At some point you've probably used evite, either by receiving or sending an invitation. In the past the online application was great for sending invitations but it was a one shot deal - create and send an evite and when the event is over, the evite is dead.

Last year evite went mobile in an effort to keep up with all of us and on Friday, evite went 2.0. Users can now integrate photos from Flickr, videos from YouTube and playlists from Imeem. The changes should make it easier to integrate content you already have on the web into your evite options instead of requiring separate uploads of information.

The redesign also attempts to make evite easier to navigate, introducing more tabs for organizing different sections of the site. Developers have also added some custom options for the way hosts and attendees can interact with each other.

[via Mashable, CNET]

All of us at one point or another has gotten an Evite to a function. Everything from holiday parties to all-night benders are often organized on the site. Invitees are typically sent an email letting them know they've been invited to a particular shindig, and can respond with a yes, no, or maybe as well as leave a comment as to why or why not they're going to attend for the host and other potential guests to check out.

So, what do you do if you want to organize one of those all night benders tonight and you're not sure if everyone is going to check their email in time to get the word?

Evite launched a new service this week designed to make planning an event on the fly. The service Quickvite allows users to create a plan on the web or their mobile phone and then send it out to their guests via email and text message simultaneously. Invitees can respond in the traditional Evite way via the web, or they can text message back their RSVP for the potential throw down, making it possibly for you to organize your bar crawl when you're already at the bar.

Evite simultaneously launched a mobile WAP site which is designed for users to access their social calendar through their mobile phone, it's also where users will create and send their invitations through QuickVite. All of this is part of phase two of "Evite Mobile." The first phase being the Evite send-to-phone function launched in September that allows users to send event details from the site to their phone so they can reference them later on. In the next few weeks Evite plans on making another addition, rolling out a Facebook app for QuickVite allowing users to invite both Facebook and non-Facebook users to the same party from one place. They also have a downloadable application for mobile phones in the works, so your phone can always be where the party's at...or at least planned anyway.

[via MobilitySite]

Evite might be the leader in online party invitations online, but that's not stopping MyPunchbowl from steaming ahead to battle.

MyPunchbowl has just landed some seed funding that will allow them to build out there increasingly popular invitation tools. The first round of funding will see MyPunchbowl sort out its revenue model as well as hire developers and initiate marketing efforts to grow their event planning website.

Download Squad originally covered their launch early this year. Punchbowl Software has watched the event space heat up, and this new cash will allow MyPunchbowl to be develop a strict verification and feedback process to ensure that its design is easy to use for the everyday party planner, making for a much more enjoyable planning process. This in turn could lead to some interface and design changes down the road , as well as some user suggested features.

MyPunchbowl is a free event planning website that helps coordinate, manage and plan parties through an easy to use party planner checklist and slick easy to use interface. Keep your eye on these guys.

Is there room in this town for two event planning/invitation web service (this town being you know, the whole world)? Evite owners Ticketmaster seem to think there's not. They've sent a letter to Socialzr threatening legal action over similar invitation templates and web design.

At issue are Socializr's "Holiday," and "Hawaii Luau" invitation styles, which Evite says are identical to templates on its own site. The two styles have been removed from Socializr's site, but "Winter Celebration," which Evite claims is similar to a design on its site remains.

To be honest, the Winter Celebration designs look pretty different. Sure they're both blue and white and have snowflakes. But what do you expect for a winter theme? And if you look closely, you'll see that the snowflakes on each design look different. See, it's true. No two snowflakes are the same. Unless you send the same invitation twice.

[via Mashable]

What Friendster and Facebook have done with personal social networking, Socializr hopes to accomplish with event planning. Socializr was created by the founder of Friendster and a player in the social networking phenomenon, so it does have its similarities. A private test has been running since September 2006, with the live launch occurring last Friday.

Socializr is a free online service for people who want to start or share event and party information between friends and contacts. When setting up an account you can import contacts from a ton of sources (Friendster, MySpace, Flickr, Yelp, Evite, Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL, Gmail, Outlook or CSV). Setting up an event is relatively easy, choose a pre designed Socializr invite for a number of events including weddings, clubbing, Christmas party, birthdays, births, sweet 16's, graduations, and dinner parties, or design your own. Enter your events information and invite away! ( dont' forget the event date, time, location, and details).

[via webware]

I'm sure a lot of you had holiday parties over the last few weeks. How did your planning go? You could surely have used the new MyPunchbowl service. MyPunchbowl is set to launch its online party planning service on January 15th. Built by Punchbowl Software, it allows users to create an online community for celebrations. Members can use the service before, during and after parties to coordinate events, research ideas from the community, and share party memories after the event.

Unfortunately I was not in on the beta testing for the service, and it is now closed awaiting the January 15th launch. So we will have to stay tuned to check out the how well this service helps us party plan. Similar services in this sector include Evite.com, Eventful, and Upcoming.org.