Online Personals Watch: News on the Online Dating Industry and Business

Difference Is The Norm On These Dating Sites

NY TIMES - Dec 28 - Several dating Web sites for singles with health problems have started up in the last few years. Dating4Disabled is a site for people with an array of disabilities, including paralysis and multiple sclerosis. Other sites include NoLongerLonely, for adults with mental illness, and POZ Personals, for people who are H.I.V.-positive. Another site, Prescription4Love, has communities dedicated to sexually transmitted diseases and physical disabilities. Awkward issues that come with an illness can be discussed frankly and openly in an online space in which everyone is dealing with something out of the ordinary. FULL ARTICLE @ NY TIMES

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A Dating Site for People with Special Conditions

THE WASHINGTON POST -- Aug 7 -- Prescription4Love, launched in 2006, is a dating site for people with various illnesses. The niche site (1,000 members) allows users to search according to different conditions, such as AIDS, infertility, and obesity. The site is free for now, but in the future will have a small membership fee, a percentage of which will be donated to charities. FULL ARTICLE @ WASHNIGTON POST

Dating Web Sites For Those With Serious Medical Conditions

CHICAGO TRIBUNE -- July 18 -- The second date is going well, so maybe now is a good time to bring up your colostomy bag. Herpes. Third-degree burns. Dating can be challenging for singles with medical conditions. Ricky Durham was inspired to start an Internet dating company where people with medical conditions could meet a love interest. The site, Prescription4Love.com, is less than 2 years old and has 1,000 members. The site offers search options for more than a dozen medical conditions, including arthritis, cancer, deafness, diabetes, epilepsy, herpes, HIV, HPV and obesity.

Online Dating 2.0: Thirteen Sites To Find Love

TECH CRUNCH BLOG -- Jul 23 -- Online dating drew ~4 million U.S. users daily in June 2006 (25 million monthly), and they spend a daily average of nearly 17 minutes each on these sites. That adds up to ~4.5 billion page views per month (source: Comscore). And that doesn't take into account the billion-a-day Myspace page views. All told, at least 15% of U.S. Internet users visit an online dating site each month. The two largest dating sites are Yahoo Personals and Match.com (9.3 million monthly visitors). Match.com charges $30/month for the basic plan, Yahoo's is $25/month. Both offer premium plans. An entire batch of next generation dating sites have emerged that are starting to nip at the established players. One, PlentyofFish, launched in 2003 and has over half a million monthly U.S. visitors. Google entered the space with their Google Base product. These sites are (mostly) free, making revenue from ad sales alone.

• Consumating - "Find People Who Don't Suck" - Launched the summer of 2005 and was acquired by CNET in December 2005. Tagging plays a big part. Aimed at young hipsters who make themselves more "popular" by answering questions to fill out their profile. Offers contests and weekly user quizzes.
• Engage - Hooks up couples Fiddler-on-the-Roof-style through matchmaking. Users sign up with the usual descriptive profile, but then take on the role of either "dater" or "matchmaker" (or both).
• Google Personals - Google Base - User profiles highly targeted towards dating. Other features include labels (tags), location mapping, and an anonymous email to be reached at.
• GreatBoyFriends - Friends, family and ex's are asked to leave feedback about users. GBF then verifies the endorsement or removes it.
• MatchActivity - MatchActivity is a new site that sets up a date before the introduction. Users post activities in their area and then choose the respondent they like the most and carry out the date.
• MatchTag - Same core activity tagging feature of MatchActivity.com, but wraps it in a more complete social network.  A service to meet new dates and friends.
• MingleNow - Users group themselves by what real world locations they hang out at (bars, restaurants, cafe's, etc.) so groups can mingle online and off.
• PlentyofFish - A very large dating site. Users browse personal profiles free of charge, with a bulletin board system that allows users to freely chat, vent frustrations, and offer up dating advice.
• Poddater - Users create profile videos and allow others to download them and view them.
• Prescription4Love - Niche site devoted to people facing thestigma of special conditions, such as deafness, HIV, or obesity.
• RateOrDate - A meta-dating-search site that features couple ratings, singles event listings, and a dating site directory.
• VerbDate - Adds voice to the usual online dating experience via Skype and incorporates Flickr photo albums. Allows the greatest amount of interaction while remaining physically separated.
• Wikia Personals - Aims to create a free global personals page.

If numbers of profiles matter PlentyofFish leads the pack. Our anticipated favorite is MingleNow - tying socializing to real-world hangouts is a great idea. FULL ARTICLE @ TECHCRUNCH BLOG