BERKSHIRE EAGLE -- Feb 14 -- The stigma attached to online dating has waned, many say, although it is still approached with caution. Some say interest in it has diminished as well, as more singles return to the old-fashioned face-to-face dating scene. Still, within 30 miles of Pittsfield, Match.com, a high-profile dating service, has 34 screen pages of men seeking women and 34 pages of women seeking men.
Mark Brooks: People are starting to be surprised when their friends 'aren't' using online personals.
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Finding Love Online
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Online Dating Good For Romance
BBC -- Feb 14 -- Bath University psychologist, Jeff Gavin, surveyed 229 online daters. He told BBC News that 4% were already married. UK-based internet dating agencies have an estimated six million subscribers. only 9% of chatroom users chose to converse via a webcam, most "shying away" in favour of "text-based relationships." Almost one in five of those interviewed had started a relationship lasting more than a year via a dating website. Male website customers tended to be "more committed" than female ones, as subsequent chatroom conversations gave them a way to express their feelings which did not normally exist. FULL ARTICLE @ BBC NEWS
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Jambo Launches WiFi Social Software
BUSINESS WIRE -- Feb 13 -- Jambo Networks announced a service that enables people with common interests and WiFi-enabled devices to meet each other when nearby. "Jambo takes advantage of a little-known 'ad hoc mode' in WiFi cards, which allows people to use their devices to directly communicate with each other, whether they are in a WiFi-enabled area or not, so Jambo keeps searching for personal matches, whenever a laptop or other portable device is active -- even on an airplane at 30,000 feet," said co-CEO Jim Young. Travelers will be able to communicate with any other Jambo member throughout the La Guardia airport in a few weeks.
Mark Brooks: Proximity based wireless services hold great promise for the online personals services of the future. (Check out the Mobile/Wireless internet dating conference)
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Online Personals Sites Customer Experience Ranking
BUSINESS WIRE -- Feb 14 -- Yahoo! Personals, Match.com and True.com provided the best search functionality and dating information, earning the highest customer experience rankings. Yahoo! Personals, AmericanSingles and eHarmony ranked highest among prospective customers. The Keynote Customer Experience Rankings are based on research with 2,000 customers and 2,000 prospective customers using American Singles, Black Planet, eHarmony, Friend Finder, Friendster, Lavalife, Match.com, PerfectMatch, Tickle, True and Yahoo! Personals. "Consumer satisfaction with online dating sites is considerably lower than satisfaction levels seen with other online services. However, these diminished satisfaction levels are driven primarily by the personal expectations of the customer and their interaction with other members," said Dr. Bonny Brown. The best sites were well organized and easy to use. Poorer sites were cluttered with ads or heavy text. 83% of start at a search engine. A clear advantage for Yahoo! Personals; 40% started at Yahoo. eHarmony was the most common destination for Google searchers. 50% of customers expressed interest in personality tests, 50% in physical attraction testing. 45% interested in background checks. 30% of online dating service customers in the study were married or living with a significant other/partner! Tickle is considered the "fun" site; 73% described the site that way. Yahoo! Personals is considered the "friendly" site (76%), and True is the "safe" site (69%).
Mark Brooks: How did Keynote end up with a sample set containing 30% non-singles?
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True Ranks Among Top for Customer Satisfaction
PRNEWSWIRE -- Feb 14 -- True.com today was named one of the top three dating sites for customer experience in an in-depth study conducted by Keynote Systems. True was chosen by 69% of study participants as the "safe" site. The resulting rankings are based on research with 2,000 customers and 2,000 prospective customers. 61% were concerned that other members were misrepresenting themselves and 45% expressed a desire to have access to background checks on other members. 50% of study participants also vocalized an interest in personality tests.
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Japanese Alleged Offenses Tied to Online Dating Fell 9.2% in 2004
KYODO NEWS -- Feb 17 -- Alleged Japanese offenses related to online dating fell 9.2% in 2004 from the previous year to 1,582, while the number of victims younger than 18 in these cases dropped 15.1% to 1,085, reported the National Police Agency. The declines were partly attributed to the introduction of a new law in September 2003 that bans online dating websites for soliciting sex involving minors. The report showed that 96% of the victims accessed dating sites via mobile phones. Warnings were issued to 47 website operators; cited for violations such as failing to stipulate that the sites were intended for adults. Prefectural authorities did not order any website operator to change their content.
The full article was originally published at Yahoo Asia, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: 96% of the victims accessed the dating sites via mobile phones!?!
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Online Dating Rekindling Love
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE -- Feb 14 -- "A lot of services said, 'Hey, put in your $25, pull the handle and get your partner,' " said Joe Cohen, chief operating officer for Match.com, a leading online personals site. "It's not that simple. "People were turned off because expectations were raised so high," he added. "Web sites could only under-deliver." To revitalize the industry, some dating Web sites are refocusing on users who want serious relationships. "This market is saturated," said Nate Elliot, an analyst for Jupiter Research. "You have all the online dating sites you're ever going to need." Lorna Borenstein, vice president and general manager of Yahoo Personals, said her business hasn't slowed, as some other companies' has. She attributes the continued growth to Yahoo's giant reach and several new features in the personals area. FULL ARTICLE @ YAHOO
Mark Brooks: New/startup online personals companies should either shoot for a very targeted niche, or secure $5 million+ of marketing funding.
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Love Growing Strong On Web
USA TODAY -- Feb 14 -- The industry has grown so fast that Hitwise foresees a shakeout. Says Mark Brooks, who runs Online Personals Watch, "I think we're moving into the first stages of maturity." So companies are trying, like the most desperate bachelor in the bar, to stand out. Those who market love on the Internet are increasingly wooing customers by giving personality and compatibility tests. For the strongest players, the cyberspace dating game remains lucrative. In December, for instance, eHarmony attracted $110 million from two venture-capital firms. "What kind of metrics must eHarmony have shown the VCs to get $110 million?" asks Brooks. JupiterResearch says online-dating revenue hit $473 million in 2004, up from $396 million in 2003. <On background checks>..."That's a solution looking for a problem," complains Jim Safka, the new CEO of rival Match.com. But some competitors grudgingly admire the marketing strategy. "It was brilliant," says Nelson Rodriguez, CEO of LoveAccess.com. "You try to legislate into law your business model." True's CEO Herb Vest warns: "If a person is married or a criminal, they best go somewhere else." True says it intends to prosecute married people who masquerade as singles. "We don't think of ourselves as an online-dating service," says Greg Forgatch, CEO of eHarmony. "We're all about helping people get married and get married well." Yahoo has launched Personals Premier, a $35-a-month service with advanced searching and matchmaking and a personality test. IMatchup.com has unveiled a handwriting-analysis feature. Niche sites proliferate. "I'm not promoting Cupid.com anymore; I'm pitching DesMoines.Cupid.com," says Cupid.com CEO Eric Straus.
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Tech-Savvy Singles Find Online Personals Nothing Like Real Thing
SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS -- Feb 13 -- Nearly all of the 1,650 new Bay Area members who joined Table for Six in 2004 were singles who stopped fishing online, said owner Julie Paiva. "A big reason why someone does online dating is to expand their social life,'' said Paiva. "But they find out what they're mostly doing is spending time in front of a computer screen." Cali, for one, paid for memberships at five sites before pulling the plug. ``If you're serious about finding someone, you have to spend money and stick around to make the effort,'' she said. In 2000, when eHarmony homed in on the population of serious daters -- armed with a 436-question personality test -- many of its competitors laughed. EHarmony's algorithms for romance struck a chord; boasts a membership of 6.5 million, up from 1 million in 2003. Yahoo Personals, True, PerfectMatch.com and Tickle followed suit with their own love alchemy tests. At ColorCupid members are matched based on color preference tests. Mary.com launched this month offering compatibility testing, background checks and certified photos taken by its photographers to ensure people look like their photos.
The full article was originally published at Mercury News, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: Mary.com, what a great name!
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Online Dating Losing Steam, But Not for Valentine's Day
WASHINGTON POST -- Feb 12 -- Hopeful singles still flock to online dating services such as Match.com, owned by InterActiveCorp -- the company reported a 9% increase in paid subscribers in Q3 2004 over Q3 2003. Revenue was up 3%, to $49.7 million, but operating income was off 37%, at $2.8 million. The drop was due to higher marketing costs and other expenses needed to attract customers. Jupiter Research forecasts that the online dating market will increase 9% in 2005 to $516 million.
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eHarmony Celebrates Marriages
PRNEWSWIRE -- Feb 11 -- eHarmony today announced it will send exclusive wedding gifts to couples who meet and marry through eHarmony. The first gift will be a Heart Bowl from Tiffany & Co.
Mark Brooks: Nice touch. Match.com just announced their new site featuring successful singles at success.match.com.
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People Behaving Badly
METRO SANTA CRUZ -- Feb 11 -- John claims to have dated more than 200 women from various dating websites over the past five years in his earnest search for a wife. "I will usually e-mail about 10 listings on a website. Of those, maybe three or four will reply. You've got to be careful with terminology, differentiating between a coffee date and a first date. About 50% of first dates have led to second or third dates." FULL ARTICLE @ METROACTIVE
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Video Clips Aim to Steer Cupid's Arrows
ASSOCIATED PRESS -- Feb 12 -- After exchanging instant messages and digital photos through an online dating site, he flew to Houston to meet what he hoped would be a beautiful soul mate. What he found was a flabby misanthrope with an apparent drinking problem. "I decided right then that I needed more information before I'd go on another date with someone I met online." New policy: He'll only date women who post videos or use Web cameras in virtual chat rooms. Videos are gaining popularity among the estimated 20 million Americans who visit online dating sites each month. Nearly one in four U.S. singles have used online dating services, according to Date.com. Only 10% of 2.8 million active users at True.com post videos, but the percentage is rising quickly and online profiles with video get more hits than those without. "Online daters go on a lot of first dates but not many seconds," Compagno said. "More information almost always is better." PerfectMatch.com (1.5 million-members) doesn't allow videos. Nor does eHarmony.com. It didn't accept photos until 2001 and will probably never accept videos, said senior VP Marylyn Warren. "Chemistry fogs your brain a little bit," Warren said. "If you see someone who is drop-dead handsome or beautiful, you might forget that she cheated her way through school or he tells lies or does the kind of things that break up a marriage. We need to get at the true character of a person without emphasis on photos and videos."
The full article was originally published at Yahoo, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: Great chemistry is hugely multifaceted, at the core of great relationships, and nigh impossible to predict. Personality profiling distinguishes someone as a great potential friend. The rest is up to chemistry. Your comments please...
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Looking For Love in Cyber Places
BANKRATE -- Feb 11 -- Internet dating is by far the most common, and least expensive, matchmaking method. There's something for everyone, from AmericanSingles.com, Match.com and Yahoo! Personals to the more specialized. With fees starting at $10,000, single men can use Selective Search and receive the "white glove treatment." Staff members are all former corporate recruiters and the company uses the same executive-search model as headhunters to find women to introduce to the men. "If you think about a traditional dating service, it's flawed in the sense that it's such a limited pool to pick from," says Adler.
Mark Brooks: See the future. Well heeled singles will shell out more money for higher end services online.
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HIV-Positive Love at POZ.com
PRNEWSWIRE -- Feb 11 -- America's leading AIDS publication will launch POZ Personals, a free online "dating-plus" site for PWAs. Launched in 1994, POZ is an award-winning national magazine with a monthly readership of 100,000. www.poz.com
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