In 2006, Zwinky launched a virtual world called Zwinktopia, which provides 29 unique locations and dozens of games and activities for its members. It already has attracted 4.7 million active users, according to IAC Consumer Applications and Portals, its creator.

If you’ve been following the MySpace Layouts trend, you might already be familiar with Zwinky, a brand that seems to appear frequently on those sites. Yesterday, Zwinky launched officially and claimed more than 2 million unique users - not bad going when you consider that the service only began its beta in June. Zwinky is owned by IAC, most famous for its Ask.com property.

Like WeeMee/WeeWorld and Meez, Zwinky provides portable avatars to post on Facebook, MySpace and other social networks - changing your avatar on the service automatically updates it elsewhere. Unlike rival services, avatars are created using a toolbar that bundles a bunch of other IAC services: Smiley Central, Cursor Mania, Popular Screensavers, the MyWebSearch search box and Search Assistant. Experienced users should be dubious about downloading this stuff - although not malicious, the toolbar adds a large number of features that you might not want. Once downloaded, the toolbar lets you choose from a selection of hairstyles, eye colors, skin tones, outfits, makeup, accessories and backgrounds. What’s more, Zwinky provides MySpace-style profile pages that are totally customizable: drop in a MySpace layout, add YouTube videos, send “Znotes” to other Zwinkies and more.