Online Dating News
New dating sites and new developments in the online dating industry are covered here.
Ever wondered what the top dating and relationship deal breakers are for men or women? eHarmony actually asks its users exactly that question as part of its personality matching process and they’ve released the data. I came across a post on the Detroit Free Press site listing the top 10 of each. Handy if you want to know what to avoid if you’re looking for a long term relationship or marriage.
It seems both men and women (on eHarmony at least) see lying, cheating and rudeness as the top three deal breakers, in that order. Infidelity follows at number 4 for women and is, interestingly, number 6 for men, preceded by poor hygiene and mean-spiritedness. I am at a loss as to how infidelity and cheating differ on this particular scale. Could it be that cheating at cards or cheating people out of money is further up the list than cheating on your partner? Ho hum. Men will surely be encouraged by the fact that poor hygiene is only number 7 on the list of women’s turn offs and being overweight isn’t even in the top 10. Women, on the other hand should note that excessive weight is the number 9 male turn off.
See the full list here.
November 29th, 2011
The Vancouver Sun recently published an article with some interesting online dating statistics and recent research. It makes for some interesting reading. Apart from stating the obvious – that men on online dating sites prefer women who are skinny and shorter than they are and that women prefer men who are taller than they are and wealthy, it did point out the interesting fact that men who are slightly overweight tend to get more replies from women. I wonder if it ties in with that bit of recent research that showed women are happier in serious relationships where the man is the heavier one? Or could it be that being slightly overweight is some sort of subconscious signal that the man is financially stable?
Either way, these figures are good news for men (go on, have that doughnut!) and somewhat bad news for women worried about their weight.
There are a few others interesting bits of statistics in the original article, including the answer to the age old question – how many people lie in their personal description.
November 21st, 2011
Next time you think you’re having a bad online date, spare a thought for poor Leah Gibbs who went out with a guy she met on Facebook only to be used as a getaway driver when he robbed a bookies (gambling shop) for the princely sum of £245. Mr. Right asked to stop at a Ladbrokes on the way to the date, only to emerge from the shop minutes later brandishing a gun and wearing a black bandana. He shouted “Drive!” at the shocked Gibbs.
The young single mother of two was initially arrested, as it was thought she was in on the fun, but was released when it turned out the guy was acting alone and she was merely an unwitting victim.
The world is apparently full of charmers!
You can read more about this story here.
September 5th, 2011
John Walters recently wrote a piece in the Guardian about how online dating sites are “eroding humanity”. This is where I would be expected to get in to a big rant about how he’s wrong, which I do believe he is, though I do see where he’s coming from as well. If the world was really as he seems to see it, then we’d potentially have a problem on our hands.
Walters claims that by using online dating, we’re trying to control the uncontrollable thing that is love and turn it more into a business transaction, the way arranged marriages were, but worse. Personally, I think it’s an exaggeration, possibly for the purpose of making headlines and sparking off a debate. But if online dating really did manage to take the unpredictable out of love, it would indeed be quite a change from what we know of as humanity. Unlike Walters, I don’t necessarily think that would be a bad thing. To me, the reason people have so much trouble with love is that as a species, we’re struggling to combine our primal urges (remnants from when we were living in the jungle and love was free and a free for all) and the confines of an advanced society with rules, regulations and religion. Much of what we see as beautiful art and poetry grew out of real misery of the people involved in creating such art. Ultimately, wouldn’t it be nice if for most of us, there’d be a way to eventually say goodbye to the perils of incompatible love affairs and have a way to conveniently pick the people who were right for us at this moment in time? Wouldn’t we be able to do more creative and productive things with our time if the love aspect was taken care of?
Of course, that is not the case and could never be the case. The human element is far from nonexistent in the online dating world. Even on sites where you rely on a computer to connect you with “compatible” people, there is a random element. Would there be someone compatible for you on the site? Would anyone compatible on paper actually be attractive to you physically, or even genuinely compatible? Would there be chemistry? Would you manage to keep a relationship together through the years? Would you remain compatible or drift apart? As long as there are people involved, humanity is present. Using an electronic tool to find another human is hardly eroding your humanity any more than using traditional matchmakers, some of which would make you fill out a form and never actually meet you in person. At least with online dating, as opposed to arranged marriages, you get to choose your own partner based on your own intuition. If the description you read is accurate – you’ll have a happy, long lasting relationship with someone who wants to develop and grow in the same direction as you. Otherwise, well, that’s pretty unpredictable and random right there.
I have to say that I personally prefer dating sites where you can run your own searches, exactly because of the element of randomness (and I say this even though I write regularly for a dating site of the other sort, which uses what is actually quite a decent and in depth test to send you matches). In my experience, though, people meet and fall in love on both types of sites and sometimes even on really crappy sites you would never have thought would work. If that’s not the unpredictable nature of love at work, I don’t know what is.
July 31st, 2011
There’s an article out on the Guardian website about older women and the online dating industry. I occasionally get asked about this and it saddens me to say that yes, women in their 40s, 50s and 60s do suffer online, as men are often looking for younger women. This is the one time when I tell people to lie online – when the woman looks and feels younger and just wouldn’t make it into most guys’ search on the site. The fact is, online dating on standard sites – the ones not aimed at older daters in particular – can be pretty harsh for older ladies. It’s not impossible and some women do find love in this way, but it’s not as easy as finding someone when you’re a happy go lucky girl in your 20s.
One of the ideas touted at older women in the article is to look for younger men on sites that cater for “cougars”. Personally, I hate the term cougar, because I don’t think women interested in younger men ought to be such an unusual thing so as to warrant a special name or a club. Men do it all the time and while some of us may raise an eyebrow when a man dates a woman half his age or younger, it seems to be socially accepted as a common enough thing. I guess we’re OK with men doing it cause it reminds us of polygamy days when it made sense for the guy to keep adding younger women to his harem so that he can keep producing kids even when his other wives got older. Women doing it for companionship and fun? Maybe weird enough so that we have to counteract it with cougar pride.
Either way, dating younger men if you’re both up for it can be fun. You can get more tips in the article itself.
July 12th, 2011
Not literally, but they did have a very big long article covering the subject. Really good and thorough article, though seems to be covering a lot of stuff that only few people wouldn’t know about nowadays. Whenever I read something like that I wonder whether there are still people out there (in the West) who know so little or nothing at all about online dating or whether the article is just really really late to the party. Explaining who match.com, OKcupid and eHarmony are, for example, is quite unusual nowadays. Either it’s to do with their editorial conventions or New Yorker readers are way way behind on online interaction. There’s also a lot of stuff about the concepts behind online dating and all kinds of issues to do with it, which is cool and insightful, but again, nothing particularly new.
You can read the full article here.
My favourite bit was actually the beginning, as I never knew about the 1964 world fair pen pal selection thing.
Now one of my favourite songs of all time actually makes even more sense to me.
July 6th, 2011
I’m just the messenger here. I just had this email land in my box. The same production company is responsible for QI, so obviously I’m going to help them out with this! They’re looking for interesting dating stories and online dating is a definite angle, if something interesting happened to you along the way.
If you’re interested, drop them a line and you could be on the telly 
Back with a second series, The Rob Brydon Show is looking for people with funny / interesting stories to be in our audience.
Have you got any dating disaster stories? Did you meet your partner in an unusual way? Are you a strange pairing?
If you have ANYTHING funny or interesting you’d like to share with us we’d LOVE to hear from you.
Please get in touch ASAP via therobbrydonshow@talkbackthames.tv
April 21st, 2011
match.com
in the USA is to begin screening its members against the registered sex offenders registry. This follows a sad case where a sex offender met a woman on the site and assaulted her. She’s now suing Match.
It’s important to note (as the site’s president points out) that these lists are not exactly reliable. Match say that since there have been improvements in the quality of these measures and the lists then it now makes sense to do so.
Unfortunately, even with these measures there’s no guarantee criminals won’t slip through the net. Not every rapist or sex offender in the US is on the list. Some haven’t even started raping yet. Now, before you freak out and stop online dating entirely, just remember that these people don’t live inside the Internet. They come from somewhere outside of the Internet and can be met in bars, shops, bible classes and dark alleys all around the country.
On the other hand, you shouldn’t let the fact that Match (and probably other sites soon) are covering their asses stop you from observing the safety rules. I know I keep repeating myself here and talking about safety rules quite a lot, but I worry that measures like this one could make people complacent and actually put them in more danger, as they’d assume they’re 100% safe when in fact, they’re only a little bit safer than they had been. I think it’s great that Match are adding another layer of safety to their already strongly moderated site and I hope more sites do this, but that should never take place of personal responsibility and awareness of personal safety.
April 18th, 2011
When I first started working in the online dating industry, I had a conversation with a friend about the concept (it was a bit less common then) and we joked about him making a dating website where there would be no other men but himself. Women who joined would be given a choice of dating…. him. We weren’t sure about whether it would be funnier to have different profiles for him or just the one profile with one picture.
Now it seems someone in the States has gone and done more or less exactly that, only he seems serious, even though the idea seems like it could be plucked straight out of a viral. I keep expecting some sort of story to enfold with a match.com punchline, but for now, it seems there really is a guy called Chas who wants to be hooked up with his future wife and is willing to pay $10K for the pleasure. If the pictures are anything to go by, Chas is actually quite dishy, too.
So if you know anyone who would like to date Chas, you can go to HookChasUp.com and try to claim your $10K. It’s a great idea and, frankly, I don’t even care whether or not it’s real.
March 28th, 2011
Everyone I talk to seems to assume that online dating is full of liars and cheats, mostly because lying appears to be so much easier to do online. But now someone has started looking into whether people really do lie more online and about lying in general Vs. lying online.
The research revealed that while people lie less in, say, emails and online CVs than they do in phone calls and offline CVs, we tend to mistrust the Internet more and assume people will lie more while using it. This is probably more to do with our fear of the new and unfamiliar technology than with anything else.
In regards to online dating, it seems that most people will put tiny white lies in their profiles (which, by the way, is something I sometimes encourage people to do) but when it comes to the big stuff, people don’t just pull their motivations for lying out of thin air when they’re online as opposed to in person. This is something I’ve discussed before and even put in my book: cheaters cheat. They will either use the net to cheat or they’ll go to a bar and cheat. Scammers and thieves will either use the net to steal or they’ll use other means to steal. Either way, it’s the same cheaters. You may just come across more of them online because you have access to more people. Even the famed African scammers with their 411 scams (aka “Nigerian Money Scams”) predate the Internet. Before the Net they used faxes and before faxes they used posted letters.
What’s interesting is that it seems our intuition is as strong online as it is elsewhere – we may not have visual or aural cues to tell whether someone’s lying, but we’re still likely to get that odd feeling that something is just not right. This site is full of comments from women (and men) who had that feeling when dealing with scammers, ran a search and got to the posts dealing with common soldier scams. Ultimately, I think if we learn to listen to our intuition, not even the Internet can stop us from uncovering liars.
You can read the full article here.
March 7th, 2011
Perhaps unsurprisingly, this was published in time for Valentine’s Day, though I managed to somehow miss it. It’s the results of an eHarmony funded survey of people and how they meet / have met their partners. The results, as expected, are not unexpected, especially considering eHarmony’s target audience.
Apparently, while most people still meet their partners through offline means (introductions through friends and family being the most common), online dating is very popular and effective for more mature daters (40s and up). Younger people still prefer to hang around in clubs and bars, it would seem, though one in 3 people has tried online dating. It also shows things like industry growth, as well as differences between people of different countries when it comes to the sort of dating sites they prefer. For the full article about this survey, go here.
March 4th, 2011
ChristianCafe.com
have released what is said to be the first ever Android app aimed specifically at the Christian dating market. It allows members of the site to browse profiles and communicate with others on the site. Those who are not members yet but want to be can download the app and sign up directly from their phone.
In case you’re wondering why there isn’t an iPhone app, well, there is. It’s been out for a while. You can search for these apps by typing “christiancafe” in the Android app store and “christiancafe.com” in the iTunes store.
February 15th, 2011
Parship.co.uk and Relate, the UK’s relationship counselling charity, have banded together for a great charity campaign this Valentine’s Day to raise awareness of the great work Relate do. Take your online dating belle or beau on your first date this Valentine’s and you could win some fab prizes, including vouchers for yummy meals at Italian restaurant chain, Carluccio’s. Actually, you don’t have to go on a date with someone you just met. Friends, couples, family members and work colleagues can all join in, go on “dates” and earn a chance at winning a prize. Just go on your date, take a picture and submit it to be judged on the Relate website. The most creative picture wins the prize.
While you’re at it, why not text Date to 70007 to donate just £3 to Relate? Your £3 will pay for 15 phone calls for people who really need relationship counselling.
For more details about Relate and The Great Relate Date campaign, visit the Relate Site
February 10th, 2011
I can’t believe this went by without loads more noise and publicity. Or did it? Did I just miss it because I’ve had a busy week?
match.com 
just bought OKCupid, the free dating site that is known for its brilliant compatibility matching system and rich data mining blog. The industry is seemingly abuzz with speculation of how this will affect OKCupid. Apparently the original company will still run it from their NYC offices, so people are hoping things like the blog will keep being run as they are now, with plenty of research and data available for all of us to chew on.
Having been a “victim”, shall we say, of a buy out myself, I’ll be interested to see how this affects both the way the company is run and the final product output to the public. OKCupid was not really run like a standard, money grabbing online dating business as far as I can tell. I know there were some changes along the way geared towards making money, but those were relatively harmless compared to what you
see on other dating sites. I doubt Match bought the site without intending on making it deliver some return on investment so my main concern is not the blog but the character of the site itself. I have no idea of what Match are like when they buy stuff out, but I’m hoping they’ll keep the spirit of the site going, rather than try to make it a Match clone. I have nothing against the match.com site, but OKCupid has stood out for years as unique so it would be a shame to lose that vibe.
February 3rd, 2011
Two men have been arrested in Canada after arranging to meet gay men off dating site Plenty of Fish and then driving off with them and robbing them. Nasty, nasty stuff, though luckily no one was physically hurt. Still a pretty unpleasant experience, I’m sure. This is a good opportunity to remind everyone about the online dating safety rules. I know men are less likely to be affected by violent crime as a result of meeting people online, but this case shows how dangerous it is to just drive off with a complete stranger.
So guys, not to sound like your mom or anything, but even though it’s a lot more common on the gay scene to head off somewhere and have sex on a first date if you fancy the guy, do think twice about it, or at least keep everything to a relatively public place to begin with.
Don’t drive off into the woods with a total stranger where no one can hear you scream.
These robberies happened in Halifax, where I assume there are less gay clubs than, say, Berlin, but I’m pretty sure there’s somewhere people go to meet up that’s not the ‘hood or the wood.
You can read the full article here.
January 31st, 2011
I really wish I lived in the US and had HBO so I could watch this!
When Strangers Click: Five Stories from the Internet is a documentary about finding (or at least looking for) love on the Internet. It follows five different people and their stories of using dating sites and even Second Life to find love.
HBO will be airing it on Valentine’s Day. Maybe it’s so people who are still looking can find hope? I really hope it gets to the UK at some point.
You can read the full synopsis of the film on the HBO site: January 28th, 2011
Do you ever wonder how matchmaking sites like eHarmony and OkCupid decide what matches to send you? An interesting article talks about various innovations in the field of algorithms in the dating industry.
Continue Reading January 3rd, 2011
There are a few very active posts on this site discussing the online dating soldier scam (see related posts below for the list). It’s generally understood that this scam is usually perpetrated by men against women.
I just had a comment (see comment #84) posted on the site from a man who came across a “woman” online who claimed to be a US soldier and reeled off the same sort of bullshit the male scammers use on female victims.
I guess it makes sense that both men and women would be targeted, but I have never come across a female version of this particular scam.
So men, beware. Apart from the more familiar damsel in distress female scammers out there, you may also come across pretend female soldiers.
Luckily, it seems these scammers are as simple to spot as their male counterparts, once you familiarise yourself with their methods.
October 11th, 2010
I seem to have blinked and missed the global day of action against online scams, but if you’ve been a victim of online fraud of the online dating variety (and, of course, any other variety, but this is an online dating blog) and are a UK resident, you are encouraged to report it to the UK’s National Fraud Authority where each complaint is taken very seriously.
Check out the press release.
This is good news in a way, but the fact that “millions of Britons” are losing a total sum of 3.5 billion pounds a year to online scammers is pretty worrying.
June 9th, 2010
CNN ran a weird article recently, about people who lie on online dating sites. The article details research done by a professor in the University of Kansas, looking into people’s lying habits on one “big long-term relationship dating site” (unnamed, but I have my suspicions).
The researcher spoke to over 5000 people and asked them whether they would lie on a dating site and why.
The results seem to imply that those people who said they would lie are the type of people who want to please people and tell them what they want to hear. They don’t lie out of malice, but because they want people to like them.
Both the article and the research seem to blatantly ignore things such as scammers, married people passing themselves off as single and players passing themselves off as serious.
All of these are, sadly, a big part of the online dating industry, which people should be told about and taught how to spot and avoid. Unfortunately, I doubt any of those types of online dating liars would take the time to answer the good professor’s survey and share with us the reasons why they choose to lie and cheat.
On the other hand, we’ve learned that people who are lonely, looking for a serious relationship and willing to take a (most likely lengthy) survey for no personal gain are apparently keen to please. Who’d have thought?
And… get this!
“Online daters shouldn’t be concerned that most people are presenting a false impression of themselves,” Hall said in a news release before Thursday’s phone interview. “What influences face-to-face dating influences the online world, too.”
The fact that the professors conducting this survey tell people that they don’t have to worry about people lying to them online just shows me how out of touch they are with what’s going on out there. The only worthwhile conclusion of this so called “research” is what everyone in the online dating industry knows already and has done for years:
the people who would lie to you online are the same people who’d lie to you in the real world, be they scammers, compulsive liars, cheats or just “self-monitors”, to use a term from the article itself.
Did someone actually pay for this research? If I were paying taxes in America I’d be well pissed off.
You can read the full text of this, frankly rather lame, article here.
March 8th, 2010
Lovestruck.com have come up with a convenient little iPhone app (convenient if you have an iPhone, at least).
Subscribers to the site can use the app for free, which is handy, as the site is aimed at busy city professionals who want to meet like minded singles who live or work near them.
Being able to easily arrange such informal dates on your mobile sounds like a damn fine idea.
February 17th, 2010
Here’s an interesting new site from match.com . The new site is called MatchAffinity
and is based on Match’s personality test. Once you complete the 10 minute test, you can get matches sent to you, as well as look them up yourself.
If you like the way the match.com site works but want a bit more of a psychological assessment to help you think of people in terms of long term compatibility, then this is a good site to have a look at and see if you like their style.
If you like DatingDirectAffinity, you will find this site extremely familiar…
January 21st, 2010
Well, that’s hardly surprising, is it? With the UK braced for even more snow madness, everyone’s apparently been staying at home and hitting the dating sites.
This is a brilliant opportunity to start your new year on the right foot. I know a lot of you will have made a new year’s resolution to find someone, because this is the perfect time to do it. Not only do you have the power of the new year behind you, you also have many thousands of people out there who have made exactly the same resolution. Maybe one of them is your person?
So use this time (when you’re not out making snowmen and stuff) to work on your profile, try out a few dating sites and teach yourself how to work these to get what you want.
Oh yes, and keep warm, it’s cold out there!
January 8th, 2010
A weekly roundup of some online dating stories and offers from around the Internet and the world, as well as my own commentary, of course. This week – an offer from eHarmony, a new iPhone app and some new online dating research.
Continue Reading November 20th, 2009
More about the OKcupid survey…
A recent article in the Telegraph reported the results of a statistical survey conducted by free dating site OKCupid. The survey aimed to discover the makings of the perfect first online dating message, on OKcupid at least.
Continue Reading September 25th, 2009
New figures released by dating site OKCupid reveal some interesting things about online dating response rates and important information about sending your first message to someone online.
Continue Reading September 12th, 2009
On the 22nd of April, the Long Acre Bar in central London will host Ree-cycle, a singles’ event with a few great twists. The first twist is the concept: a very Sex and the City-like concept of “recycling” your love life. Each guest is to bring someone in their life they think is a great catch but is somehow still single. Everyone can then look around and hopefully find the perfect match among someone else’s rejects. It sounds like fun but the second twist makes it even better – the proceeds go to Phab Kids, which is a disabled children’s charity.
So go on, dust off that ex you’ve been keeping tucked away in your wardrobe and take him or her out for a spin. Who knows what fab finds you might uncover!
More information is on their site: Ree-cycle
April 18th, 2009
A while back, I warned about a common online dating scam involving an Iraqi soldier.
Now news has come out about a British woman who fell victim to a very similar scam, losing £10k in the process. The scammer pretended to be an American soldier serving in Afghanistan.
Continue Reading April 11th, 2009
It’s finally happened! The gay and lesbian dating site from eHarmony has launched. CompatiblePartners offers all the best features of eHarmony ( and eHarmony UK ) for gay and lesbian singles who are looking for serious relationships.
The site’s launch follows a legal battle, as eHarmony were sued for their refusal to allow non-heterosexual daters on their sites. After losing the battle, they finally decided to invite gays to their compatibility matching party, but decided to keep things separate, possibly to avoid putting off their more conservative members or to appeal to their founder’s own conservative views. Either way, the site is now up and running and looks every bit as shiny as its hetero counterparts.
Continue Reading April 1st, 2009
I was reading today that a pair of gorillas are celebrating the birth of their first child after being successfully matched by online dating.
Someone left a comment on the article, lamenting the so-called death of similar love-focused introduction agencies for humans and claiming online dating is now only used by people who want to make use of the large number of available singles to lead lives full of casual relationships only.
But is romance really dead online?
Continue Reading March 30th, 2009
GirlsDateForFree,the fast-paced dating site where every night is ladies’ night, has started offering a moneyback guarantee, comparable to the match.com
offering.
This being a fast-paced site, often known for being a casual dater’s heaven, you don’t need to wait a whole 6 months to get a membership. If you date on the site for 3 months without seeing any action, you can get your membership extended for an extra 3 months. Obviously, this is for the men. Women never have to pay to use the site, which is the secret of its appeal.
Terms & conditions obviously apply, but they are pretty standard – you have to have uploaded a photo and filled out every field of your profile within a week of registering and you must have made an effort to contact people on the site.
The new offer is available only to people with profiles created after February 12, 2009.
March 17th, 2009
If you’re single and still looking for something to do on the Valentine’s day weekend, you can always try speed dating or a lock & key party. I already wrote in this blog about singles’ events companies in the UK, but I thought I’d also point out that as of today’s date, there are quite a few singles’ parties scheduled for Valentine’s day that still have places. Prices vary but are usually around the £20 mark, although they do vary can go down to £10 per ticket (or go up to about £25).
If you’ve never tried this sort of thing before, this could be a good time to give it a go. Especially, if you like going out but want to make sure you meet eligible singles while you’re partying. Speed dating was written about quite a lot in the past when journalists thought it was new and exciting, but it has now sort of disappeared from view (apart from the occasional return on the lead up to V-day). It’s still, however, a good way of meeting people and it does work for quite a few people. Here are the events I know of that still have spaces:
Continue Reading February 3rd, 2009
Loopylove.com
used to be one of the most popular dating sites in the UK. It used to be known as one of the best Internet dating sites for people new to dating online, with a simple, unassuming design and a nice collection of useful features. Then it got sold and had rather an ill-advised botched facelift, making it look both unappealing and ever so slightly pretentious. I’m sure this put quite a few people off dating there, to be honest. Now it’s been sold again, to a company that seems to appreciate a clean, functional design. The pretentious elements are no longer to be found and the site now offers a very simple one page sign up, so people can start running detailed searches much much quicker. Hopefully this will see the return to glory of one of the busiest and easiest sites the UK has ever known!
January 20th, 2009
Great news for cosmopolitan, metropolitan daters everywhere! Metrodate.com, 
the world’s largest urban dating site is now totally free to use (as in, “no credit card needed ever” free, rather than “sign up free but pay for messages”). Instead of charging for membership, they will sell locally targeted ad space on the site to cover costs.
The site is available in over 220 countries and an impressive selection of different languages. Its main focus is cities (and it offers city guides as well), but apparently it’s now big enough to have members outside of urban areas. I’m guessing it will grow even more now it’s free.
January 8th, 2009
*** Please note, the website below no longer works. I had a look to see if there are any others and found this one, which claims to be free to use (and I just love the front page image!). In the UK, Lovestruck.com, the chic international urban dating site, were recently offering poker night singles’s events in London, in conjunction with PKR Casino. They do weekly online poker nights for registered Lovestruck members on the PKR site, which I *think* are open to Lovestruck users from all over the world. The site is free to use in many cities, but not in others (though there is a free trial going on at the moment in those, including the London one)***
—
I don’t normally pick up on other people’s press releases when they’re advertising new sites unless I have a specific point to make about their workmanship (see earlier post), but this one made me laugh so much when I saw the headline in Google News, I had to blog it:
Poker-Online-Dating (www.Poker-Online-Dating.com) launches its new and exciting free dating site for online poker players. It matches poker players together from around the world who are looking for true love.
Our site provides a safe environment where people of similar interests and hobbies can meet. Imagine meeting someone online who loves playing poker as much as you. You can discuss the latest poker tournaments you’ve entered, your best poker hands, or your highest winnings without boring your date. Even better, your date understands you!
(and the rest)
Of all the niche fusion ideas in the world this one’s right up there with the Korean Pizza.
“Are you ready to combine online poker with online dating?”
I’m not sure I am, really!
June 23rd, 2007
Internet lothario meets his match
A serial internet dater who was banned from one site for displaying a “lack of commitment” has finally met his Ms Right, it is reported.
(Full story here)
I totally missed out on this when the news came out, but just found it on the Pocado news section.
I remember this guy from my moderating days. It wasn’t our site that banned him, and looks like that was the right move
Maybe all he needed was the love of the right woman?
May 27th, 2007
From the BBC:
Man proposes after four minutes
A single father-of-two proposed to an American woman he met on the internet four minutes after flying 4,000 miles to see her for the first time.
Sometimes the face to face meeting is only needed for a final confirmation.
Warms your heart, doesn’t it?
April 15th, 2007
According to the UK’s office for national statistics, more than seven million people in Britain live alone now, compared with three million in 1971. Single parent families are also on the rise, especially those with lone mothers. Not only are more people living alone or without a partner, people are also getting married later, especially the men. (Full BBC article here).
Add this to the fact over half of the UK’s adult population now have access to broadband and you’ll realise that not only is there a real need in this country for online dating services, the infrastructure exists to make it relatively easy for comapnies to fulfil that need.
April 11th, 2007
Looks like Plentyoffish is going to do more stuff in the UK, with the launch of a new affiliate programme. The UK market still has a lot of scope for growth. I would say much more than the US market right now. We’ll see how big a chunk of that growth Plentyoffish can get.
I’d just like to point out the happy fact that 3 of the 7 sites mentioned in the Hitwise report are ours. Dating For Parents took a lot less than a year to hit the top 10. I’m not sure where our latest site stands, but it’s growing pretty fast so if it’s not there already it will be soon.
Oh, and our affiliate programmes (via Webgains or Tradedoubler) pay better. Just saying
Let the games begin.
April 8th, 2007
Dr David Voas from The University of Manchester said that zodiac ‘love signs’ have no impact on our chances of marrying – and staying married.
The Senior Research Fellow at the University’s Centre for Census and Survey Research analysed the birthdays of all 20 million husbands and wives in England and Wales.
The investigation – using 2001 census data – failed to reveal any evidence of attraction between star signs.
(Full article here)
The research takes into account the fact that professional astrologers view the complete birth charts, rather than rely solely on sun sign, but assumes that sun signs would account for a level of measurable influence, if it existed.
There is no shortage of dating sites out there that offer astrological matching but somehow I doubt any of them will suffer too greatly from the publication of this report. Astrology is still a highly popular way for people to measure their supposed “compatibility”.
Astrology has different trends in it, much like psychology. Astrological compatibility tests are used to measure particular compatibility factors and ignore others (much like trends in psychology ).
The important thing people should keep in mind following this survey is not to take astrological compatibility too seriously and, in particular, not to write off any supposedly “incompatible” matches.
Anything that pigeon-holes people based on factors they cannot control is limited at best.
March 27th, 2007
I’m surprised hotenough.org is the first site in the US to vet people based on looks. The UK’s Gorgeous Dating has been doing it for years and attracting some pretty well-off members who often say they’d never dream of dating on a “normal” site.
With online dating having now become so big, there’s gotta be a way for people to weed out those potentials they’re not likely to ever want to date. Regardless of what qualities you choose to vet people by, the mere act of making a site exclusive only to some daters is always going to be somewhat controversial. By the same token, there will always be a demand for it. The more people discover the fact that online dating usually involves a lengthy process of browsing, searching and physically dating a multitude of unsuitables, the more they will require market niching to make their lives easier. Clubs and bars reserve the right of admission to ensure the right atmosphere, so it was only a matter of time till dating sites started doing it too.
March 22nd, 2007
* That’s the London Underground, for you non-Brits
Just saw this ad today for Indian website, Shaadi.com:
Crappy pic, I know, but I didn’t have a proper camera on me. Click on the image for the bigger version.
It’s a bit unclear in the pic, but the woman is said to be a model into “modern art and boxing” and the guy is a “businessman” who likes Stallone and wildlife. The man is 5’11″ and 29, the woman is 5’4″ and 25. Seems like some very traditional, stereotypical assumptions are being made about the preferences of the target audience. Then again, The Asian community is often quite traditional so maybe they’ll all be flocking to Shaadi.com to find their own businessmen and models.
I noted there aren’t any calls to action, nor are there any promotional codes, mobile shortcodes or any other method of tracking conversions from this campaign. Pure branding? I hope they have money to burn. I know how much these campaigns cost…
March 15th, 2007
A recent report has shown that 20% of British Internet users used dating sites in December last year compared to only 13% in America . The French, however, beat everyone, with 22% of their Internet users logging on for love.
December is traditionally a busy month on the sites, because the holiday season can make people feel pretty lonely. I wonder whether the figures would have been significantly different if the research had been done in a different month. Either way, if you account for the fact that not all Internet users are single, it emerges that online dating has now become pretty much standard in the UK. About time, too.
February 23rd, 2007
