Olivia Connect, one of the four gay and lesbian social networks we wrote about at the start of January, has launched a very early beta today. The site was created by the lesbian travel agent and "lifestyle company" Olivia, and it doesn't seem too bad at all.
Users have profile pages where they can upload photos, create an "About Me" section and receive testimonials from friends - you can also send messages, add friends and send a "flirt", which is similar to the "poke" feature on Facebook. Soon, they'll also add Olivia Interest Groups, dating, blogs and professional networking (like LinkedIn, maybe?). In fact, that's the biggest issue with the site at the moment - the design is extremely professional, but the feature set is sparse.
We got a very early invite (there are only 22 members so far), and there isn't much content yet. However, there are a few unique features: slideshows, daily polls and a Flash animation called "How Do You Feel?" that lets you post a message and explore messages from other users about how they feel today. Olivia is still in heavy development, and they'll need to expand the feature set dramatically. But there's something about the design and usability that makes me think this will be a good platform once they've added the planned features.
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