Barry Diller — the menacing tycoon who spends most of his nights on his giant yacht in the dark river off his freaky Manhattan tower — makes an excellent villain. As Jonathan Abrams, in promoting his new party invitation service, has discovered. Abrams, who pioneered social networking with Friendster before founding Socializr, his latest, has published a diatribe against the startup's main rival, Evite, which is controlled by IAC boss Diller. Some of the criticisms of Evite are boilerplate: the service is little improved since IAC acquired it in 2001. But we particularly like his photographic contrast of the two companies: Evite is represented by an unsmiling portrait of the evil mogul, who likes to sue people, while Abrams just wants to "help people party."

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