browse photos, watch videos, play games, give tags and chat. Just like any other SNS, the user needs to create a personal profile. Age, gender, location of residence and other personal information can be filled in and later displayed on the profile. There is space for users to upload pictures and videos, and to leave comments on the profile or pictures of other people. But next to these super basic things, tagged has an interesting, fun and very easy to use applications to assist people in finding and meeting others. It’s called “Meet Me”.

Using Meet Me is extremely simple. The user enters the preferences which the search engine uses to find people. After (optionally) specifying gender, age, country, location and city name the search task can begin. The engine filters users according to the specified information and displays one by one the profile picture (with some additional information) of a person who meets the search criteria on the screen. The user now has the option to click on YES if the profile picture displayed is liked, and NO is the profile picture is disliked. After this click (on yes or no) a next profile picture of another person is displayed and the same action as before can take place. With this easy to use click and meet system users can scan through a huge amount of profile pictures in a short amount time, searching for people he or she wants to meet, judging only on physical appearance.

When clicked on YES, that person is automatically added to a “Yes List”. Here a link to and an overview of all the profiles of the people the user has clicked YES on are collected. The magic happens when a person a user clicked YES on also clicks YES on that user’s profile picture. Now both users have clicked YES on each other, stating they would like to meet each other. When this happens a Match is created. Every match is then kept in the “Matches” list. So the user has a clear overview of all the people with which a match is created.

This is a good example of an extremely easy and according to its users also fun and effective way to meet new people. It shows that maintainers of Social Network Sites can come up with a variety of types of services which provide the user the ability to “articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection with” (Dana Boyd’s 2nd aspect of SNS’s). In this particular case, an extremely basic method is provided to the users with a reasonable high account of effectiveness incorporated with an element of fun.

So… If you want to meet some hot chicks (or guys of course) in an area near you (or an area for you to choose), Tagged provides you with an easy to use application to find people that meet your physical taste and standards. Go forth and click!