Reminder Service Solutions - Gift Reminders & more

July 14, 2011

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San Ramon, Ca (PRWEB) July 14, 2011 -- Now with over half a million designs to choose from, Greeting Card Universe, www.greetingcarduniverse.com, puts the articulation and personalization back into paper greeting cards. Unlike brick-and-mortar stores that stock a limited number of merchandise, Greeting Card Universe's virtual shelf now holds over 500,000 traditional and niche paper greeting cards with infinite customization options, staying true to the motto of delivering "any card imaginable!"

"The digital age can be impersonal, but Greeting Card Universe bridges the gap between effortless Internet shopping and the personal touch of paper, pen, and the post office," says Mindy Rosso, Director of Marketing and Community Manager. "We are also the only resource for uncommon, out-of-the-box cards that address any and every conceivable occasion, situation, and recipient."

Greeting Card Universe's product offerings include a multitude of paper greeting cards for the usual suspects like birthdays, thank you's, get-well's, births, condolences, weddings, and every single type of spiritual and cultural holiday and ceremony celebrated around the world, from Ramadan cards to Rosh Hashanah Cards to Diwali Cards. What also sets Greeting Card Universe apart is the vast range of situational cards: those looking to acknowledge a divorce, driver's test pass/fail, removal of braces, or "coming out"-or send various kinds of sentiments to a mother-in-law, gardener, or ex-anything-can easily do so with a card from Greeting Card Universe. A growing community of over 4,500 freelance artists from all over the globe design Greeting Card Universe's paper greeting card selection, which keeps them fresh, relevant, and exciting.

In addition to editing verses or text, uploading photos, or ordering a specific number of cards, if customers still don't see what they are looking for, they can also "task" an artist for a custom design (the turn-around time is 48 hours)-all at no additional cost.

Greeting Card Universe's paper greeting cards can be purchased for $3 each, plus postage or shipping, and pricing as low as $1.39 is offered at higher quantities. Cards are mailed or shipped to the specified recipient on the next business day, and there are various mailing and expedited shipping options so that cards are always delivered on time.

To see over 500,000 reasons to send a card or for more information, visit GreetingCardUniverse.com.

About Greeting Card Universe Greeting Card Universe (www.greetingcarduniverse.com) is a division of BigDates Solutions, a private company that provides consumers with unique, personalized services for any holiday or occasion, from Christmas cards to Sweetest Day cards, Greeting Card Universe is the world's largest paper greeting card store, offering an unlimited selection of customizable paper cards, invitations, and note cards. BigDates Solutions is also the leading provider of Online Reminder Service Solutions, powering gift-reminder services, including 1800Flowers.com and FTD.com. The company is also in partnership with American Greetings for Birthday Calendar, a Facebook application with over 46 million installs.

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April 26, 2011

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San Ramon, Ca (PRWEB) April 26, 2011 -- To better serve the European market, GreetingCardUniverse.com (Greeting Card Universe) today announces a new printing and fulfillment operation located in the United Kingdom complementing their existing U.S. based operations. Now with printing and fulfillment operations in both the United Kingdom and the United States, Greeting Card Universe is poised to better serve greeting card shoppers around the globe.

"In order to compete effectively in Europe we needed to step things up and find a solution to cut down on delivery times, customs delays, and shipping costs," states parent company, BigDates Solutions' Chief Financial Officer, Mike Fake.

Although distribution from their U.S. based facility is effective in getting greeting cards anywhere in the U.S. and Canada typically within 5 and 7 business days respectively with standard shipping and even quicker with expedited shipping options, Greeting Card Universe was not satisfied with delivery times across the pond. While U.S. shoppers have long enjoyed the benefits of a nearby distribution operation now so can European shoppers. Shipping costs for European bound orders has been reduced by over 70%. Additionally delivery times have plummeted from what was once upwards of several weeks to now just 1 or 2 days in the UK and less than 5 days elsewhere in Europe.

But reduced delivery time and shipping costs are not the only attraction. Enter Greeting Card Universe's offering of unique and hard to find greeting cards not found in neighborhood and convenience stores. Cards in different languages (Italian, French, Greek, Russian, Portuguese, Finnish, etc.) and not so everyday holidays and occasions (Name Day, Tartan Day, Mothering Sunday, Bastille Day, Boxing Day, Saints and Feast Days, etc.) for example are very attractive to shoppers outside of the United States.

Continues Fake, "With the UK market boasting the highest number of cards purchased per capita in the world, soaring 50% higher than that in the U.S., we clearly could not ignore that market any longer. We will continue to expand operations to serve the UK and European markets including better support and services for European members of our valued artist community."

Representing 15% of Greeting Card Universe's artist community, European based artists will benefit as well. Not only can these artists now source their own greeting cards more economically but also garner additional sales of their cards designed to hit the sweet spot of European cards buyers.

Now the perfect card coupled with lower shipping costs and faster delivery greatly strengthens Greeting Card Universe's position in serving the UK and European markets.

Greeting Card Universe (www.greetingcarduniverse.com) is a division of BigDates Solutions, a private company focused on providing consumers with unique services for special occasions such as birthdays, holidays, and more. Greeting Card Universe is the largest greeting card store in the world, offering thousands of birthday cards, invitations, bridesmaid cards, and more. BigDates Solutions is also the leading provider of online Reminder Service Solutions, powering the gift reminder services at 1800Flowers.com, FTD.com and others. The company also owns Birthday Calendar on Facebook, a birthday application with over 47M users recently relaunched in partnership with American Greetings.

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March 22, 2011

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San Ramon, Ca (Vocus/PRWEB) March 22, 2011 -- With U.S. consumers flocking to smartphones coupled with mobile retail becoming quite commonplace, GreetingCardUniverse.com has announced today the mobile version of its website allowing shoppers to easily browse and buy paper greeting cards via BlackBerrys, iPhones, Droids, and other smartphones. Combining user friendly mobile access with the largest collection of common and uncommon greeting cards marks the beginning of a new era in the paper greeting card industry now characterized by shoppers being able to buy and send greeting cards on impulse rather than having to wait until they are in front of a computer or at a store.

"To date Smartphone users comprise 3% of our site traffic. We are elated to provide these shoppers a more user friendly shopping experience with the mobile version," states Mindy Rosso, VP of Marketing at GreetingCardUniverse.com. "Just a few weeks into the mobile launch and we are already seeing a 36% increase in mobile user conversion rates and a 42% increase in page views per visitor which are both promising signs. This is just one of many important steps towards our ambitious goal of revolutionizing the age old paper greeting card industry and changing how people purchase and send greeting cards," asserts Rosso.

Optimized mobile access now combined with GreetingCardUniverse.com's important date reminders (via SMS text and email) make idle time productive. In a matter of minutes prompted by important date reminders (holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, etc.) shoppers can select a card, include a personal message, and buy the card for just $3.00 plus postage, printed and mailed via USPS the next business day. Similarly being thoughtful has never been easier. Imagine a friend sharing that her child just lost his first tooth and on the spot from your smartphone sending a "congratulations on losing your first tooth" card to him.

GreetingCardUniverse.com's (www.GCUniverse.com) strong suit has always been offering shoppers any card imaginable. With over 450,000 cards created by a global community of over 4,000 freelance artists, shoppers are certain to find what they are looking for and are even delighted to find uncommon cards they didn't know even existed. Shoppers can also request custom cards, at no additional charge, that are typically available within just 48 hours.

"Plans for later in the year include launching a dedicated GreetingCardUniverse.com application on both the iPhone and Android platforms making it even easier and faster to send paper greeting cards right from the palm of your hand," continues Rosso. "We're offering an alternative to virtual communications like ecards, email and even Facebook posts to wish someone well on their special day. Just as convenient for on the go well wishers but we think much more appreciated - the thoughtfulness of a traditional, honest to goodness paper greeting card."

To visit GreetingCardUniverse.com on your smartphone open the browser and type 'gcuniverse.com' in the address bar.

About GreetingCardUniverse.com GreetingCardUniverse (www.GreetingCardUniverse.com) is a division of BigDates Solutions, a private company focused on providing consumers with unique services for special occasions such as birthdays, holidays, and more. Greeting Card Universe is the largest greeting card store in the world in terms of content, offering both paper and digital greeting cards. BigDates Solutions is also the leading provider of online Reminder Service Solutions, powering the gift reminder services at 1800Flowers.com, FTD.com and others. The company also owns Birthday Calendar on Facebook, a birthday application with over 47M users recently relaunched in partnership with American Greetings.

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February 14, 2011

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San Ramon, Ca (Vocus/PRWEB) February 14, 2011 -- Traditionally Valentine�s Day has been a holiday strictly for lovers. An entire day devoted to the willful, and often times obligatory, gestures of romance expressed by the showering of flowers, chocolate treats, heart-shaped sweets, and glittery, sentimental greeting cards.

According to the Valentine�s Day greeting card sales at GreetingCardUniverse.com, that tradition still stands but has evolved. "Valentine�s Day is clearly not just for lovers anymore," notes Mindy Rosso, Director of Marketing and Community Manager at GreetingCardUniverse.com. "The sentiment of the holiday goes far beyond expressions of romantic love for your spouse or significant other. Today�s Valentine�s Day is a special day to express your love for anyone you care about � your children, grandparents, aunts, uncles, step-dad, and more. And even for special people outside of the family circle like neighbors, teachers, co-workers and yes, even the neighborhood postman and school bus driver. "

"We are seeing a variety of cards for different relations sell very well," continues Rosso. "GreetingCardUniverse.com�s card sales in units and revenue both grew by an impressive 83% comparing January 2010 to January 2011. Order size grew as well by 10%. Shoppers come for a traditional or generic card but when they see the range of cards that GreetingCardUniverse.com offers they buy a variety of cards for specific relationships."

With a growing and eclectic collection of greeting cards, nearly 500,000, GreetingCardUniverse.com has something for everyone. If a shopper can�t find exactly what they�re looking for they can request a custom card from GreetingCardUniverse.com�s community of freelance artists, at no additional cost, that will be available typically within 48 hours.

Offering all the traditional cards throughout the year GreetingCardUniverse.com however has really made their mark by offering those hard to find cards, cards that can�t be found at a neighborhood card store. For example gay and lesbian cards, from secret admirer or secret pal cards, birth and step family cards and even from the family pet cards for all occasions and holidays, not just Valentine�s Day. With GreetingCardUniverse.com�s recent site redesign also meant a new and fitting tagline, "any card imaginable", which has truly become their niche in the paper greeting card industry.

See a recent Wall Street Journal featuring GreetingCardUniverse.com Happy Valentine's Co-Worker and Work Spouse cards.

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December 7, 2010

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Doesn�t everyone enjoy getting a greeting card in the mail? Of course we do. I always thought that I would make a good greeting card writer. Over the years, I�ve crafted some pretty darn nice homemade birthday, anniversary and holiday cards for my friends and family. Below is a sampling of a Get Well card I recently sent to my sister.

Comets, meteors and asteroids Sorry to hear of your aggravating hemorrhoids A warm bath, ibuprofen and cream Would be any "roid" sufferers dream

I realize your inflammation and itchiness Is likely the cause of your bitchiness

Everyone hopes you�re feeling better soon

(Trust me when I say that you don�t want to see my cut and paste graphic images.)

Until recently, the typical greeting card customer has been somewhat limited to fairly generic choices found at a drug store or specialty card shop. Finding a card that was unique, customized or personalized was extremely difficult. Enter www.GreetingCardUniverse.com, one of many websites that husband and wife team, Mindy Rosso-Gaemi and Nasser Gaemi, operate under their company BigDates Solutions. Located in San Ramon�s Bishop Ranch all of Big Dates� services revolve around reminder services (birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, etc.) since 2000. Suggesting gifts, e-cards and paper greeting cards in important date email reminders was the onset of BigDates� venture into the greeting card space. Greeting Card Universe (GCUniverse) is a greeting card website. Not electronic greeting cards like many people may think, but real paper greeting cards that you purchase online and have mailed to you or directly to the recipient.

GCUniverse is an open community where freelance artists from around the world join and sell their art in the form of paper greeting cards. With over 3,900 artists and counting in the GCUniverse community, artists earn commissions when their cards sell. Much like Amazon.com might fancy itself as the largest bookstore in the world, GCUniverse has quickly become the largest greeting card store on the planet with an inventory of 400,000 cards and growing. With over 1,000 new cards a day GCUniverse expects to reach 500,000 cards by year�s end. The company carries no physical inventory. Everything is printed on demand, which means all cards are digital until ordered then are printed and mailed, so shoppers can order just 1 card or 10,000 cards. "Due to our virtual shelf space we�re not limited to offering a collection of best selling cards that are typically pretty generic," Mindy says. "We have all the every day cards you�d expect at a typical card shop, but we have so much more. Unique, specific and personalized cards are quickly becoming our hallmark", she adds in a "no pun intended" play on words.

If you let your imagination run wild you can imagine all types of creative and memorable occasions to send a card such as a special day for your pet, a mine rescue, a vasectomy or augmentation, in addition to birthday cards for every age 1 � 125, not just the landmark years. There are also design features which allow for ethnicity/skin tones (dark skinned groom w/ light skinned bride, etc). Now, in addition to getting a card for the prototypical mom and Grandmother, you can add step mom, birth mom, neighbor mom, room mom, team mom, partner mom, sorority mom and Mr. Mom aka Dad. Personalized cards for every name ever imagined can be created from traditional names like Mike and Mindy all the way to the more Bohemian names such as Asia, Austin, Boston, Savannaugh, Summer, Autumn, Rain, Race, North, Ocean or Apple.

Even though you ate my hamster, rabbit and rat And I�m pretty sure you swallowed Twinkle � the neighbor�s cat But snakes will be snakes And you�re my best friend/boa constrictor "Jake" So Happy Bar Mitzvah on your special day
..another Mike Copeland original

GCUniverse isn�t afraid to get specific and address niche markets. In fact, that is what the site is all about. Lesser known holidays now have their place such as Persian New Year, Diwali, Feast of St. Joseph, Festivus, Canadian Boxing Day, Teacher Appreciation Day, Talk like a Pirate Day and Ride Your Bike To Work Day to name a few. Unique occasions will now be marked in perpetuity when someone gets a card commemorating events such as obtaining an Eagle Scout designation, hitting a Hole in One, becoming a US Citizen, Graduating from boot camp, getting out of jail, making the cheer squad, becoming an on-line ordained minister or selling the most girl scout cookies. We can also give thanks to our coaches for anything from Lacrosse to Lamaze, religious training to personal life enrichment. The possibilities are limitless and if you can�t find what you�re looking for GCUniverse artists can create it at no additional charge, typically within 48 hours. Colors, names, relationship, subject matter all for $2.79 a card plus 44 cents postage with a real, honest to goodness stamp.

Today�s modern bride is a staple at GCUniverse with daily sales of cards asking and thanking members of their wedding party like Bridesmaids, Flower Girls, Readers, In-laws, Ushers, Ring Bearers and even Best Man and Maid of Honor.

"We are making it possible for people to send greetings that truly hit the mark and show the recipient that the sender really cared to find or create exactly the right card," says Mindy. It�s empowering people to celebrate special, nontraditional moments and occasions in a very traditional way. With the trend of electronic communications this is never more appreciated. Ecards don�t cut it. Email and Facebook don�t scream "I care" either. However, receiving a special paper greeting card in your mailbox is I think a timeless delight."

"I recently read an article that really shed some light on these changing times which will have a direct impact on our offerings. The article was about a generation of gay / lesbian couples who came out in the 70's and are now becoming grandparents." Mindy recounted. "Shoppers will undoubtedly be asking for cards for same sex couples for weddings, anniversaries, Valentine�s Day, Grandparents Day, not to mention Mother�s and Father�s day. Our collection of cards will grow to serve them all". Similarly, with multiple births now commonplace, GCU has baby announcements, baby congratulations and birthday party invitations for twins, triplets, quads and more if you happen to know Kate Gosling (Kate Plus 8), Nadia Suleman, the Octo-mom or the Duggars. "Our collection of cards really journals the changing landscape of our lives individually and collectively around the world. We don�t lead cookie cutter lives anymore-" adds Mindy.

To the best two Moms in the world Who have six little boys and three beautiful girls Our house might seem at times crazy And our surrogate dad a bit lazy But who says families have to be perfect to work? Happy Mother�s Day
...a Mike Copeland Original

The Gaemi�s seem to be pioneering a revolutionary concept within the monstrous $7 Billion a year industry where three companies command a staggering 85% of the market share. "Our goal from day 1 was to revolutionize the age old paper greeting card industry. To bring it online and offer shoppers cards limited only by their imaginations and not by the shopkeepers� shelf size. To date most of our sales and traffic come from natural search via Google and the like. It�s evident that shoppers are not finding what they want in the stores and go online to find unique and hard to find products." When asked what is next for GCUniverse Mindy replied "We�ve had great success with our Birthday Calendar application which has 45 million users on Facebook and 150 thousand on the iPhone so we�ve set our sights on bringing GCUniverse cards to shoppers right at their fingertips via the iPhone. When coupled with our core competency of reminder services it just won�t get any easier than that." While my greeting card career may not yet have a market, Greeting Card Universe shows all the signs of being an innovative company with (a universe of) unlimited potential.

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December 3, 2010

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San Ramon, CA (PRWEB) December 3, 2010 - The internet has certainly changed the way people shop, especially for Holiday gifts. No more scouring every mall and back alley boutique to find the perfect gift. Simply head to Google, be willing to pay a little extra for shipping and you're golden. Purple leopard print slippers? Bingo.

Finding the perfect holiday greeting card is no different. It has always been relatively easy for people to find a card they like but to find one that they love is a different story. The ease and convenience of customized "do it yourself photo cards" has made photo cards quite the norm. With the widespread popularity of digital cameras and easy to use services of companies like Shutterfly, Kodak Gallery and Costco now even older generations have joined the photo card bandwagon.

Holiday cards are a very personal expression and perhaps the one and only time that many people reach out to friends and family members during the year. These cards are "keepers" and will adorn the festive mantles, be displayed on the fridges and are presented in decorative bowls on coffee tables of their recipients for the entire world to admire.

Enter a world of card choices that is beyond the ordinary and expected photo frames, frosty swirls, festive trees and holiday greenery (although you�ll find those too). Shoppers are heading online to GreetingCardUniverse.com to find their perfect card.

"If you can think of it GreetingCardUniverse.com has it, or our community of freelance artists will create new designs at no additional cost and within 48 hours", shares Mindy Rosso, Director of Marketing and Community Manager at GreetingCardUniverse.com.

Rosso continues "Our top selling cards are no longer the traditional designs you would expect but designs reflecting more about the sender. These are considered uncommon or specialty cards that are not carried in local card or convenience stores. Cards featuring specific hobbies, sports, occupation, dog breeds, foreign languages, gay & lesbian lifestyles for example. Businesses are really thinking outside of the box this season too, choosing designs that reflect their industry like meat processing, lawn care services, health & fitness to name just a few."

"Our Christmas cards started selling as early as July this year which made us quite optimistic on strong 3rd and 4th quarters. This November our sales grew 104% over last November. Leaps and bounds over the estimated online sales growth average of only 13% this year according to research firm comScore" shares Rosso. "Even considering our discounts, we still posted 82% growth on net earnings and a staggering 760% growth of year-to-year sales on Black Friday. We are optimistic that these numbers reflect additional, net new sales versus early holiday spending but we�ll have to wait and see�.

So yes, there is some pressure to send just the right holiday card but clearly shopping online at GreetingCardUniverse.com for the perfect greeting card is at the top of the list for reducing anyone�s holiday stress. Hot dog Christmas card? Bingo.

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December 22, 2009

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SAN RAMON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BigDates Solutions today announced several milestones in support of its strategic vision of becoming the leading provider of birthday services worldwide. With 40 million users of its Facebook application, Birthday Calendar, and nearly 100,000 users of its iPhone version, BigDates� reach on key social platforms is rapidly expanding. BigDates is also just weeks away from launching its next Facebook application, Greeting Card Universe, a commerce-enabled paper greeting card app.

In only two years Birthday Calendar has become the most popular dedicated birthday application on the Facebook Platform, with users spanning the globe. Translated into 25 major languages, Birthday Calendar automatically provides Facebook users with reminders for friends� birthdays, as well as virtual gifts and digital cards.

Launched only three months ago, Birthday Calendar for iPhone will have over 100,000 users before the end of the year, making it the top Birthday app in the iPhone�s Social Network category. An Android version of this same application is scheduled to launch in January 2010.

Greeting Card Universe (GCU), BigDates� web-based play in the paper greeting card market, is poised for rapid growth from the launch of the Greeting Card Universe Application on Facebook Platform. GCU sells over 270,000 original greeting cards created by more than 3,400 freelance artists. The GCU Facebook application will serve as a social front end to GCU, enabling the purchasing and sending of paper greeting cards from within Facebook. For last minute needs digital versions of the cards will also be available.

Birthdays are a key activity on Facebook, and big business as well, evidenced by Facebook sales of over $70 million in its gift store this year. Also, thanks to the exploding virtual goods market on Facebook, users are becoming comfortable making low dollar purchases from within Facebook applications. All this activity is increasing demand for micro gifting and greeting products ranging from free to $5, right on target for $3 paper greeting cards.

Nasser Gaemi, CEO of BigDates states, �Rapid growth of the social graph is quickly expanding everyone�s network of friends, and traditional paper birthday cards are inexpensive, yet from the recipient�s perspective, a step above most virtual gifts/cards.� Gaemi continues, �The sweet spot of the paper greeting card demographic was also the fastest growing segment on Facebook earlier this year.�

BigDates Solutions is a private company focused on providing consumers with unique services for special occasions like birthdays and holidays. BigDates Solutions is also the leading provider of online Reminder Service Solutions, powering the gift reminder services at BarnesandNoble.com (NYSE:BKS - News), 1800Flowers.com (NASDAQ:FLWS - News), Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK - News), FTD.com (NASDAQ:UNTD - News) and others. It is also the creator of GreetingCardUniverse.com. Learn more at BigDates-Solutions.com.

Facebook� is a registered trademark of Facebook Inc.

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December 5, 2008

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SAN RAMON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SAN RAMON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BigDates Solutions announces extraordinary growth for its popular Birthday Calendar application built on the Facebook� Platform, adding over 2.5 million users in November 2008 alone. With 5 million monthly active users and an install base of 12.5 million users, Birthday Calendar is the #1 birthday application on Facebook.

Ranking #12 on the list of all applications on Facebook, Birthday Calendar continues to strengthen its position as a forerunner in the capturing of ecommerce opportunities relating to social greetings and micro gifting. Combining holidays, birthdays and other special occasions, Birthday Calendar has over 1 billion opportunities per year to market virtual gifts, digital greetings, paper greeting cards as well as traditional gifts.

�We are mostly focused on acquiring new users right now, as is Facebook, so we�re thrilled that our growth is tracking ahead of projections. Looking ahead, we are well positioned to be a dominant player in the definition and distribution of the next generation of social greetings and gifting, much of which will be revenue generating,� states Paul Love, President.

In addition, BigDates Solutions continues its rapid growth in online sales of paper greeting cards via its website, GreetingCardUniverse.com (GCU), and via social network environments. In November 2008, powered by its community of 2,000 artists, GCU surpassed 100,000 paper greeting cards making it the world�s largest greeting card store. November was GCU�s strongest month with card orders increasing 17 percent over October 2008 and card sale growth of 200 percent over November 2007.

Nasser Gaemi, Founder and CEO, states, �Not limited by traditional retail shelf space, the range and depth of content on GCU are remarkable. GCU ranks at the top of most natural search results for any search that has to do with paper greeting cards. On the rare occasion that GCU doesn't have what the shopper is looking for, the artist community creates the requested cards within a few hours. It's a powerful content-creation engine.�

About BigDates Solutions

With a new focus on the social network space, BigDates Solutions is leveraging its assets, content library, and expertise in driving ecommerce around special occasions. BigDates Solutions is the leading provider of online Reminder Service Solutions, powering gift reminder and ecard services at major retailers like BarnesandNoble.com (NYSE:BKS - News), 1800Flowers.com (NASDAQ:FLWS - News), Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK - News), and others. It is also the creator of GreetingCardUniverse.com, the world�s largest paper greeting card store with over 100,000 cards and 2,000+ artists. Learn more at BigDates-Solutions.com.

Facebook� is a registered trademark of Facebook Inc.

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July 1, 2008

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SAN RAMON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BigDates Solutions today announced that 6 million people from over 200 countries around the world have installed its Birthday Calendar application (BCal), extending its lead as the number one Facebook application for birthdays and a top 25 application overall (based on most active users in Facebook�s Application Directory). This milestone, accomplished in just 7 months, marks the completion of the first phase of a more ambitious plan to become the leading provider of special occasions-related services across the major social networks.

While many popular applications have come and gone like fads, Birthday Calendar�s utilitarian nature has led to continued strong growth and high retention, with a new user signing up every 4 seconds. With close to 3 million people around the world using Birthday Calendar at least once per month, the application generates over 1 million birthday related marketing opportunities per day for micro gifting transactions and targeted advertising campaigns. The majority of BCal users are females between 18 and 35 with an average of 70 friends on Facebook � that�s a lot of birthdays.

Birthday Calendar is one of the first third party Facebook applications to provide a secure credit card payment process within the application, enabling its users to buy credits and send premium virtual gifts. The company believes micro gifting transactions will be a leading source of revenues, especially as micro payments become more commonplace.

Birthday Calendar features an intuitive calendar view including birthdays, holidays (from over 200 countries) and other important dates. Advance notice alerts are sent via Facebook notifications, news feeds, email and cell phones. New features like fCards (ecards for Facebook) and fGifts (virtual gifts for Facebook) have helped Birthday Calendar evolve from a useful application into an indispensable service. Just three weeks after fCards became available BCal users were already sending more than 10,000 per day. This kind of functionality and a dedication to customer service have resulted in a user rating of 4.6 for Birthday Calendar; the 6th best rated application of all large applications.

With the upcoming launch of complementary applications, the company expects to grow beyond 20 million users by the end of 2008, making it a top 10 application aggregator similar to Slide and RockYou. The company will soon expand into other leading social networks such as MySpace, Bebo and Hi5.

The Birthday Calendar application can be found at http://apps.facebook.com/birthday_calendar.

About BigDates Solutions

With a new focus on the social network space, BigDates Solutions is leveraging its assets, content library, and expertise in driving ecommerce around special occasions to create uniquely valuable services for social network users. BigDates Solutions is the leading provider of online Reminder Service Solutions, powering gift reminder and ecard services at major retailers like BarnesandNoble.com (NYSE:BKS - News), 1800Flowers.com (NASDAQ:FLWS - News), Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK - News), and others. It is also the creator of GreetingCardUniverse.com, the world�s largest paper greeting card store with over 60,000 cards and 1400+ artists. Learn more at BigDates-Solutions.com.

Facebook � is a registered trademark of Facebook Inc.

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December 13, 2007

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SAN RAMON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BigDates Solutions today announced the launch of a powerful Facebook application called Birthday Calendar. In just one month since its official launch, over 1.9 million Facebook users from more than 100 countries have added the application, making Birthday Calendar a top 100 application in a field of over 10,000 applications.

Birthday Calendar leverages an intuitive calendar view to help Facebook users manage and remember birthdays, holidays and other important dates in their lives. Advance notice alerts are sent via Facebook users� News Feeds, email or cell phone. The service also helps users take action on these special occasions with popular Facebook communication features or helpful suggestions for ecards, greeting cards, gift cards and gifts. With access to over 20,000 paper greeting cards, 2,000 ecards, and 20 gift cards, users of Birthday Calendar should have no problem expressing their sentiments on special occasions.

With more than 58 million active users, Facebook is the sixth-most trafficked website in the United States, and most of these users would appreciate a useful and powerful service like Birthday Calendar. According to Nasser Gaemi, CEO of BigDates Solutions, �Outside of Facebook, it can take hours to collect all the dates needed to setup a useful reminder service. With Birthday Calendar built on the Facebook Platform, it happens instantaneously with just a few clicks. Gaemi continues, �Our ability to leverage the Facebook social graph has created the most exciting distribution opportunity in our company�s eight year history. We�ve never seen this kind of viral growth.�

BigDates Solutions has a long history in creating web-based services designed to help people with special occasions. In addition to its flagship sites, www.GreetingCardUniverse.com, www.BigDates.com and www.Birthday-Reminders.com, the company powers the gift reminder and ecard services at major retailers like Barnes and Noble (NYSE:BKS - News), 1800Flowers.com (NASDAQ:FLWS - News), Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK - News), and others.

The Birthday Calendar application can be found at http://apps.facebook.com/birthday_calendar.

About BigDates Solutions

BigDates Solutions, a division of BigDates.com Inc., is the leading provider of online Reminder Service Solutions and the company behind www.GreetingCardUniverse.com, the largest online paper greeting card store. Learn more at: www.BigDates-Solutions.com. Facebook � is a registered trademark of Facebook Inc.

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October 15, 2007

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SAN RAMON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Continuing to transform the paper greeting card industry, GreetingCardUniverse.com (GCUniverse) announces the Greeting Card Seller widget, the first Facebook Application enabling artists, photographers and their devotees to earn money by selling paper greeting cards featuring their artwork on Facebook. By empowering Facebook members to monetize their profile pages, GCUniverse has created a new distribution channel for paper greeting cards and ecards, with gift cards soon to follow.

In less than 10 months, propelled by its growing community of artists, GCUniverse has quickly become the largest online paper greeting card store, boasting over 17,500 original "direct from the artist" cards, spanning 623 categories from over 560 freelance artists.

Paul Love, President of GCUniverse, states, "Our intention is to make Facebook an even more valuable service for its members by enabling its artistic community to promote and sell greeting cards featuring their art or photography directly to other Facebook members, just like MySpace has done for musicians by providing them with a storefront utility for selling their songs directly to fans."

Over the past year, changes in Facebook policies and services have resulted in rapid growth outside of the college demographic, and a member base in excess of 43 million people. Facebook estimates that by the end of 2007, 75% of all members will be adults over 25 years of age. This segment makes up the typical greeting card buyers within US households, 90% of which buy on average 30 paper greeting cards per year (according to the Greeting Card Association) and contribute to the estimated $90B gift card market.

Excited about the e-commerce opportunities, many GCUniverse artists have already added the Greeting Card Seller widget to their Facebook profile page, and earn $1.00 for each of their cards sold. According to Eugenia Bacon, a popular GCUniverse artist, "It took less than two minutes to set up, and I have complete control over which cards are displayed on my widget, making it easy to promote appropriate cards throughout the year." Several of these widgets can be viewed at http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/community/widget_sellers.asp.

"Although the Greeting Card Seller widget was created with artists in mind, many non-artists are using it to add interest to their profiles, earning money is an added bonus," Mindy Rosso, VP of Marketing at GCUniverse, continues. "For example, if you're a Pug lover, you can enjoy featuring and making money by offering Pug themed greeting cards. With nearly 18,000 cards to choose from, just about everyone can find cards that hit their sweet spot."

About GreetingCardUniverse.com

Greeting Card Universe is a division of BigDates.com, Inc., which also operates BigDates Solutions (www.BigDates-Solutions.com), the leading provider of Reminder Service Solutions powering the reminder services for: BigDates.com, Birthday-Reminders.com, and licensing partners Barnes & Noble.com (NYSE:BKS - News), Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK - News), Lillian Vernon, and others.

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June 14, 2007

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SAN RAMON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--From Memorial Day through Independence Day, GreetingCardUniverse.com (GCUniverse) is offering a special collection of Support our Troops paper greeting cards for only 50 cents each, normally priced at $2.49 a card. Simply choose a card, enter a message, it will be printed and delivered to American service men and women.

GCUniverse is the largest online paper greeting card store and allows freelance artists to offer their art on paper greeting cards. Launched in February 2007, GCUniverse has already attracted more than 300 artists and boasts over 8,000 unique "direct from the artist" greeting cards.

Participating artists have created patriotic cards specifically for this program and are generously waiving their commissions. Artists like Corrie Kuipers, Jen Cosgrove, Christie Black of Creations from the Heart, Catherine Noy, Christine Quimby, Lori DeLeonardis-Aman of Zachary Bear, Karen Owens of Rainbow Enterprises, Picture This!, B E Diczhazy, Eugenia Bacon, Cara Mitchell, Peggy Danley, Ernestine Grindal, Sunflower Mountain, Kat's Kardz, Scarebaby Design, Valarie Wade, D & D Art Studio, and more. View the collection at http://www.gcuniverse.com/cards/SupportOurTroops

"I didn't hesitate to participate in GCUniverse's Support our Troops program. The thought of my artwork as a messenger of goodwill is truly gratifying," says artist Christie Black of Creations from the Heart.

Working with the USO, these paper greeting cards will be included in Operation USO Care Packages and shipped to uniformed men and women in need of comforts and support from home. The USO has sent over 1,100,000 care packages since the program's inception in 2001. More information at www.usocares.org.

According to Mindy Rosso, VP of Marketing at BigDates Solutions, "We are elated to have the participation of our GCUniverse community of artists and honored to be working with the USO. This program is a real team effort." Rosso continues, "Regardless of your political position, I think we all agree on the importance of letting our service men and women know that they are cared about, appreciated and that their safe return home is of great concern. We hope thousands of Americans will join us in sending cards of encouragement to service men and women far from home."

Contact Mindy Rosso at mindy.rosso@bigdates.com for program sponsorship opportunities.

About GreetingCardUniverse.com

A division of BigDates Solutions, GCUniverse connects freelance card artists with paper greeting card shoppers. BigDates Solutions, the leading provider in third party Reminder Service Solutions, powers the reminder services for: BigDates.com, Birthday-Reminders.com, DateBoxx.com, ReminderSpot.com, GreetingCardUniverse.com and licensing partners Barnes & Noble.com (NYSE:BKS - News), Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK - News), Lillian Vernon, PersonalCreations.com as well as other leading retailers. Learn more at: www.GreetingCardUniverse.com and www.BigDates-Solutions.com.

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March 20, 2007

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SAN RAMON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Poised to transform the eight billion dollar paper greeting card industry long dominated by two major players, American Greetings (NYSE: AM) and Hallmark, BigDates Solutions (BigDates) launches GreetingCardUniverse.com (GCUniverse).

In the first 30 days of operation GCUniverse has already attracted over 70 artists boasting over 1,000 cards. By summertime GCUniverse expects to offer over 5,000 unique cards, far surpassing the selection in card stores today. BigDates CEO Nasser Gaemi asserts, "GCUniverse will quickly become the largest online greeting card store offering a limitless selection of 'direct from the artist' cards."

BigDates operates GCUniverse and is the leader in third party Reminder Service Solutions powering the gift reminder services at leading retailers such as Lillian Vernon, Barnes & Noble.com, and Overstock.com. Gaemi states "GCUniverse empowers card artists to cost effectively connect with buyers. It differs from sites like CafePress.com and Zazzle.com by specializing in paper greeting cards and most importantly by proactively marketing GCUniverse cards via reminders -- putting the right cards in front of the right people at the right time."

GCUniverse makes it possible for essentially any freelance artist to sell paper greeting cards online and earn an unconventional 50 cents per card sold. With little effort and zero fees artists can create online storefronts featuring their cards within minutes.

"I used to sell my greeting cards on CafePress. My GCUniverse store was so much easier and quicker to set up. GCUniverse is a 10+" contests artist Christine Quimby.

Using print-on-demand technology GCUniverse can print virtually any art on a paper greeting card, by the thousands or one card at a time. Priced at $2.49 plus postage per card, artists can even afford to stock their own card inventories.

"Artists can put greeting cards out there without the printing expense overhead. GCUniverse is easy to use, my shop simple to set up, and the staff interested in feedback," says artist Heather Castles.

Great content is crucial but marketing is king. In addition to being a card shopping destination site, GCUniverse cards are marketed across the network of "powered by BigDates Solutions" reminder services sending millions of welcomed reminders to a rapidly growing user base. Timely email reminders include suggestions of appropriate GCUniverse paper greeting cards as well as gift and free eCard suggestions.

Leveraging Web 2.0 functionality GCUniverse brings the ultimate user experience to artists and card shoppers. For example, artists can showcase their cards on their own blog or website with the GCUniverse Card Widget, a mini-rolling demo of the artist�s cards that links card shoppers to the artist�s storefront.

"It�s a no-cost, no risk proposition for artists. Their enthusiasm has been phenomenal. They�re very appreciative to have a free service to showcase their art and sell in miniature. We are improving the site guided by their suggestions. It�s really a service that they can call their own," says Mindy Rosso, BigDates V.P. of Marketing. "In a manner of speaking we�ve opened the doors for shoppers to experience the largest, most convenient and unique greeting card store in town."

About GreetingCardUniverse.com and BigDates Solutions

BigDates Solutions, a division of BigDates.com, Inc., is the leading provider of Reminder Service Solutions powering the reminder services for: BigDates.com, Birthday-Reminders.com, DateBoxx.com, ReminderSpot.com, GreetingCardUniverse.com and licensing partners Barnes & Noble.com (NYSE: BKS), Overstock.com (NASDAQ: OSTK), Lillian Vernon, PersonalCreations.com and others. Learn more at: www.BigDates-Solutions.com. GCUniverse is also a division of BigDates.com, Inc.

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February 2, 2007

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SAN RAMON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BigDates Solutions (BigDates), the leader in third party Reminder Service Solutions, today announced licensing agreements with two leading online retailers; Barnes & Noble.com (NYSE:BKS) and Lillian Vernon. Both retailers recently launched free gift reminder services powered by BigDates offering their customers the ultimate in shopping convenience and customer service.

Barnes & Noble.com now has the ability to offer targeted Barnes & Noble products and gift cards to the right customers at the right time, when they are most likely to purchase a gift. Holiday centric email marketing, the bread and butter of many retailers will continue, but birth dates and other personal occasions provide exclusive email marketing opportunities allowing more personalized communications characterized by better conversion rates.

According to Marie Toulantis, CEO of Barnes & Noble.com, "The BigDates reminder service is a powerful and full-featured reminder service that provides us with enormous flexibility in branding, messaging and integration. We are very pleased with BigDates capabilities to customize our Gift Reminders, and our customers response to the service has been very favorable."

Well known for offering unique, personalized merchandise and good values, leading catalog and online retailer Lillian Vernon, owned by Sun Capital Partners, Inc., has replaced their existing reminder service with a much more comprehensive service called Lilly�s Reminders, powered by BigDates� self-service ASP solution. Although not as flexible as BigDates� Enterprise solution, the ASP solution is an ideal "proof of concept" approach for some retailers.

Kristen Montella, VP of E-Commerce at Lillian Vernon states, "Lilly�s Reminders is quickly becoming a customer favorite online. Early customer feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and is clear evidence that a reminder service adds significant value to any customer retention and loyalty program."

Montella continues, "Lilly�s Reminders provides us with strategic marketing data and the ability to increase our email touch points with our customers, by THEIR request and in a personalized manner. I have to admit that I was skeptical about adoption rates, but obviously when done well, our customers are very interested and appreciative. The adoption rate has totally exceeded our expectations, as we�ve quadrupled the number of customers using reminders in the first 60 days."

With BigDates retailers can offer consumers much more than a typical reminder service. In addition to email and mobile phone reminders for important dates and holidays, email reminders suggest specific and appropriate paper greeting cards, free Ecards plus the retailer�s own products for each gift recipient based on their age and gender.

"The beginning of the year is an ideal time for retailers to focus on solutions for year-round gifting," said Paul Love, President of BigDates Solutions. "Both Barnes & Noble.com and Lillian Vernon are perfect brands for our reminder solution and we are elated to be working with them."

Love continues, "Online retailers of all sizes can take confidence in our solution, relying on our expertise and services to improve their online marketing efforts and building customer goodwill along the way."

About BigDates Solutions

BigDates Solutions, a division of BigDates.com, Inc., is the leading provider of Reminder Service Solutions powering the gift reminder services for: Barnes & Noble.com (NYSE:BKS), Overstock.com (NasdaqGM:OSTK), Lillian Vernon, thefrontdoor.com, PersonalCreations.com and others. Learn more at: www.BigDates-Solutions.com

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January 3, 2007

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SAN RAMON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Second to losing weight, getting organized is the next most common New Year's resolution. On the tails of the social packed holidays there's no better time than now to get organized to remember your friends & family all year long, not just during the holidays.

An online reminder service is a simple yet powerful way to ease your mind and be thoughtful year round. No matter what your motivator, staying out of the doghouse, earning brownie points or spreading smiles to those you care about, BigDates-Solutions.com powered sites make remembering important dates easier than ever. Getting organized is one resolution you can keep!

These reminder services help you remember important dates like birthdays, anniversaries and more with convenient e-mail and cell phone reminders. The reminders contain time saving suggestions of specific gifts, paper greeting cards and free E-cards.

Choose a site that best suits your needs:

BigDates.com - free 90-day trial, $5.95 annual fee thereafter, no ads, personalized pocket card and reminder wallpaper, fun personal assistant "Dottie", reminders and specific gift, paper greeting card and free E-card suggestions.

Birthday-Reminders.com - 100% free, RSS feed of upcoming reminders & holidays, reminders and specific gift, paper greeting card and free E-card suggestions.

DateBoxx.com - 100% free, for blog and social networking users, your reminders in a customized display to post on blog or profile page like MySpace, reminders and specific gift, paper greeting card and free E-card suggestions.

Overstock.com - 100% free, "O-minders" tailored Overstock gift suggestions specializing in brand names at clearance prices for every occasion and person.

BarnesandNoble.com - BN Gift Reminders tailored gift suggestions of Barnes and Noble gifts of books, music, DVD, video games, and related products and services, 100% free.

LillianVernon.com - "Lilly's Reminders" suggesting tailored and popular Lillian Vernon gifts specialized in personalization, organization and celebration, 100% free.

PersonalCreations.com - Personal Creation reminders suggesting tailored and popular gifts from a wide variety of personalized items, 100% free.

Go ahead, resolve to get organized in 2007. BigDates has you covered.

About BigDates-Solutions.com

BigDates-Solutions.com, a division of BigDates.com, Inc., the leading provider of third-party Reminder Service Solutions, powers the reminder services for: Barnes&Noble.com (NYSE:BKS - News), Overstock.com (NasdaqGM:OSTK), PersonalCreations.com, ComfortFirst.com, and others. Learn more at:
www.BigDates-Solutions.com

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November 13, 2006

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SAN RAMON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--November 13, 2006--BigDates Solutions, the leader and pioneer in third party reminder solutions, announces a gift reminder solution tailored for small to medium online retailers.

Dovetailing its success with major online retailers like Barnes & Noble and Overstock.com, BigDates now offers its reminder solution to small to medium sized retailers. This comprehensive service allows smaller retailers to offer their customers a truly valuable service including features they might not otherwise be able to offer like Ecards, paper greeting cards, cell phone reminders and more. With no setup fees and pricing starting as low as $50 per month, retailers pay only for the value the service creates. This ASP Gift Reminder Solution is turnkey, hosted and in many cases requires no integration.

"Wanting to connect with our customers more effectively and all year long, not just during the holidays, we built our own gift reminder service years ago, long before a third party solution was available. Recently, finding the BigDates' reminder solution we were thrilled. It's the only offering of its kind and has allowed us to quickly replace our original gift reminder service with a feature rich and comprehensive one," states Tom Denison, Director of E-Commerce at Personal Creations.

All retailers have the same fundamental issue, "How to sell more?" A gift reminder service answers that question for any size retailer. By capturing exclusive selling opportunities, birthdays and anniversaries, retailers can reach customers when they�re most likely to buy, outside of the known holidays, and in the reminders suggest their products as gifts. Customers appreciate the timely and personalized reminders while the retailer benefits via incremental gift sales and increased loyalty.

According to Mitchell Hyatt, VP - Director of IT at ComfortFirst, "I was very impressed with the easy implementation. Literally, in less than one hour we had our own branded gift reminder service. The tools are powerful letting us customize many of the service�s features."

BigDates President, Paul Love states, "As the price of keywords continues to climb and online retail becomes more competitive, all retailers have to find ways to create repeat business without paying for traffic. This is especially true for smaller companies with less brand recognition and limited marketing budgets. Our ASP Solution was designed with these companies in mind. It�s quick, easy to implement, very flexible, and priced on a performance basis. We even offer a money back guarantee, so there�s really no reason not to try it."

"Our ASP solution is also useful for non retail businesses like concierges, real estate agents, mortgage brokers and other types of businesses where keeping in touch with clients is important," continues Love.

About BigDates Solutions

BigDates Solutions, a division of BigDates.com, Inc., is the leading provider of Reminder Service Solutions powering the gift reminder services for: Barnes&Noble.com (NYSE: BKS), Overstock.com (NasdaqGM: OSTK), thefrontdoor.com, PersonalCreations.com, ComfortFirst.com, and others. Learn more at:
www.BigDates-Solutions.com.

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May 18, 2006

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SAN RAMON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 18, 2006--The Webby Awards, the leading international honor for web sites, recognized Birthday-Reminders.com as an Official Honoree, a distinction that recognizes sites exhibiting remarkable achievement. The site is produced by BigDates.com, Inc., the leader in third-party Reminder Solution Services.

"The Webby Awards honors the outstanding web sites that are setting the standards for the Internet," said Tiffany Shlain, founder and ambassador of The Webby Awards. "Birthday-Reminders.com's Official Honoree selection is a testament to the skill, ingenuity, and vision of its creators."

Nasser Gaemi, BigDates CEO, states, "This Honoree distinction is an appreciated recognition for BigDates as well as for all of our Powered by BigDates technology licensing customers that have chosen to improve their e-commerce propositions with our reminders based gifting solution," Gaemi continues, "BigDates helps online retailers drive year-round sales with timely, personalized and exclusive marketing opportunities."

The 10th Annual Webby Awards received a record number of entries. Out of the over 5,500 entries submitted, fewer than 20% received this honor and were deemed an Official Honoree.

About BigDates.com, Inc.

BigDates.com, Inc., a California Corporation, is the leading provider of Reminder Service Solutions. BigDates technology powers the Reminder Services for AmericanGreetings.com (Nasdaq:AM - News), BlueMountain.com, Overstock.com� (Nasdaq:OSTK - News), DateBoxx.com, Birthday-Reminders.com, and BigDates.com. BigDates technology platform allows its partners to quickly and confidently launch a powerful, scaleable, and flexible reminder service in less than 30 days. Visit www.Birthday-Reminders.com or to learn more about BigDates eMarketing Solutions: http://www.bigdates-solutions.com.

About The Webby Awards

Called the "Oscars of the Internet" by the New York Times, the Webby is the leading international award honoring excellence in Web design, creativity, usability and functionality. Established in 1996, the Webby Awards are presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. For more information visit www.webbyawards.com.

About the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS)

The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences is dedicated to the creative, technical, and professional progress of the Internet and interactive media. The Webby Awards and The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences are registered trademarks of International Data Group. For more information, visit www.iadas.net.

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April 25, 2006

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SAN RAMON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 25, 2006--Extending its proficiency in reminder services for important dates like birthdays, holidays, anniversaries and more, BigDates.com, Inc. announces, DateBoxx.com, a free reminder service designed for social networking site users like MySpace (parent company, News Corp.)(NYSE:NWS - News), TagWorld, Hi5, and the like.

What makes DateBoxx unique is the "DateBoxx" feature that easily allows members to display a personalized image of their important dates on their social networking page. Members can customize their DateBoxx with different images, backgrounds, fonts, colors, borders and more.

DateBoxx also offers cell phone reminders and email reminders with relevant suggestions for ecards, paper greeting cards and gifts. DateBoxx allows its members to request birthdays, share reminders and import contacts from address books such as Yahoo!.

MySpace and DateBoxx user, Melissa Fake says, "My DateBoxx image is a fun way to show my friends that I know their birthdays."

Visitors to a DateBoxx member's profile page can easily add their own birthdays to the member's list of important dates. They can even request specific dates from a member to be automatically added to their own DateBoxx account.

BigDates.com, Inc. President, Paul Love comments, "The explosive growth of social networking sites is staggering, particularly the sites with young users like MySpace. Adolescents are digitally finding their identity and expressing who they are like never before. These users appreciate cool gadgets and graphics for customizing and personalizing their profile pages."

Love continues, "For BigDates, reaching the social networking audience required a different approach. DateBoxx is a form of self-expression, is highly customizable and very personal. If DateBoxx spreads virally, as we expect, BigDates will be an enabler of millions of e-commerce transactions, and in the case of younger users, well positioned to assist the next generation of internet users with event related products and services."

About BigDates.com, Inc.

BigDates.com, Inc., a California Corporation, is the leading provider of Reminder Service Solutions. BigDates technology powers the Reminder Services for AmericanGreetings.com (NASDAQ:AM - News), BlueMountain.com, DateBoxx.com, Birthday-Reminders.com, and BigDates.com. BigDates technology platform allows partners to quickly and confidently launch a powerful, scaleable, and flexible reminder service in less than 30 days. Visit www.DateBoxx.com or for more about BigDates eMarketing Solutions: http://www.BigDates-Solutions.com

MULTIMEDIA AVAILABLE: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=5131646

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January 12, 2006

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SAN RAMON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 12, 2006--BigDates.com, the leading provider of outsourced Reminder Service Solutions, today announced a licensing agreement with Overstock.com(R) (Nasdaq:OSTK), one of the largest and fastest-growing online retailers in the U.S. Overstock.com recently launched O-minders, a free reminder service powered by BigDates.com, which provides its customers with the ultimate in shopper convenience.

O-minders offers consumers much more than a typical reminder service. In addition to email and mobile phone reminders for important dates and holidays, the reminders suggest specific and appropriate Ecards and Overstock.com products for each gift recipient based on their age and gender.

According to Overstock.com's Senior Vice President of Marketing, Kamille Twomey, "O-minders is a god-send for consumers like me who often forget birthdays until the last minute and then overpay for gifts. With O-minders, busy shoppers can receive reminders of special dates and gift ideas throughout the year, and then send friends, family, and co-workers gifts they'll really enjoy -- all while taking advantage of Overstock.com's online best price guarantee."

"With the holidays behind us, it's a good time for retailers to focus on solutions for year-round gifting," said Paul Love, President of BigDates.com. "Overstock is the perfect candidate for our reminder solution because it has great breadth of product (i.e. appropriate gifts for every occasion), a strong brand, and millions of loyal customers. Needless to say, we are very excited about our relationship with Overstock and what it signifies for BigDates."

About BigDates.com

BigDates.com, Inc., a California Corporation, is the leading provider of Reminder Service Solutions. BigDates technology powers the Reminder Services for AmericanGreetings.com (Nasdaq:AM), BlueMountain.com, Birthday-Reminders.com and BigDates.com. BigDates technology platform allows its partners to quickly and confidently launch a powerful, scaleable and flexible reminder service in less than 60 days. Find out more at: http://www.bigdates.com/solutions.

About Overstock.com

Overstock.com, Inc. is an online "closeout" retailer -- offering discount, brand-name merchandise for sale over the Internet. The company offers its customers an opportunity to shop for bargains conveniently, while offering its suppliers an alternative inventory liquidation distribution channel. Overstock.com, headquartered in Salt Lake City, is a publicly traded company listed on the NASDAQ National Market System (Nasdaq:OSTK) and can be found online at http://www.overstock.com.

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November 21, 2005

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SAN RAMON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 21, 2005--A report just released by the e-tailing group, "Gift Services as Year-Round Retention Tools," details the importance of gifting services and the opportunity to leverage personalization to compete in the $253B gift giving market. Additionally according to Unity Marketing, with consumers spending only 40% of their annual gifting budget during the next five weeks (holiday season) that leaves 60% to be spent during the course of the year.

"Merchants wish that there were two Christmas seasons but the reality is gift giving is already more than a once-a-year reality," states Lauren Freedman, President of the e-tailing group. "The majority of gifting, contrary to popular belief, takes place throughout the year, not during the peak Thanksgiving to Christmas holiday period. Birthdays are at the top of year-round gift purchases according to research from Unity Marketing."

Freedman continues, "There is no doubt in my mind that gifting will only continue to grow and evolve and that delivering convenience and service will be the backbone of any successful multi-channel gifting strategy."

With more technology being outsourced than ever before, there is the opportunity to benefit from gifting services and innovations such as BigDates.com, the only provider of outsourced reminder service solutions, the report states.

BigDates helps online merchants create sales opportunities outside of the predictable, known holidays for more personal occasions such as birthdays and anniversaries. During these exclusive marketing opportunities merchants can send customers timely and personalized communications in the form of reminders, offering the right products to the right buyers at the right time.

According to Paul Love, President of BigDates.com, "Amazon's (Nasdaq:AMZN) recent launch of Gift Central, including a reminder service called the Gift Organizer, reaffirms our conviction that consumers will adopt feature-rich reminder services and that retailers can significantly increase year-round gift sales by providing such services."

Get the complete report from the e-tailing group at:

http://www.e-tailing.com/research/whitepapers/index.html

About the e-tailing group, inc.

the e-tailing group, inc. serves as the multi-channel merchant's eye, bringing a merchant's sensibility to evolving the multi-channel shopping experience. A Chicago-based consultancy, they provide strategic and e-commerce merchandising solutions to merchants selling online as well as to firms targeting that market. Contact Lauren Freedman at lf@e-tailing.com

About BigDates.com

BigDates.com, Inc., a California Corporation, is the leading provider of Reminder Service Solutions. BigDates technology powers the Reminder Services for AmericanGreetings.com (Nasdaq:AM), BlueMountain.com, Birthday-Reminders.com and BigDates.com. BigDates technology platform allows its partners to quickly and confidently launch a powerful, scaleable, and flexible reminder service in less than 60 days. Find out more at: http://www.bigdates.com/solutions

COPYRIGHT 2005 Business Wire
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group

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September 19, 2005

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SAN RAMON, Calif. -- BigDates.com, the leading provider of web based reminder services and solutions, today announced that its web site won the e-business category in the first Usability Excellence Awards program offered by MasterCard International. The competition was created to recognize the most usable sites on the web.

The Usability Services Team at MasterCard, one of the premier usability-analysis teams in the United States, evaluated sites submitted by companies from across the country. Winners were chosen from two categories, e-commerce sites and financial sites. The e-commerce category included online stores and payment processing organizations, and the financial category was for financial-services sites that offer customers online tools or information.

The judging was based on seven important principles of web usability: navigation, information architecture, accessibility, error prevention and recovery, writing for the web, support and interface design.

BigDates.com was chosen as the winner in the e-commerce category.

BigDates.com is "a shining example of the great combination of design and function," said Jennifer Ruffino, the Certified Usability Analyst who leads the Usability Services Team at MasterCard. "The site's user has a simple goal -- being reminded of important dates -- and BigDates.com provides an easy tool to meet this goal successfully. There are many examples of best practices on this site."

"Usability is a critical aspect in the design of any site," said Ruffino. "We're delighted to acknowledge the best in the industry with our Usability Excellence Awards program, and give insight to others, so they can offer users a better experience on their individual sites."

"Because our site is easy and fun to use, the average customer enters over 30 reminders for birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays," said Paul Love, President of BigDates.com. "This translates to great value for both our own customers and for the retailers licensing our reminder technology platform since occasion-based marketing is a very cost effective means of increasing sales."

In addition, the judges awarded runner-up honors to several other web sites including Drugstore.com, Kayak.com and CDUniverse.com.

About BigDates.com, Inc.

BigDates.com, Inc., a California Corporation, is a provider of reminder services and solutions. "Powered by BigDates" technology powers the reminder services for AmericanGreetings.com, BlueMountain.com, Birthday-Reminders.com, and BigDates.com. BigDates technology platform enables online retailers and other web sites to quickly and confidently launch a powerful, scaleable, and flexible reminder service in less than 60 days. Find out more at: www.bigdates.com/about/remindersolutions.asp.

The Usability Services Team at MasterCard

Payment cards are the currency of choice for online transactions, and consumers want to use them to conduct business online easily and efficiently. The Usability Services Team at MasterCard International was developed to share the company's expertise on managing payment functions with merchants, and creating sites that function intuitively for a better consumer experience. The team helps customers address the design and functionality of interactive properties such as hardware, software, intranet, extranets and external-facing Internet sites. Results include improved product usability, and a better understanding of product design, navigation and interactivity, based on the unique insights into consumers' behaviors witnessed first-hand during evaluations of thousands of consumer experiences. The MasterCard Usability Services Team is located at MasterCard's Global Technology and Operations headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri.

About MasterCard International

MasterCard Incorporated is a leading global payments solutions company that provides a broad variety of innovative services in support of our global members' credit, deposit access, electronic cash, business-to-business and related payment programs. MasterCard, through its principal operating subsidiary, MasterCard International Incorporated, manages a family of well-known, widely accepted payment card brands including MasterCard(R), Maestro(R) and Cirrus(R) and serves financial institutions, consumers and businesses in over 210 countries and territories. The MasterCard award-winning Priceless(R) advertising campaign is now seen in 105 countries and in 48 languages, giving the MasterCard brand a truly global reach and scope. For more information go to www.mastercardinternational.com or refer to the filings of MasterCard Incorporated with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

COPYRIGHT 2005 Business Wire
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group

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July 12, 2005

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SAN RAMON, Calif. -- The Webby Awards, the leading international honor for web sites, today recognized BigDates.com as Webby Worthy, a distinction made for the first time this year to recognize sites exhibiting remarkable achievement.

Hailed as the "online Oscars" by Time Magazine, The Webby Awards are determined by the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences, a global organization with a membership that includes musician David Bowie, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, The Body Shop president Anita Roddick, "Simpsons" creator Matt Groening, Real Networks CEO Rob Glaser, and fashion designer Max Azria.

"The Webby Awards honors the outstanding web sites that are setting the standards for the internet," said Tiffany Shlain, creative director and founder of The Webby Awards. "BigDates Webby Worthy selection is a testament to the skill, ingenuity, and vision of its creators."

"We are excited to have been recognized as Webby Worthy," said Paul Love, President of BigDates.com. "Our commitment to creating the best possible reminder service is paying off on multiple fronts. With our consumer reminder sites growing on their own, we've been able to respond to the strong market demand for outsourced reminder service solutions, and the foundation for a very lucrative licensing business is now in place."

The 9th Annual Webby Awards received a record number of entries from over 40 countries and all 50 states. Out of the over 4,000 entries submitted, fewer than 20% received this honor and were deemed Webby Worthy.

About BigDates.com

BigDates.com, Inc., a California Corporation, is the leading provider of Reminder Service Solutions. BigDates technology powers the Reminder Services for AmericanGreetings.com (Nasdaq:AM), BlueMountain.com, Birthday-Reminders.com, and BigDates.com. BigDates technology platform allows its partners to quickly and confidently launch powerful, scaleable, and flexible reminder service in less than 60 days. Find out more at: www.bigdates.com/about/remindersolutions.asp.

About The Webby Awards:

Called the "Oscars of the Internet" by the New York Times, the Webby is the leading international award honoring excellence in Web design, creativity, usability and functionality. Established in 1996, the 9th Annual Webby Awards received over 4,000 entries from all 50 states and over 40 countries worldwide. The Webby Awards are presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. Sponsors and Partners of The Webby Awards include: The Creative Group; Adweek, Brandweek and Mediaweek magazines; IDG; Fortune and FSB; 2advanced Studius; The Online Publishing Association; PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Rackspace Managed Hosting. For more information visit www.webbyawards.com.

About the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS):

The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences is dedicated to the creative, technical, and professional progress of the internet and interactive media. The Academy is an intellectually diverse organization that includes over 500 members consisting of leading experts in a diverse range of fields, such as musician David Bowie, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, business guru and author Tom Peters, The Body Shop president Anita Roddick, fashion designer Max Azria, "Simpsons" creator Matt Groening and Real Networks CEO Rob Glaser. The Webby Awards and The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences are registered trademarks of International Data Group. For more information, visit www.iadas.net.

COPYRIGHT 2005 Business Wire
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group

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June 1, 2005

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SAN RAMON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 1, 2005--BigDates.com, the leader and pioneer in providing third party reminder service solutions, is featured in Revenue Magazine's recent article entitled "Ten Tools of the Trade" (Revenue Magazine, Spring 2005 www.RevenueToday.com).

"The service (BigDates) provides publishers with an outsourced reminder solution that enables websites to capture customers' important personal dates and communicate with them on these occasions. This can help publishers greatly increase the lifetime value of a customer by capitalizing on the commerce opportunities surrounding important dates in people's lives."

"Benefits include the ability to increase sales by capturing event-driven shopping traffic and communicating with customers when they are in buy mode, improve customer retention by creating more loyal and active customers, acquire new customers at no cost..."

The BigDates reminder service solution can help retailers smooth out highly seasonal sales by capturing sales opportunities outside of the predictable, known holidays. Holiday marketing is difficult and expensive with so many companies vying for the consumers' attention. Because of this, the race to capture non-holiday dates, primarily birthdates, is on.

According to Paul Love, SVP of Business Development at BigDates, "Retailers without a gift reminder service may not realize that birthday-based email marketing is characterized by higher open rates, higher order values, better conversions, and reduced need for margin cutting tactics like discounts and free shipping. Because of the exclusive nature of birthday-based marketing, it is far more cost effective than holiday marketing."

About BigDates.com

BigDates.com, Inc., a California Corporation, is the leading provider of Reminder Service Solutions. BigDates technology powers the Reminder Services for AmericanGreetings.com (Nasdaq:AM), BlueMountain.com, Birthday-Reminders.com, and BigDates.com. BigDates technology platform allows its partners to quickly and confidently launch powerful, scaleable, and flexible reminder service in less than 60 days. Find out more at: www.bigdates.com/about/remindersolutions.asp.

COPYRIGHT 2005 Business Wire
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group

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October 19, 2004

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SAN RAMON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 19, 2004--BigDates.com, a leading provider of reminder-based customer acquisition and retention solutions, today announced a strategic licensing partnership with AG Interactive, a subsidiary of American Greetings Corp (NYSE:AM). As the leading provider of electronic greetings, AG Interactive receives over 18M Unique visitors per month across its network of sites. Under the terms of the agreement, BigDates will power the reminder services for several AG Interactive web properties.

On September 15th both members and registered customers at AmericanGreetings.com and BlueMountain.com began using the new reminder service. The BigDates solution offers much more than a typical reminder service. In addition to timely email and mobile phone reminders for important dates and holidays, it also suggests appropriate eCards and personalized Create & Print paper cards, specifically tailored for each recipient based on profile information provided by the customer.

AG Interactive expects that the new reminder service will increase member visits to their websites and will be an effective driver of new customer acquisition.

"In today's world, keeping track of appointments and important dates is no longer a luxury, but rather critical to maintaining productive and successful lives. AG Interactive has partnered with BigDates.com as they have the best technological solution to address this issue for the benefit of our 2 million+ customers," said Josef Mandelbaum, CEO of AG Interactive. "By encouraging both our paying members and registered users to take advantage of this powerful reminder service, we expect to see significant gains in existing subscriber retention and in new subscriber sign ups."

"Once businesses realize that BigDates can deploy a full service, feature rich, cobranded or private label solution in less than 60 days, we believe many will reevaluate building or improving their own," said Nasser Gaemi, CEO of BigDates.com.

About BigDates.com

BigDates.com, Inc., a California Corporation, is a provider of reminder-based customer acquisition and retention solutions. The company's flagship consumer reminder service is a subscription based service available at www.bigdates.com. The technology platform behind this service also powers BigDates' partner services, Powered by BigDates, allowing its partners to quickly and confidently launch powerful, scaleable, and flexible reminder services of their own. Find out more about our technology licensing solutions at www.bigdates.com/about/remindersolutions.asp.

About AG Interactive

AG Interactive, the new media subsidiary of American Greetings, operates the network of sites including AmericanGreetings.com, BlueMountain.com, BlueMountainCards.co.uk, Egreetings.com and Beatgreets.com. Together, the AG Interactive sites offer over 20,000 high-quality greetings and related social expression content, and comprise the number one online greeting card destination, with over 2 million paying subscribers and millions of unique visitors per month.

AG Interactive also includes business units: AGmobile (the wireless division) and AG Ventures (the international and new product division). AG Interactive is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio.

AG Interactive is a subsidiary of American Greetings Corporation, one of the world's leading manufacturers of social expression products. American Greetings companies also include Carlton Cards(R), Learning Horizons(R), Balloon Zone(R) and DesignWare(R). American Greetings is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Business Wire
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group

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