We have recently launched Instant Premium, which provides a number of new features for your Instant community.

What you get?

• Ad-free experience
• High Quality AV
• Multiple Audio/Video Docks
• Premium support for your community
• Dedicated environment for improved stability
• No commitment! Month-to-Month for only $9.95

There are no contracts, so it’s month-to-month, and it’s really easy to upgrade.  Click here to login to your account and upgrade to Instant Premium.

Today we shut down the Userplane Money service and we are taking steps to close out this service with the active participants. If you’re looking for information about the closure please see our FAQs on the Userplane Money service.

Free Chat        White Label Messaging / Chat?     Pricing      FAQAs we pull into the home stretch of 2009, we are eagerly looking forward to what 2010 will hold for Userplane.  We have great ideas and plans for 2010.

The most recent addition to our team is Marvin Perkins.  We’ve been giving him a warm welcome here at the Userplane family as he takes over the role of Business Development.  Marvin comes to us from Citysearch where his background and experience are instantly proving valuable to our team.

On December 9th, our parent company AOL spun off from Time Warner and became a publicly traded company.  The spin off will have little to no direct effect on Userplane’s operations, which is great news for us.  Click here to see the press release.

We are really excited about 2010 and what it has to offer both with Userplane and how the social web is evolving.  We’re glad you’re with us and look forward to providing top-notch support and service to you.

Marvin and myself, Jonathan Dingman, will be at the iDate 2010 conference in Miami early next year, so if you will be there, we would love to meet you!

Thank you for all your feedback we received from the survey we sent out in October’s newsletter.

We certainly heard your request to make our Webmessenger rock. It is also clear many of you would like more self-serve options and more visibility through additional reporting and other usage metrics.

The good news is we are working hard on both initiatives and will soon have more news to share with you.

We are also proud to announce the launch of our new support destination. We have moved from our existing customer support system and launched a new destination so you can have visibility on any requests you send us. Of course you can always email us at support@userplane.com when you need help, but now you can also visit http://support.userplane.com/ for additional information, to submit a ticket, check the status of an existing ticket, and coming soon to browse our knowledge base.

We will soon be celebrating Thanksgiving here in Santa Monica and we are very thankful for our relationships with each of you.

The Userplane Team

As a part of our commitment to Userplane’s service we are proud to announce the launch of our new support destination.  We have moved from our existing customer support system and launched a new destination so you can have visibility on any requests you send in.  Of course you can always email us at support@userplane.com at anytime you need help, but now you can also visit http://support.userplane.com/ for additional information, to submit a ticket, check the status of an existing ticket, and coming soon to browse our knowledge base.

Please check it out: http://support.userplane.com/

Please let us know if you experience any issues while trying to reach us for support.  You can send an email to info@userplane.com if you experience any issues and we will be sure to follow up with you.

Userplane’rs!

Halloween is right around the corner and while it doesn’t quite yet feel like Fall in Santa Monica, the new season brings about positive changes for Userplane…

Earlier this month Userplane launched an exciting new way to make working with us easier.  We introduced new lower prices in an all-in-one package, allowing customers to get Userplane Webmessenger with Presence Bar, Webchat with Minichat, Webrecorder, Desktop, and Boards, all for one low price!  Userplane is always looking for ways to improve the value we provide and help our customers succeed in growing their business.  We hope to continue this effort as we make our offerings increasingly attractive and adopt more open technologies along the way.

Along with these changes, we’ve decided to further enhance our business by focusing on what we do best – the applications themselves.  While Userplane has seen great growth in our advertising-based business, as of November 9th, 2009, we will no longer support a free, unlimited service.  If you currently have a Userplane API-based implementation with ads, please send an email to support@userplane.com to find out how this affects you.  We will work with you to figure out how your account will be affected by these billing changes.

Jonathan Dingman, our new Tech Support Manager, will be starting next week, so look out for his name when you need assistance with your account or a new implementation. His most recent role was with TuneWiki Inc., a mobile music application company where he was heading up their SEO efforts for the website. When Jonathan is not working, he passionately loves photography, sports, and world travel.  Welcome, Jonathan! J

We are planning for 2010 and we want to hear your ideas of how Userplane can make your customers more engaged. Taking this survey will help us better do our jobs!

We appreciate your feedback and we look forward hearing your ideas.  Our website (www.userplane.com) also got a fresh new look this month, so be sure to check it out!  Until next time…

Userplane is always looking to improve the value we provide our customers. Your goal is basically our goal; drive engagement on your site and we have some important news to share with you…

Today we are excited to announce new lower prices in an all-in-one package! Meaning, anyone can get Userplane’s Webmessenger with Presence Bar, Webchat with Minichat, Webrecorder, Desktop, and Boards all for one low price. For more information on our pricing, go to Userplane.com.

Along with these changes, as of November 6th, 2009, we will no longer support a free, unlimited service. If you are currently a Free Integrated customer, we will happily support your use of the service without imposing our normal monthly license fees. However, your account may be subject to excess bandwidth charges.

The best way to determine what this means for you is to reach out directly to one of our Support representatives. They will work with you to figure out how your account will be affected by these changes. Please email support@userplane.com with any questions or to set up a time to review your account.

 We appreciate your business and hope to continue working with you. Please send any comments or questions to sales@userplane.com.

A few months ago we announced the release of Presence Bar v1.0, and today we are happy to announce we have an updated version available for implementation. There are a bunch of great new features but the really exciting changes focusWe think that the integration process for Presence Bar 1.1 is far easier and shouldn take more than a few minutes to get running in conjunction with your implementation with Webmessenger. Just follow these simple instructions.Check out the list of changes:

1. We removed all server side code required to implement presence bar. Now simply add the javascript to your page and start using Presence Bar.
2. We are now using a lighter weight javascript framework ( jQuery ) and we have optimized the release so that the client has a much smaller footprint, reduced by almost 50%.
3. We added a notification service to alert your users when their friends come online or offline as well as when they receive a message.
4. We added simple-to-implement localization so you are in complete control of the labels throughout the Presence Bar experience. Want it in any language? Just provide a few key values and you have it.
5. We incorporated Web Presence into Presence Bar. Now you don need to implement Web Presence side by side with Presence Bar. Presence Bar will load presence automatically. If you already have Web Presence and wish to use Presence Bar, please contact support for further instructions.
6. We added an easy to configure preferences control so that you can load the preferences you wish to use from wherever you need to. This puts you in control of look and feel as well as features.
7. We completely rebuilt the Buddy List used in the Presence Bar, adding avatars, sorting and filtering to the Presence Bar.

As always if you have any questions or need help adding Presence Bar to your website please contact support@userplane.com.

SANTA MONICA, CA (January 29, 2009) – Userplane, the world’s premier social software provider for online communities, today introduced the Userplane Presence Bar. This new lightweight application, designed to work in conjunction with Userplane Webmessenger, the company’s popular instant messaging application, sits at the bottom of any web page and displays in real-time who is online and available for messaging.

This site-wide feature displays user presence on every page throughout a web site by way of a persistent presence bar that sits at the bottom of the site. Wherever the user is on the site he can receive instant notifications when users sign on and off, encouraging social interaction and user engagement.

“The Userplane Presence Bar provides a new way for sites to enhance the messaging experience for their users,” said Darin Ohlandt, General Manager, Userplane. “With Presence Bar, a user is just one click away from seeing who’s online and starting a conversation. We are excited to deliver this form of community interaction to users wherever they are on a site.”

Userplane publishers can configure the Userplane Presence Bar to match their own site’s look and feel. Additionally, developers can customize with enhanced capabilities or add new components to the Presence Bar for additional functionality.

In related news, sites using Userplane Webmessenger can allow users to sign in with their AIM screen name to see and chat with all of their Userplane and AIM buddies from one central user list. With the new Userplane Webmessenger, any user can combine their Userplane and AIM contact lists.

Userplane products can be white-labeled, offering customization options for unique business model and branding needs. Like all Userplane applications, Webmessenger gives web sites full administrative control and allows easy integration with existing authentication and member databases.

The Social Networking Conference is holding their annual iDate Miami event and Userplane is going!  It’ll be held at the Miami Beach Convention Center on January 22-23, 2009.  With the event’s focus on increasing online community size and revenue, come and listen to a great lineup of speakers.  They are highly qualified experts in the social networking industry to speak about all forms of management, internet/mobile technology, and marketing for the social networking and social media industry.  What’s better than iDate Miami where you can get a tan while working?

Let us know if you plan on getting your social networking on and would like to meet up!  For more information on the event, please visit their website: www.SocialNetworkingConference.com

Until next year, the Userplane team wishes you all Happy Holidays!