Here at Avvo we strive to make your life easier and better informed. I am pleased to introduce you to two new features that do just that.

Login with your Facebook, get more from MyAvvo!
We are excited to announce that we have just released the ability to login with Facebook. Individuals can sign up for Avvo using their Facebook login or link their existing Avvo account to their Facebook account.

In tandem with this, we have spruced up the MyAvvo experience, giving users the ability to store a portfolio of saved medical and legal advice as well as a rolodex of lawyers and doctors.

All that functionality and no additional logins or passwords to remember.

Working with medical and legal issues, we understand how serious privacy can be. We will not post anything to a Facebook account/wall/news feed without permission.

See doctors in a particular hospital
In addition to the Facebook login, we have also just launched the ability to filter our results by hospital.

We surveyed hundreds of physicians and found that roughly 85% thought the caliber of a hospital matters in selecting a specialist for a surgery or procedure – it can make a big difference in the quality of support staff, technology, and equipment available.

Now you can filter the results to see which doctors have privileges at the hospitals you prefer.

Hospitals will also be able to target the filtered search with their logos to reinforce their branding to individuals that are using this feature.

As with any new feature, we encourage you to use these, tell your friends, and give us feedback on how they are working for you.

Ah . . . Valentine’s Day.  It’s never been my favorite holiday, and fortunately I have a wife who agrees.  I am a much bigger believer in random acts of romance and, even more simply, just being an attentive husband.  I can’t help but feel that simple things like spending time with my wife because I want to spend time with her carry more weight than a glittery box of chocolates, but that’s just me.

ANYWAY, I’m guessing that you didn’t dial-in today for relational advice.  Still, I want to add a little data to support the idea that maybe Valentine’s Day is not all that it’s cracked up to be:

First is the “Valentine’s Day Spike.”  For some time, we have noticed that divorce inquiries on Avvo spike right around Valentine’s Day.  So we decided to run the numbers:  Over the last two years, on average, we have seen a 40% spike in the number of requests for divorce lawyers around Valentine’s Day, compared to the previous six months.  It sounds crazy, but it clearly relates to lovers being disappointed by Valentine’s Day.  In addition to the lawyers in the release, I chatted with Jerome Wisselman from Wisselman Harounian & Associates PC in Great Neck, NY about the phenomenon, and he explained it as follows: “It’s a delayed reaction to the holidays.  Things really slow down during the holidays as people tend to delay big decisions – like a divorce – during the holidays.  This leads to pent up demand, and after the holiday passes unhappily married people feel freer – perhaps less guilty — and take action.”

Next, an (ahem) interesting website made its debut today.  It’s called “My Ex-Wife is Crazy” and you can find it at www.myexwifeiscrazy.com.  In short it is a place for ex-husbands who are still working through some divorce issues to rant.  We know the person behind the website (he’s based in Seattle), but he won’t let us disclose his identity.  Maybe most importantly, he is using the Avvo API to help his users find the right lawyer, if they need one.

Finally, we get some crazy questions, but this recent one left us all a bit slack-jawed in the office:

Q: My husband and I got married on a whim last month in Vegas. It was a huge mistake. It turns out my husband tricked me into eating a powerful aphrodisiac called “Soup #5″ at an Asian restaurant shortly before we got married. I’m convinced this soup impaired my judgment. Is this grounds for annulment?

View answer

But, alas, all is not lost.  You can always marry a lawyer (I did).  If you think your perfect mate may be a lawyer, Avvo’s “How to Date a Lawyer” guide uncovers the best places to meet single lawyers and reveals eleven crucial tips for having a relationship with one.  Enjoy!

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! 

Mark