The startup that spun out of Microsoft Corp.'s research lab is launching its test version, but instead of display advertising, its revenue model is to sell graphics and other features surfers can use to decorate personal profile pages.
The add-ons will cost between 99 cents and $4, with some elements for free.
Visitors will only be able to sign up for the service if an existing member invites them.
Wallop has customizable onscreen backdrop for personal photographs, blog entries and conversational threads, all manipulated using a user interface driven by Flash animation technology.
There’s also a graphical feature that puts the user in the center and depicts the strength of his or her relationships with other members in terms of their distance from that center. The strength is continuously updated, according to a number of factors, including the frequency of communication and whether the other person has identified the user as a friend.
Another feature updates specified groups of friends whenever a user posts new material with drag-and-drop technology for photos and videos.
MySpace already lets users customize pages for free, but users typically have to find HTML code elsewhere to post into their profiles.