New York, NY, March 19, 2007 - Calling all Slacker Moms, Military Wives and Knitters on Caffein! For women on a mission to connect, iVillage, the largest community of women online, has increased the fun factor for its 16 million members. Building on the brand's success as the original social networking site for women with over 1,000 rich, authentic message boards, a new set of tools called iVillage Connect debuts in Beta this week, enhancing the community experience iVillage members have relied on for over a decade.

With a focus on simplicity and ease-of-use, iVillage Connect connect.ivillage.com will allow women to create profiles, build groups for women with similar interests, create their own blogs, upload photos and invite friends and family to join. The user's profile, online friends, groups and blog entries live in a section titled "My Hub" and from their hub pages, users can easily navigate the network in search of new friends, support and advice, groups they share an interest with or simply a voyeuristic fix.

"Our first message boards sparked a revolution in how women communicated with each other - it was social networking before the phrase was even coined," said Deborah Fine, President of iVillage. "Here we are a decade later and this is still the place where women go to connect with other women. With the addition of these new tools, iVillage remains the ultimate social network for women."

iVillage Connect will spotlight groups for enthusiasts -- whether they share a love for stilettos, gardening or the PTA. Already hundreds of groups from the sublime to the serious have set up shop using the new tools, fueling an even more robust place for women to take the social networking leap. "This is the ultimate tool for the ultimate community. Women will have the opportunity to be themselves, but the power of 'we' in the groups they form, both intimate and large, will be the key to staying connected," added Fine.

On the serious side, groups offering much-needed support to women dealing with personal and family health issues and other matters that find refuge online, have already been created, including Autism Everyday, a group for parents with autistic children. A key word search on any topic from diabetes to dance shows every member, blog posting or group mentioning the topic.

iVillage's "community leaders", who voluntarily host over one thousand message boards on the site, were the among the first to try out the tools. Early feedback included dozens of positive notes to the iVillage team. "I like it because I feel safer here than at other similar sites, I already know the people who are, and who will be, using the new tools." -- Susan, community leader

iVillage Inc., a division of NBC Universal, is the first and largest media company dedicated exclusively to connecting women at every stage of their lives. Ranked the #1 online destination for women with 16 million unique visitors (comScore MediaMetrix), iVillage.com offers an authentic community infused with compelling content from experts on health, parenting, pregnancy, beauty, style, fitness, relationships, food and entertainment. The site's interactive features include thousands of message boards and a wide variety of social networking tools, allowing women around the world to connect, share ideas, and seek advice and support about everything from fertility to fashion.

Established in 1995, iVillage's brand extensions include iVillage UK, iVillage Total Health and owned sites Astrology.com, GardenWeb and gURL.com, in addition to the Newborn Channel. The company, acquired by NBC Universal in May 2006, is based in New York.