[4] Michael Arrington wrote in April 2011 that Tagged is most notable for the ability to grow profitably during the era of Facebook.

[5] In 2009, Tagged was criticized for sending deceptive Email spam[6][7][8] and paid $1.4 million in legal settlements regarding those practices.

[14] Tagged Inc. was co-founded in mid-2004 by entrepreneurs Greg Tseng and Johann Schleier-Smith, who wanted to build a "Teen Yahoo!

[15] The pair had formerly co-founded internet incubator Jumpstart Technologies,[16] which was later fined $900,000 for alleged violations of the CAN-SPAM Act, then the largest-ever penalty for spam.

[18] In March 2008, Microsoft announced a commercial partnership with social networking sites Tagged, Facebook, LinkedIn, Bebo, and hi5 regarding email contacts APIs,[19][20] which has since been implemented.

[21] Other past and current Tagged partnerships have included Slide, RockYou, PhotoBucket, Meebo,[22] Razz,[23] and Jangl.

[29] In April 2011, Tagged acquired Digsby, a multi-protocol instant messenger and social network notification client for Windows with 3 million registered users.

CEO Greg Tseng continues to interview employees, cater lunch and dinner, and hold office-wide meetings every Friday.

[35] In June 2009, Time magazine columnist Sean Gregory called Tagged "The world's most annoying website".

This process has been labelled an "e-mail scam" by consumer anti-fraud advocates[38] and drawn criticism in the technology press[6][39][40] and from users.

[7] In July 2009 New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced his intention to sue Tagged for "deceptive email marketing and invasion of privacy".

[43] Simultaneously, Tagged settled an enforcement action by the state of Texas, agreeing to pay $250,000 in penalties and fees.

[45] In February 2010, Tagged settled a class action lawsuit about its former registration process with California residents Miriam Slater and Sara Golden and awarded them $10,000 each.

[46] In April 2010, San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris announced that Tagged agreed to pay $650,000 to settle claims of deceptive emails.

In October 2014, Tagged aborted plans to perform an initial public offering, citing decreased revenue due to the proliferation of mobile devices.

On October 16, 2014, Tagged performed a number of changes at the corporate level, including acquiring the social messaging startup Tinode and naming its co-founders, Dash Gopinath and Gene Sokolov, to the positions of chief product officer and senior vice president of engineering, respectively.

Virtual gifts are bought with "gold" which users buy with actual money or receive by completing special offers or tasks.

[62] Nevertheless, a 2010 undercover investigation by Cuomo's office claimed that graphic images of children being sexually abused were readily accessible on Tagged.

[66] In September 2009, Tagged had a 2.38% share of the social networking site market in the United States based on monthly visits.

Tagged.com was ranked at number 10 with a 0.6% share of the total market, having served 6.8 billion ads in the United States in the first quarter 2010.