Valleywag party correspondent Megan McCarthy double-dipped at last night's parties for phone-privacy service Jangl and canine social network Dogster.

Jangl held its launch party last night at Club Mighty in San Fran's Potrero Hill. The room was full of dark suits and ties and it smelled like VC money. The food? Incredible. Filet Mignon with potato puffs, asparagus spears, cheese and fruit and even pâté. Oh, how good the bubble tastes!

Valleywag has talked about Jangl before, a fact some of the suits unhappily pointed out upon my introduction. Tim Johnson, head flack at Jangl, talked more about the company and what it does and the services it offers.

With Jangl, you set up a username which you give out in lieu of your real phone number. Once your new contact has your Jangl ID, he or she would then log into the site, enter your ID and Jangl creates a computer-generated phone number for the two of you to use. It's not meant to be one of those fake break-up numbers that you give out to people who should go away. Jangl is a way to keep personal information private to the parties involved. Perfect, Jangl implies, for urban dating and eBay (and drug dealers, terrorists, journalists covering Hewlett-Packard and cheating spouses.)

The crowd was filled with big names, from journalist Om Malik, to Friendster president Kent Lindstrom. Michael Cerda and Ben Dean, Jangl's co-founders, took the stage to crow about the completion of a deal with a major online web community whose name will be officially announced on Monday. (We found out it's Match.com )

Dogster's 300,000th-user celebration was held a few blocks away geographically, but worlds apart in terms of tone and substance, starting with the outside doors being locked. Us latecomers had to shout at the window to be let in. Everything about this bash screamed "Web 2.0" -the free t-shirts, the thick hipster glasses worn by founder Ted Rheingold, the self-serve cooler of beer in the corner. The crowd was a typical mix of startup founders, bloggers, vloggers, and photographers, with a few dog owners mixed in.

Yes, people brought their pets. The king of the party was Beck, a sweet 4-year-old Newfoundland as big as a freaking buffalo. He spent the night wandering around the room like a 150lb sentient rug, petted instinctively by whoever was within arms reach. There were small dogs, too, like the Chihuahua who was barely larger than Beck's paw, and rambunctious Boston terrier (and friend of Valleywag) Milo. No cats, however. When asked about the difference in site users, both Ted (no dogs or cats) and Dogster biz-devver Steven Reading (cat owner) outed dog owners as significantly crazier than their cat-friendly cousins.

Valleywag Party Score: Based on the fabulous menu, Jangl comes in at "No, seriously, I'll call you." For atmosphere, Dogster wins itself a steak-shaped chew toy.

Photo of Beck by Chris Heuer [Flickr]
Photo of Dogster founder Ted Rheingold (left) and friend by Ted Rheingold [Flickr]

• Best. Party. Ever: At Jangl's bash tonight at San Francisco club Mighty, not only is there a menu including filet mignon and salmon mousse (longer menu after the jump), a hosted bar, and a live jazz performance by members of the company, but thanks to Jangl's service — an ID you can hand to strangers instead of your phone number — you can flirt without consequence!
• CANCELLED: Artificial Intelligence superstar Marvin Minsky, co-founder of MIT's AI lab, gives an "intimate conversation" at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. Ten bucks at 6 PM. [Eventful]
• Hey there hard charger, before you try a polyphasic sleep schedule, better learn how sleep works at this lecture by a fellow of the Stanford Sleep Clinic. [Eventful]
• Dogster celebrates its 300,000th user tonight from 6:30-9 at its offices in Potrero Hill. Expect milkbones and tummy rubs, if you've been a good boy. RSVP to russell (at) dogster (dot) com.

Get a Jangl ID in Advance

A key part of the experience will involve having your own Jangl ID. . .and to have that, you should sign up now (if you haven't already).

Why? At the party, we'll have some Jangl "social cards" available that have spots for your name and your Jangl ID. They're designed in standard business card format, and you can take your own stack of cards with you when you leave. Then, later, you can hand them out as desired, and help spread the word about Jangl.

If you haven't signed up, just visit Jangl and click on "Register" (or click here). Don't worry about the "closed beta" notification — you'll promptly get an email invitation at the address you supplied. Click on the link in that email and sign up, and bring your ID to the party so you can grab your Jangl social cards.

Food & Drinks

Along with a hosted bar from 6 - 8 p.m., we'll have some seriously good food available. See below (and yes, this probably beats anything else you'd eat on a Wednesday night in October). This is only a partial listing.

• Vegetarian Mini Samosa with Mango Chutney
• Mint Marinated Lamb Skewers with Tahini Sauce
• Beef Filet Mignon Slice on Mashed Potato Beignet
• Steamed Asparagus with Italian Dip
• Vegetarian Roasted Raviolis with Soy Cream
• Home baked Baguettes
• Cajun Chicken Bites with Toasted Cashews
• Smoked Salmon Mousse served in Vol au Vent
• Gorgonzola & Caramelized Asian Pear served in Sugar Mini Cone
• Scallops & Shrimp Ceviche

• MTV, in an effort to prove that the level of discourse in a virtual world can indeed get stupider than World of Warcrafters asking "how i mine for fish," will launch "Virtual Laguna Beach" for boob-tubers who can't be sexy and carefree beach-goers in the real world. [NY Times]
• It was wrong to doubt that Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz (pictured), proud owner of a house "on the edge of the Mission district" and wearer of a "look how different I am" ponytail, was anything but a hipster. He tells the Associated Press that he asks colleagues if they've read his blog. Yep, just like every trustafarian in San Francisco. [Washington Post]
• Telecom Italia buys the German division of AOL for $855 million. The company thought it was bidding on a rare AOL 1.0 floppy disk. [NY Times]
• "What does it say about the boom in social networking Web sites that the latest one to attract outside investors is devoted not to singles or indie bands but to dogs?" It says Dogster's users don't realize the point of getting a dog — to meet people in the park, dammit, not on Internet message boards. [NY Times]

Under pretense of their dogs doing the talking, owners are expressing themselves in all kinds of ways that they wouldn't normally.

In fact, owners may find it easier to say things they wouldn't be able to say on dating sites. Rheingold is seeing all kinds of things — for example, one post was about a dog whose Mommy came home after something called a "date." The dog said he didn't know what a date was, but that Mommy said it didn't go very well, this date, and so the dog said he stayed by her side and tried to make her feel better.

Yeah, Dogster and companion site Catster are really dating sites for furries — you know, people who act and dress like anthropomorphized animals (not that there's anything wrong with that). That's why the satire site Something Awful explored the creepy Catster forums this spring.

Dogster raises $1M to expand — Woof! — but it's not about the dogs [VentureBeat]

• Social site rejects mad money: Facebook's not the only social site hubristically turning down generous offers. International site Bebo just said no to a $550 million buyout, according to the blog TechCrunch. The company's holding out for a billion-dollar offer, which it just might get — unless the market tanks this year. Then Bebo will have to wait for a lowball offer, just like Tribe Networks. [TechCrunch]
• More free VoIP services: Skype, which is already providing free domestic computer-to-phone calls on its network, now offers free international calls. The company says it will profit from add-ons like headset purchases — until it starts giving those away. No wonder eBay's market cap has dropped ever since it bought Skype. [Skype]
• Lively dot-com gets a lifeless competitor: See, old-school pet site Dogster is cute, friendly, and human. Newcomer pawspot is cold and forgettable. Guess which one will get more VC funding. [TechCrunch]

Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.

Part of: Snacky or Flacky [Valleywag]

Guy 1: You know [redacted]? The blonde? She's on Consumating.

Guy 2: Isn't she on Dogster?

Jokes that became businesses
¬ Dogster: On the Internet, no one knows you're a person.
¬ Consumating: Let's drop the games and get laid, k?
¬ Fucked Company: Undertaker of the business world.
¬ Hot or Not: Discount on dating profiles if you rate a 2.

Vice versa
¬ Friendster: Needs more "Tom."
¬ Netscape: It didn't need to outrun the bear, just outrun Internet Explorer.
¬ Facebook: What does it take to go from The New Black to a laughingstock? A $2 billion rumor.

Antisocial Networking Gets Hip [Wired News]
Snubster [Snubster.com]

Time to blow your kazoos. So far, I've gathered the following predictions:

Blog Herald: News aggregator Newsvine is "rumored" to be the sellout. But why would someone buy Newsvine when, well, when Digg exists?
Silicon Beat: Who knows, but is Spy Media next?
Stowe Boyd: Tagged. No, not Tagged? Damn.
Good Morning Silicon Valley: Riya? Newsvine? Goowy?

A Valleywag commenter named "Mensch" says Meetro's lackluster presentation was far below par, and the only explanation is MORE COWBELL. I mean the only explanation is that Meetro already got the deal.

And from the TechCrunch peanut gallery:
"Markus" says Eurekster.
"Ted" says Zvents.
Jason Baptiste, "noob," and Dogster's Ted Rheingold say Meetro.

But Meetro has its own picks: Eurekster, Popist, and Sphere. Come on, Meetro, if you're trying to cover your ass, just give up and admit it — you make a tasty addition to Myspace, with your geo-located IMing and your "kinda cool, kinda stalker" vibe.

Fox Announces Acquistion; Exclusive Video [TechCrunch]
Earlier: Who did Fox buy? [Valleywag]
Image: Meetro HQ [Meetro]