December 2007
43 posts
Searching on Match.com →
Dating site search engines and the algorithms used to display results have always mystified me. Often there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the results. Are members who log in frequently listed first? Are people who don’t log in often effectively punished by showing up farther down the list of results? Match and some other sites allow you to sort by activity and new members. Being able to...
World Dating Partners Alliance Details →
Robert Fathers, CEO of World Dating Partners, wrote in to clarify details about the deal with Relationship Exchange as well as give us a good look into WDP operations marketing and plans for 2008.
Relationship Exchange partners have been very loyal despite some hiccups in
the past, all the main partners at RE are transferring to WDP platform, and
after seeing the size of our existing system,...
Match.com ‘Regular Folks’ Ad Campaign →
Brandweek digs into the details behind the new Match.com “Rewind” campaign.
The follow-up to “It’s ok to Look”, Darcy Cameron, vp-advertising and marketing at Match says Rewind shows people who have found love online, that Match works.
Do people choose a dating site because of testimonials? I don’t think many people pay attention to testimonials, but that this point, since most sites are...
Youjustgetme Personality Impression Monitoring... →
I have a Doppelganger named David Evans. David is the founder of Psychster, (more info) an online psychological research specializing in the social science of social networking. He wrote to let us know about You Just Get Me, a Facebook application launched in October that helps people analyze whether others are forming accurate personality impressions of them from their online profiles. The...
Dig a Tech girl: Get Your Geek On →
Dig a Tech Girl is a mashup of Digg and Hot or Not, with a focus on women in the Internet and technology industry. Plenty of eye candy and an opportunity to check out the cube farm hotties at Yahoo. As with similar sites, after five minutes your done and moving on to something else but it’s an entertaining waste of time.
Ladies, don’t despair. check out Dig A Tech Guy. Now back to more serious...
In Iceland, A Different Kind Of Dating →
While reading Iceland Review Online, I came across the following:
Iceland has its own online dating service, einkamal.is, but it leaves MUCH to be desired. It’s not the site so much as the society. In a population of 300,000, blind dating is a bit like playing gin-rummy with a deck of five; you know all the cards the others are holding. Plus the same face cards seem to pop up on the screen...
How Dangerous Are Google Profiles To Online Dating... →
The Google Operating System Blog says:
Google Profiles will be integrated in most Google services so you have a coherent identity and a simple way to manage your contacts.
“A Google Profile is simply how you represent yourself on Google products — it lets you tell others a bit more about who you are and what you’re all about. You control what goes into your Google Profile, sharing as much (or...
eTwine Changes Name to SNAP Interactive →
eTwine Holdings, Inc., a leading provider of social networking applications, has announced the change of the company’s name to SNAP Interactive, Inc. SNAP is derived from the acronym for “Social Networking Application Provider.” In conjunction with its name change, the Company’s ticker symbol will change to STVI effective Friday, December 14, 2007.
SNAP Interactive initially created the “Are...
SpeedDate.com Licenses Online Speed Dating Patent →
The speed dating market continues to get serious about bringing people together via microphone and webcam.
SpeedDate.com, the world’s first online speed dating website, secured an exclusive license to U.S. Patent Number 7,203,674 covering key aspects of online speed dating. The agreement further solidifies SpeedDate.com’s position at the forefront of an online dating industry moving towards...
Linux Vendor Launches DatingDNA →
Kevin Carmony, recently-resigned CEO for desktop Linux vendor Linspire, today unveiled his new venture, Dating DNA, LLC. Dating DNA provides free and open Web Services which bring 1-click compatibility scoring and other sophisticated dating features to Social Networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, and Craigslist.
No news that daters have been leaving paid dating sites in droves for social...
MyMatchPod Speed Dating with Webcams →
myMatchPod says its the first online dating widget to offer free live speed dating via webcams. I guess they were so busy getting the application built that they failed to pay attention to the other 10 companies fighting for supremacy in the burgeoning videodating market.
Joining in on the fun is fast and easy. All that is needed is a microphone. For a limited time a web camera is optional.
...
Yahoo Personals Email Update Take Ten Days →
I changed my email preferences at Yahoo! Personals and they tell me it’s going to take up to 10 days to change my communications preferences. Where is this processed, by hand at the North Pole?
addthis_url = 'http%3A%2F%2Fonlinedatingpost.com%2Farchives%2F2007%2F12%2Fyahoo-personals-email-update-take-ten-days%2F'; addthis_title = 'Yahoo+Personals+Email+Update+Take+Ten+Days'; addthis_pub =...
World Dating Partners Alliance with Relationship... →
World Dating Partners, a leading online dating platform provider, today announced its strategic alliance with Think Partnership’s Relationship Exchange, to form one of the largest dating membership databases of over 20 million members.
Once you strip out the PR hyperbole it comes down to this. Relationship Exchange will use World dating Partners platform to run all of its partners dating...
Problems Accessing Virtual Conference Data →
Several people have emailed to let me know they are unable to log into their Social Networking Virtual Conference account today. They, like myself, have countless emails, guestbook entries and contacts that we spent hours building up yesterday, and are now for some reason denied access to what is rightfully our information.
Pringo, the company who hosted the virtual conference, told me the...
Inside The Virtual Social Networking and Dating... →
I am hanging out at the Virtual Social Networking and Dating Conference. Today’s event is the pre-event for Social Networking Conference and associated Dating Conference happening in January in Miami. I just spent 30 minutes in the chat room, lot’s of good conversations and questions. If you are registered, visit my profile and add me as a contact.
10:27am: Home page needs a refresh every few...
Preparing for the Virtual Social Networking and... →
This is the first minute I’ve had to come up for air in several days. I’m trying to set up my profile for the Virtual Social Networking and Dating Conference tomorrow.
I’ll have chat open and my webcam on if anyone wants to say hi, although I’ll have to keep conversations brief. My Profile. I’m covering some of the day for client TelTech systems, which is a iDate Bronze sponsor. Do we even call...
Parts of Match are Down →
Parts of Match.com are not functioning at the moment. Match is the Myspace of the dating world. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. You never really know what the problem is, but it goes away after a while. The testimonial form sends an email to someone, how complicated can that be? Makes me wonder, if something as simple as that is broken, how reliable is the rest of the system?
...
Match.com Launches Match My Friends →
I have no idea how long this has been a feature because Match never promotes anything on the site but tonight I stumbled across the Match My Friends Feature.
I posted a matchmyfriends2.pdf screenshot of the service so you can check it out.
Basically, Match wants you to create profiles for your friends who are too lazy to try Match or on another dating site. They added a testimonial field to a...
Yahoo Personals Untargeted Advertising →
Since I cancelled eHarmony, I decided to sign up for Yahoo! Personals again. Lots of people had visited my free profile and while I was going through my inbox I noticed the following ads at the bottom of people’s emails.
You would think that Yahoo, with it’s new Panama advertising platform, would be able to target ads based on my profile. As far as I know, I’m not dysfunctional (well not that...
Cancelling eHarmony Subscription →
Eharmony is a great service for some singles, but evidently not for me. Must be my alternative lifestyle and heavy drug use (joking people!). Seriously, six months and no decent matches. I’ve had better experience chatting with women on OKCupid, which I never would have guessed. Sure, OKCupid is not for serious daters, but the email flirting and a few get-togethers were much more satisfying....
Chats Robots Getting Smarter →
Question: When did anonymous text chat jump the shark?
Answer: Today.
A Russian website called CyberLover.ru is advertising a software tool that, it says, can simulate flirtatious chatroom exchanges. It boasts that it can chat up as many as 10 women at the same time and persuade them to hand over phone numbers.
The program, so far available only in Russian, will go on sale around February...
People Recommendations With Matchmine →
I’m currently working with Matchmine, a startup focused on personal recommendations. Matchmine can also match you to other people, by computing the similarity of your respective MatchKeys. This is very interesting stuff, especially in regards to personality testing. Why take a long test when you can compare your tastes and preferences directly? That’s all I can say for now (veil of secrecy...
Penthouse Acquires Various, Inc. →
Turns out the rumor was true, Penthouse acquired Various, Inc. Various boasts 260 million members and about as many paying members as Match.com, most of the action coming from Adultfriendfinder.
Nice payday for CEO Andrew Conru and his merry band of alternative lifestyle gurus, although not as large as I expected. I wonder how the members of BigChurch feel about the sale? Imagine calling...
Matchmine on GigaOM →
Client Matchmine was featured on GigaOM recently. Very interesting recommendation engine that avoids the majority of privacy issues that have ben raised to date in regards to other recommendation systems. Of interest to readers of my other blog, matchmine can also match you to other people, by computing the similarity of your respective MatchKeys.
addthis_url =...
Here Comes Another Bubble - The Richter Scales →
Great and very funny video about impending Web 2.0 Internet bubble. Instant classic.
addthis_url = 'http%3A%2F%2Ftheprogressbar.com%2Farchives%2F2007%2F12%2Fhere_comes_another_bubble_-_the_richter_scales%2F'; addthis_title = 'Here+Comes+Another+Bubble+-+The+Richter+Scales'; addthis_pub = 'relaxedguy';
Dating Site Review: Singlesnet →
After receiving 50+ email alerts, I broke down and signed up for Singlesnet so I could email people and see how the system works for paid users. It’s arguably the dating site with the most traffic and I wanted to evaluate the experience and see what types of people use the site.
In short, Singlesnet has figured out a way to drive an incredible amount of traffic to a site which for the life of...
Chemistry Hosting Live Chat with Dr. Helen Fisher →
Chemistry.com is giving curious daters the opportunity to have their questions answered by a renowned expert on love through a live chat: “Sex, Love and Lies: The 21st Century Romance.”
Questions of all kinds will be answered, including:
Do you think it’s possible for “bedroom chemistry” to evolve over time?
Are there differences between the way different races date?
Why do people do...
Web Strategy Social Networking News Digest →
Let’s face it, keeping up with news in the online dating and social networking world can be a chore. When it comes to deep thinkers plugged into what’s happening and overflowing with interesting insights and commentary, I recommend the Web Strategy blog. For me this replaces at least 25 RSS/newsfeeds I’ve been following. Putting it into the sidebar for easy reference.
addthis_url =...
Flash Media Server Massive Price Cuts →
Companies like Userplane rely heavily on the Flash Media Server to power chat/video applications. Licenses that used to cost $45,000 have been slashed to around $4,500 or much less. This is good news for existing video/chat providers and startups looking to create even more ways to power people-to-people communication.
via Read/WriteWeb.
addthis_url =...
FTC Slaps AdultFriendFinder For Porn Pop-ups →
Fresh on rumors that Adult Friend Finder was acquired last month, legal troubles which undoubtedly complicate the transaction.
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said in a statement that AdultFriendFinder affiliates used pop-up ads to drive traffic to the site, and exposed consumers, including children to sexual explicit images when search for terms including “flowers,” “travel,” and “vacations.”...
Meetic buys German Dating Sites →
News from ODI friends in Germany. Light editing on my part.
Meetic bought 100% of neu.de and 100% of partner.de for a sum of 25 million Euros. For dating executives in Europe, the acquisition was not a surprise, because neu.de made a big “pimp up for aquisition” in the last month. Insiders think meetic+neu.de will have postion 2-3 by turnover but the market leader is still friendscout24. We’re...
Date.com Polls and Blog Widgets →
Date.com has implemented an exit survey powered by Upsellit. They are a previous client, but I never heard about these new items on the website.
On their quizzes page they have “Cool stuff to stick on your blog”, including a quiz and a hot or not calculator. I like how you have to take the quiz and then you are provided with the code for your blog. Maybe Meir can tell us more about this.
I...
ACAP Launches, Robots.txt 2.0 For Blocking Search... →
MBOI (May be of interest).
After a year of discussions, ACAP — Automated Content Access Protocol — was released as a sort of robots.txt 2.0 system for telling search engines what they can or can’t include in their listings. However, none of the major search engines support ACAP, and its future remains firmly one of “watch and see.” Below, more about the how and why of ACAP.
via...
College Tonight Goes Public in Reverse Merger →
More dating sites are getting into the stock market.
LA-based social net College Tonight has gone public on the OTCBB market via a reverse merger with Simex Technologies. As part of the transaction, College Tonight said it has raised $1.6 million in a private placement. College Tonight CEO Zachary R. Suchin is now the CEO of Simex, which is applying to change its name and its ticker symbol,...
Beliefnet Being Bought By News Corp →
It’s been up and down for BeliefNet the past few years. Looks like it’s up for now.
Beliefnet, the NYC-based multi-faith community site which has been around since 1999 and has gone through Chapter 11 bankruptcy, has finally been bought. The buyer is News Corp…yes, the company has found faith, well, multi-faith, according to FishBowlNYC and since then also confirmed to us by sources. Beliefnet...
Pringo Networks PR is Broken →
I am suffering from Pringo Networks fatigue. I’m getting spammed from their PR agency, Lewis PR.
First I am told that Pringo is powering BuddyUniversity.com, whatever that is.
Then I realized, after mentioning NetworkingMatch as a good choice to power the pre-event virtual conference, that Pringo is actually powering it. Press release ended up in spam folder, whoops. I’m interested to see how...
Social Networking Conference in Miami →
It’s that time of year again. iDate Miami is right around the corner, except this year the conference is officially social networking with a side of dating. If you working in the dating or social networking market, you should be there, it’s the only event of its kind.
I haven’t been in a few years but most of the people I know in the industry I’ve met F2F at iDate. Plus, how can you not have...
Reputation Economy Conference at Yale, Dec 8 →
If you follow the reputation space in any way, this is going to be an excellent event.
The Information Society Project at Yale Law School is proud to present Reputation Economies in Cyberspace. The symposium will be held on December 8, 2007 at Yale Law School in New Haven, CT.
This event will bring together representatives from industry, government, and academia to explore themes in online...
Dating Site Aggregator Copenda Launches Tomorow →
The dating site aggregator market continues to heat up. Copenda CEO Tal Cohen wrote in to let us know that his dating site startup will launch tomorrow, December 4.
Copenda is a revolutionary social people search engine that allows people to search for their soul mate or new friends in social networks and dating web sites. Our complex algorithms crawlsemi-structured data from multiple social...
Virtual iDate Conference →
The iDate Conference is going virtual.
On December 19, from 8:00 AM EST to 8:00 PM EST, the first virtual conference for the Social Networking Industry. The one day virtual event is free. Our Silver Sponsors, Pringo Networks, is hosting the event for us. Userplane will be providing the chat software (including Video Chat for those with webcams - we recommend webcams).
On that day, you will...
Reputation Economy Conference at Yale, Dec 8 →
If you follow the reputation space in any way, this is going to be an excellent event.
The Information Society Project at Yale Law School is proud to present Reputation Economies in Cyberspace. The symposium will be held on December 8, 2007 at Yale Law School in New Haven, CT.
This event will bring together representatives from industry, government, and academia to explore themes in online...
A Wedding, Dating Site Launches, Background checks... →
I’m back from family wedding this weekend. My aunt got married at 65 after using several online dating services the past few years and it was the groom’s first marriage, at 65. See, this online dating stuff works if you work it.
A couple of stories to get the week started.
AmericanSingles®.com’s consolidates affiliate programs at Commission Junction.
To make things easier, Spark Networks...
A Kiss-Off to Online Dating, Hello WooMee →
Sarah Lacy at BusinessWeek says it’s over between her and online dating sites. She thinks she’s going to find her mate on Myspace and Facebook. Good luck with that, Sarah. Then she goes on to state that online dating as we know it is dead. I don’t know whether I should laugh at her ignorance or join in.
Dating services have not done a good job leveraging social networking sites, except to spam...