Cloud Girlfriend, service that created a lot of buzz by promising users that it could create the illusion of perfect girlfriend by setting up dummy profiles that would write on your Facebook wall and fool your friends into thinking you had a social life, has launched to the public today. However the site as is is not what it was originally conceived to be, unsurprisingly.
Described by founder David Fuhriman as a combination of Match.com and Second Life, the new Cloud Girlfriends lets you flirt as a fantasy character setting up Chat Dates with others who also are role playing. "We allow people to define their ideal self, find their perfect girlfriend or boyfriend and connect and interact as if that person existed. It can help in learning how to manage a real relationship, and they then take it into the real world," says Fuhriman.
Fair enough. Fuhriman's original idea of creating fake Facebook profiles would have rubbed many people the wrong way as personal Facebook accounts have to belong to an actual person according to the TOS. As it stands now the service uses Facebook Connect to verify the gender and language of its role players which Fuhriman thinks is a safety precaution. Fuhriman also thinks that people will eventually choose to interact as themselves with their Cloud Partners and eventually reveal themselves through their actual social profiles.
Fuhriman plans on monetizing the site by selling virtual goods, users can send each other Cloud Flowers, Cloud Diamonds or go on a Cloud Vacation. While the idea is admittedly far-fetched, I've been on the site for five minutes and already have a date.
Male TechCrunch readers interested in checking it out can use the code "techcrunch" up to the first 500. Women do not need a code. Unfair, I know.
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