FOX -- Nov 29 -- CrazyBlindDate launches in the all the major markets early next year. Meanwhile it’s in San Francisco, New York, Boston and Austin. Sam Yagan, CEO of CrazyBlindDate.com and OKcupid.com was on Fox’s Morning Show with Mike and Juliet and says…
The idea comes from complaints that we’ve heard about traditional online dating sites. First, it’s a lot of work to set up a profile, to spend all kinds of time browsing profiles, sending messages back and forth to other users all to set up a date that may not even happen. If you run a business that’s charging subscription fees, you just want to keep them on your site. Our site is the exact opposite. We don’t want you on our site at all. It’s true we want to get you out on the crazy blind date so that you’re actually out there interacting with other people. …The way it works is we set you up for a 20 to 30 minute blind date at a bar or coffee shop. We’re not sending you out to a 3 hour baseball game or to a $200 dinner. It’s all about going out and spending 20 or 30 minutes out with a stranger and see if you have that connection. …We send you on dates in public places that really are well lit, well known bars or coffee shops.
Do I see a picture at least of the blind date?
No!
Are you kidding?
It wouldn’t be a blind date. It would be a crazy non blind date. You do get to set some parameters. You get to say of course the age, gender, orientation of the person you want to me but also you can have height parameters, body type, etc.
I'll be very interested in seeing if this takes off at all. It's not a fresh approach per se; blind dates have been around forever. Indeed, the Valentine's Day holiday originated from a "blind date" matchmaking festival.
My initial reaction to this newly launched service is that it's a bad idea from a safety and user standpoint. I mean, online daters don't seem to like blind dates online -- it's well known that profiles with pics receive significantly more attention/hits than those without. So.. one could argue this logic would carry offline as well.
Also, this approach fails to consider that many people use and like online dating for its "fantasy" aspects. Not all members want to meet offline. Instead, they signed up and are responding to the excitement of anonymity and uninhibition that online dating offers.
Nevertheless, I'll be watching this space with great anticipation.
Thx,
James Houran, Ph.D.
Online Dating Magazine
Posted by: James Houran | Nov 30, 2007 at 01:25 PM