Crushin' roulette

MixBoston stirs it up

By AUSTYN MAYFIELD

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Hypothetically, it's Thursday afternoon and you have no plans for the evening. You'd like to go out, but you're not dating anyone and your friends are either MIA or won't commit to any plans. So, at 4pm, you:

a) give up and decide to stay home in your undies to watch Season 3 of One Tree Hill;

b) check Facebook, MySpace and possibly Match.com to see if anyone nearby is free;

c) start downing Jäger while drunk-dialing anybody you've held hands with in the past 18 months in hopes of a midweek hook-up.

Slim pickings.

Thankfully, there's a legitimate alternative to the above options. Mix&Meet Inc., a website running its beta launch here as MixBoston, is on a mission to put the "social" back into social networking by weaning folks off their profile-dependency and giving them a chance for face-to-face interaction.

Site users who are ready to mingle simply log in and click "Mix Tonight" by 5pm. If there's a willing quorum, the computer selects a centrally located venue based on the users' zip codes, and sends an email and text message informing the "MixMates" where they're going and who they'll meet when they get there.

Voilà! Instant social gratification without the forced romance and awkwardness that usually comes with online dating. Sure, you may meet the love of your life, but you could also meet your next wingman, coworker or BFF.

"Typical online dating just fucks with your head," says Mix founder Bruce Franco. "You see a picture, check a profile and if you aren't scared off, you ask them out. But in the downtime before the first date, you're busy fantasizing, only setting yourself up for disappointment if they aren't [what you expect]."

Mix&Meet could become the best new social application in Boston—or in the nation, for that matter. The only thing standing between Mix and world domination is the human tendency for last-minute flakeouts. With no real obligation to show, the urge to meet new people can vanish just as quickly as it appeared. And getting stood up by strangers can be brutal.

But at least you're out of the house. Great job. Really.

[mixandmeet.com]