BUSINESS WIRE — Jan 18 — Userplane, a pioneer in providing enterprise social software for online communities, today announced its new deployments of its Flash-based audio/video communication tools for PlentyofFish. PlentyofFish currently welcomes more than 100,000 visitors a day.
Month: January 2005
The Case Against The FaceBook
CHICAGO MAROON — Jan 13 — If you haven’t heard of either site yet, you’re probably outside their target demographic (35 and under). Friendster and The Facebook channel a spirit similar to the one that fueled Howard Dean’s groundbreaking campaign Meet-ups. Strangers united by a common cause, interest, or acquaintance use the Internet to interact with one another. For many users, Friendster and The Facebook are simply modern-day work-ups of the classic “Kevin Bacon” game: Users get the cheap thrill of seeing how many degrees separate one life from another. And as addicts are prone to do, it’s easy to scapegoat such sites for the social ills of urban alienation.
Are ‘Married-but-Separated’ People Safe to Date?
THIRD AGE — Should you date someone who is "married-but-separated"? Most People Say No. "There is no such thing as being 'separated' — unless you're an egg."
The full article was originally published at Third Age, but is no longer available.
SexyAds Members Play It Safe with PrivateCall
PRWEB — Jan 12 — Phone Matrix announced that its PrivateCall™ anonymous phone contact services are now available to all US and Canadian members of SexyAds.com, the first top adult personals site to provide access to such services. SexyAds’ members can now click to invite other members to one-on-one phone calls without revealing their phone numbers. Invited members can decide to accept or decline call invitations after reviewing profiles. PrivateCall’s high-tech features include a unique proactive contact model – the system dials and connects the parties as soon as both are available to talk. Charges are only for call time and are applied to an inviting member’s credit card. PRWEB
Mark Brooks: Email me if you want a free overview of the anonymous phone enablers.
Lavalife Announces Partnership With Canada’s Leading Portal
NEWSWIRE — Jan 13 — Lavalife today announced a five-year exclusive integrated personals partnership with Sympatico.MSN.ca. The new partnership gives singles the opportunity to access Lavalife content and services across all Sympatico.MSN.ca properties, including its portal, MSN Hotmail and MSN Messenger providing Lavalife with access to more than 85% of all Canadian Internet users.
Sure-fire Sweetheart Suggestions from Dr Warren of eHarmony
NASHVILLE CITY PAPER — Jan 11 — 50% of marriages survive the long haul, but half of those relationships have at least one partner who’s unhappy, according to Dr. Neil Clark Warren, a California-based psychotherapist, marital counselor and author of best-selling books on relationships. "This culture is being eaten alive by marital dissatisfaction," said Warren, married for more than 45 years." So Warren founded eHarmony.com, an online dating site that gives members an extensive questionnaire based on 37 years of clinical experience and research with 7,000 individuals and couples. His latest book is Falling in Love for All the Right Reasons: How to Find Your Soul Mate. Warren also suggests holding back on sharing your heart or your bed with any person until you’ve determined that they’re worthy of your most intimate beliefs and feelings.
Mark Brooks: We’re in dire straits aren’t we? Good news though; 5% of marriages last 50 years! (Of course, they were raised when it was the expectation that people stayed married forever) Dr Warren has written several relationships books. Also books on anger management and religion.
Pitt, Aniston Offered Free Membership to Divorcedating.com
US Newswire — Jan 10 — Founder of divorcedating.com, the nation's premiere dating and information website for singles, divorcees, widows and more, today offered the recently separated Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston a free membership the to the website.
Mark Brooks: FACT:Unmarried singles tend to search for unmarried singles. Nice niche, no traffic, brand new site.
eHarmony and ThirdAge Partner
PRNewswire — Jan 10 — eHarmony and ThirdAge, the only online content, marketing and research company focused exclusively on Baby Boomers, today announced a partnership to provide branded access to eHarmony's patented Compatibility Matching System(TM) to millions of Baby Boomers via ThirdAge.com. More than one-third of the 97 million Americans over 45 are unattached and are turning to the Internet for love.
Mark Brooks: The seniors niche is booming as the 45+ set warm up to online dating. Seniorfriendfinder is the niche leader. Seniorscircle is a small player.
MatchNet plc Changes Its Name to Spark Networks plc
PRNewswire — Jan 10 — MatchNet plc (AmericanSingles, JDate) today announced that the company has changed its corporate name to Spark Networks plc, effective today. It expects the Spark Networks name to more sharply distinguish the company in the marketplace. The company also said that it has launched a new corporate Web site at www.spark-networks.com.
Nielsen/NetRatings Figures Reveal Meetic is Leader of European Online Dating
PR WEB – Jan 8 — According to the latest data compiled by Nielsen NetRatings* (November 2004) for Western Europe, the online dating website Meetic is #1 in Europe. PR WEB
Mark Brooks: I compared Nielsen numbers and Comscore Mediametrix numbers for FriendFinder in September 2003 and was blown away by the difference. Nielsen used a 55,000 USA user sample, Comscore a 110,000 sample set. Hitwise draws it’s numbers from millions of ISP users. Of course, if you don’t want to spend a few grand you can always use Alexa’s rough numbers.