When Reunion.com and Wink announced their merger in early October 2008, the company indicated that it would be relaunching under a different brand name and with a completely overhauled website in early 2009. That day has finally come, and henceforth the merged companies will live on as MyLife.
The website for Reunion.com already redirects to MyLife.com, while dedicated people search engine Wink still has its own web presence. MyLife, however, already integrates Wink’s technology, which means the new hybrid social platform is now a full-fledged search engine which not only finds people—thanks to aggregated search across social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace—but also helps visitors connect with them all on the same site. On its company presentation page, MyLife boasts that it can locate over 750 million online profiles via its search index today.
Reunion.com has been getting decent traffic lately, rising to 15.4 million U.S. unique visitors and 18.2 million worldwide last month, according to comScore. Google Trends also paints a picture of continued growth, albeit almost exclusively for North America. That basically means MyLife is now effectively the fourth largest social network in the U.S. after Facebook, MySpace and Classmates.com, leaving behind a bunch of more talked-about companies like Bebo, LinkedIn, Digg and Imeem, if you compare comScore data for January 2009.
According to Founder and CEO Jeffrey Tinsley, Reunion grew 92% last year and its revenues for 2008 was somewhere in the vicinity of $52 million. Up until now, the company has raised $26.4 million in venture capital over two rounds, and it has used $6 million of this capital to acquire five companies to date (Wink, GoodContacts, MyAddressBook, Planet Alumni, and HighSchoolAlumni.com).
Robin – did you actually try to signup? It forces you into a page that makes you think the only way to get into the system is to pay. If you click the tiny little link on the top right of the page, you then get 10 pages of “signup for this magazine or offer” before you actually see any results.
It’s weird – reading the review I was enthused to write about this product this morning but decided not to post once I tried to actually get into the system and got overwhelmed with pages that reminded me a bit of godaddy and there 100 pages of “no thanks” before you can actually order.
“you then get 10 pages of “signup for this magazine or offer” before you actually see any results.”
This is starting to get ridiculous. I do understand that this is a recession, but people, come on.
You can still create successful companies without having to
1. Sneakily change your terms of service and try to claim ownership of all your user’s content (facebook)
2. Redirect your users to porn sites (justin.tv)
3. Confuse your users into thinking that they have to pay (MyLife.com) to get something that is free
These are not business models. These are just gimmicks like mobile phone companies each using a different type of charging plug so that they can force you to pay $35 to replace something that costs them $0.35 to make.
You can do better than this, Silicon Valley.
Anjali Sen
wow. great work. common sense personalized natural language domain. this site will blow up if positioned and executed properly. there are millions of social users that would like to have a fresh start social profile. as social users mature they will naturally gravitate to unbranded, unscarred social channels that better represents there personality and professionalism. fadbk and myspacs party will not last forever. again congrats on a great strategic personalized natural language branding maneuver.
OneLocator.com – find the leader
LifeLocator umm “again congrats on a great strategic personalized natural language branding maneuver”
are you retarded or someone from mylife.com? because your comment makes me want to slap you.
Several years ago, I witnessed someone very senior to reunion.com actually admit to someone that they knew it was deceptive to make people think they have to pay “… but we just make so much money that way”. And so it remains today.
I won’t get anymore specific than that.
Allen’s right.
It’s a crap site…even when I was finally able to find my way to the “results” and clicked on one of them, they sent me back into ad-land hell…
Never was able to see the promised results.
I’ll never visit or use this site…no one else should, either.
Sheesh.
that made me LOLz
DO NOT REGISTER AT MYLIFE. My husband did I guess because he was registered with Reunion.com. I got an e-mail to my e-mail account that looks like I registered for a dating site it sent me a username and password, the scary part was the undername sent is a username that is only used for my 5 years olds school account. I looked on my husband’s Mylife page and it imported not only his contact list from his e-mail but it looks like any person he has ever sent an e-mail to or received an e-mail from. I keep reading all this horror stuff about deleting the account and it looks impossible. So whatver you do, don’t register on this site. I have no idea how much info this site took off of our computer.
sagd
asdf
Does the site still spam your address book?
http://blogs.la...com-spam-alert/
YES!
Ugghh- Painful to hear those comments. I will not visit for now. Our site sticks to the basics, and we don’t try to pretend we’re something we’re not. Sometime simple and straight forward can be an asset.
Chris
The Senior List (www.theseniorlist.com)
Nationwide Consumer Opinion Site for Senior Services
Uhm… Also there is http://pipl.com which is pretty good.
reunion is nothing but a bunch of spammers and con artists. they take your credit card info and then charge your card without telling you. a typical internet scam if there was one.
stay away. the only reason they rebranded to mylife was to get away from all the negatives associated with the reunion brand (spamming, taking credit cards and charging without permission).
I agree with mba that reunion is a big-time spammer. I received so many spams from the piece of sh**t website that I was very furious. If this is their user acqusition strategy, I can tell they will head to deadpool in time to come. This space is so crowded. I am surprise those bozos have so much money to burn. Again, it must be funded by stupid VCs.
Same sh*t, different clothes. The number of prompts to sign up is a clear sign that they don’t care about anything but getting your data and then your credit card number.
Avoid, if you want to retain any privacy whatsoever.
if those comments are true, that’s a lot of scamming to get to $52 in revenue per year
not a very good site. yuk!
After looking at their site, I think rebranding their name to MyLife.com is the wrong name for what they do. I think a name like FindMe is more appropriate. For keeping “my life” stories, I will stick with StoryOfMyLife.com.
I agree with Joe, my life has nothing to do with this site. I think “FocusPoint.com” or “SearchMe.com” will make more sense. Hey Joe, thanks for the URL, I will take a look.
Wow just tried to sign up and it was 5 steps before any actual action. Danger.
Not sure I dig the name mylife.com. Just doesn’t resonate with me. Maybe it’ll sink in……
Reunion is actually excellent for locating lost friends since their service actually forces you to use first, last name, school…so you can be more easily located.
I don’t like their business plan to be too pushy to pay.
I don’t believe they will sink in though since they are funded by some of the most powerful people on the internet who own businesses…
this site sucks, would not allow to signup, even after filling all the info.
such a waste of time.
I’m sure it’s just more of the same BS…
That website had an “F” rating with the BBB. They get your addressbook, spam your friends, and sell your info.
If they get your credit card # they just renew you-year after year. People have had to CANCEL their card to get Jeffery’s mits off their money.
BEWARE!!! Big time.
Does anyone know how to delete your account without being on hold on the phone for an hour? The customer service suxs! You can’t even delete your account!!!
You’d have to be insane to try a website owned by a dude that had an “F” rating with the BBB. The name change is just to get away from all the negative-mylife isn’t on the radar yet, but just wait.
I changed my name to something totally unrecognizable to anyone searching that site for me, and have to wait out the year.
Make sure you have deauthorized automatic payments – because they seem to sign you up for auto renewal. UGH
I paid with a one time secure card, (PayPal) and paypal would NOT refund my money even after I contacted them 1 hour after my biggest mistake in 15 years on the pc.
This people are utterly appalling. I unwisely signed up (none of the people they claimed were looking for me had gone to any school I’d attended, or even lived in the same cities!). I immediate disabled their auto-renewal function.
Fortunately, when I went to create a profile I realized they wanted all my address books and didn’t give them any access.
I wish I’d googled them before I signed up because nearly every is result is about them being a total scam.
I have just been taken with my credit card on mylife.com and they need to be handled, for the way they are doing people. I have been calling, and calling, and I am told to go on line to http://www.reunion.com to get results. They are a bunch of scam artist. You cant get ahold of them, and you cant delete without the information. After joining you see you cant get a refund, nor can you get them to complain…its lousy dealings.
They really hook you in and I thought it sounded cool so I tried to sign up monthly, but dumb me wasn’t paying attention and of course they have the yearly already checked when you sign up and I didn’t change it. I called them to see if I could change it and they said yes, but instead of being $5 per month (the normal fee), they would charge me $12! Not only that, but I am having nothing but technical problems with the site and have already called them 3 times. The site is a crap site and not very well set up. Last time I waited 18 minutes on hold and had to hang up. Once I get my refund I will be cancelling.
DO NOT FALL FOR IT!!!
Already a 1 year member of reunion .com as of Dec 08 when the change over happened in February I have tried several to get into the NEW MyLife without any success it always ask for more money to go any further in the system. So what gives if this is how you are going to operate this new system with an account that has been paid and in good standing you can cancel any further use of the system and refund any and all moneys and refund it back to my credit card that you to happy to take in the first place.
I would like to have a reply to my letter asap.
mylife is a complete ripoff! they used to be reunion.com, which google shows to have countless negative reviews.
i thought they charge only $5, entered cr card info, clicked “next” thinking i havent yet agree to charges. legitimate inernet vendors have you click a final “yes” before charging you. “next” brought me to terms which i did not agree to so i closed the page. while checking my bank statment they had dinged me $1, $59, $1 in seconds. numerous calls to their reps 888-704-1900 resulted in them being argumentative, hostile. i reported it my bank. then recontacted mylife to get my name removed from their listings. this dept 877-820-9006 actually said they removed it and will fully refund my money. hope its true.
do a google search on “888-714-1900 jeffrey tinsley” (ceo and founder of mylife)and you will see all the complaints. changing their name to mylife wont get them far for long.
his contact info is (supposedly):
12100 wilshire blvd #150 los angeles, CA 90025
and
2118 wilshire blvd santa monica ca 90403
What you just wrote above, Just happend to me 25 minutes ago. I will get my money back. This is Bullshit. I wish I would have known this sooner. I’m such a dumb ass.
I unfortunately got scammed by reunion.com
STAY AWAY from this site, and affiliated sites.
See above – I did NOT get my money refunded, despite calls. There is a west coast law firm that may still be soliciting information from irate consumers.
They HAD to change their name. Very bad press, threatened with class action lawsuits, and tons of complaints on consumer complaint websites.
STAY away.
I suggest EVERYONE with a complaint, lodge it on BBB.com.
what the BBB says about Reunion/MyLife.com
“Company
Rating Our opinion of what this rating means:
We strongly question the company’s reliability for reasons such as that they have failed to respond to complaints, their advertising is grossly misleading, they are not in compliance with the law’s licensing or registration requirements, their complaints contain especially serious allegations, or the company’s industry is known for its fraudulent business practices.
F”
I was just contacted by MyLife again about an old friend, they’d found her-her exact name, her exact age, etc….I got a friend with a paid account to check on it and there is NO PERSON in the state with that name and age. IT’S B.S.!!! They just keep contacting you to get you to sign up.
“someone is looking for you”….
MyLife.com formerly Reunion.com changes your OPT OUT selection to be enrolled in AUTO-RENEW behind your back. Then when you realize the site is not what you thought & try to let your subscription run out then SURPRISE your card or Paypal is charged automatically against your wishes. They will say your subscription is cancelled & your refund is coming but it’s not. You can click to opt out or try to delete your account & they simply change you back to auto-renew & refuse to delete your account. ADVICE: Never use any company that has an auto-renewal feature. It’s just your word you clicked opt out against their word that you chose to auto-renew.
By the way, the ONLY way to stop this company is to report them to the FBI site for internet scams. After enough reports the FBI will finally do something maybe. Otherwise, there is no such thing as a real law in the USA… not unless you have millions behind you to pay to have it enforced. Everyone blames victims for the problem… until they become one… & then all they care about its themselves & putting the matter behind them. Until we all come together & demand legal reform & enforcement nothing will be done to companies like this. Get used to it.
Lots of people complaining about reunion.com. This site gave heads up about it 1 month prior:
http://www.kerr...me-to-mylifecom
Thats a lot of search pages results!
MyLife.com should be boycotted. On my profile they list my ex-husband, neither a friend nor relative. They list 4 residences, they aren’t all mine. I have spent 70+ e-mails and two phone calls asking for them to remove the EX (they haven’t). I have asked for my entire profile to be removed, they won’t remove it. They also have my name on my ex-husband’s profile as his Friend/Family (which I am neither). They won’t remove my name from his profile either and it still links to the profile on me. I highly resent that they have posted anything at all about me without my consent or permission and when asked to remove it, they won’t. What they have posted is libel, as it is completely untrue. There are many, many, online complaints against this company.
I am currently having the same problem and filed a complaint with the BBB. They have posted a fake “profile” of me with names of my immediate family members and posted the link on yahoo search – I do not have an account with them. They falsely took my name and the name of my family members and used them to endorse their website and bait potential subscribers. What they are doing qualifies as identity theft.
By law they have to list all their prices and they do tell you on the subscription page that you will be renewed. Paypal also tells you about the renewal and that you have to cancel with Paypal, not the company. Just my experience is learinng to read everything, regardless.
Well, I haven’t given them any money. Alarms went off when they wanted my email password. I was like, they want open access to my email??? So I made a new account on Yahoo and verified it and gave them that, something easily disposable. I found the site because I have been banging into walls on the internet trying to get in touch with some family members I dropped out of contact with about 5 years ago. Apparently my aunt has an account with them(mylife- came up via google). Mylife also informed me that someone else I used to know is looking for me and listed her as the same age and even named a school that I did in fact go to where I was involved with a girl who would fit the bill, this is over 21 years ago and I put her behind me way the heck back when. I am curious though… Anyway, I was wondering if this may just be another piece of bait to get you to try to give them money, as it goes unsaid they won’t give me a hint as to who this person may be but I am more inclined to think it’s just a phantom they created, accessing public data on me > finding out my school (I didn’t mention the particular school in question when signing up for the free account) and then throwing it in my face. Wondering if anyone else was pulled in with such a tactic only to find out it was BS though I did have a girlfriend that went to that school who was exactly my same age which they also had right.
Aside from my curiosity, I at still want to contact my aunt, but $60 plus whatever else they may try to ring out of me seems hardly worth the risk after reading the horror stories.
I’d wish I had known about Mylife.com. I will have to fight to get my $60 for a worthless piece of crap. They are just like con-artists. Deceiving, maniplutive, all for your credit card number to fill their pockets and emptying yours while giving you false reports of people searching for you. I’ll be waiting on hold with their customer service line and fighting my credit card company for a refund and to stop auto payments. I feel guilty telling my friend not to fall for stuff when I was scammed myself. We ALL need to fight against MYLIFE.COM FOR DECEPTION
AHH!!! i just got charged $43 to my credit card for this crap, i have nooo extra cash for their shitty website, i signed up for a 3 month at $17; and they basically stole my credit card.. DO NOT USE MYLIFE. COM!!! i am calling visa in 5 minutes to say they stole the number. NO WAY do i permit sites or companies to charge me automatically!!! and steve youre right it IS false reports abt people. what a bunch of crap.
MyLife went completely and involuntarily viral on me. I responded to an invite (unwisely) from a friend I really want to stay in touch with, and it mined my data for every single email address I had ever touched and sent annoying viral emails to every single one of them again and again, asking for passwords. It sucks completely. I feel like such a fool.
MyLife FAIL!!!