Month: February 2005

Bachelor in a Bubble

Posted on February 11, 2005

Aussie1NEWS.com — Feb 11 — Luke, a 29-year-old lifeguard and surveyor, encloses himself in the Match.com Love Bubble in a Sydney, Australia, shopping mall. He plans to remain inside until Valentine's Day, when he hopes publicity will have helped him nab the perfect girl.  Lifeguard Luke relaxes in his Match.com Love Bubble on Feb. 10. He's waiting for a dream girl to send him an e-mail that will coax him out for a Feb. 14 Valentine's Day date.

Mark Brooks: And the comment on News.com > "And he'll be sterile by then too."

Match.com Exhibits Historic Photos of Love Digital Billboard Near Times Square

Posted on February 11, 2005

PRNEWSWIRE — Feb 11 — Match.com will present  a dynamic photo exhibit of love and romance displayed on the 1,300 sq ft digital billboard over New York’s Port Authority terminal on Valentines Day.  Approximately 1.5 million pedestrians are expected to pass by the Port Authority terminal building on Valentine’s Day.  After Valentine’s Day, the exhibit may be viewed online at Match.com.

OnlinePersonalsWatch.com Officially Launches

Posted on February 10, 2005

PRWEB — Feb 10 — OnlinePersonalsWatch.com officially launched today as the premier source for online personals news and industry information. "Finding the right partner is the most important decision a person can make. Online personals sites hold great promise in helping us improve the quality of these decisions. I hope to give greater visibility to the industry as a whole with OnlinePersonalsWatch," stated editor, Mark Brooks.

Relationship Based Matching; Love Machines

Posted on February 10, 2005

LA CITY BEAT — Feb 10 — It’s hard to know how faith might play into Warren’s methods, since he is unwilling to subject his never-published test research to independent review. “There’s obviously an evangelical influence,” says Dr Thompson of weAttract.com, creators of Yahoo Personals relationship test. Warren has a master’s of divinity and clinical psychology Ph.D. and served as dean of Fuller Theological Seminary School of Psychology. Friendster.com recently partnered with eHarmony but the company was unaware that eHarmony excluded gays/lesbians until informed by CityBeat. “I have to call and talk to eHarmony about that, because you’re telling me this for the first time,” says Friendster’s head of bus. dev.  EHarmony also rejects one in five who fill out the 500+ personality questions. eHarmony screens out anyone with a curiously low level of energy (depression), users with three+ unsuccessful marriages, or anyone who fails to answer its questions truthfully. Eharmony's questions use the homogamous approach, based on the idea that like fits better with like. True, PerfectMatch, and Yahoo! prefer to match users based on complementarity. Dr Houran, of True, is author of an article in The North American Journal of Psychology detailing their failings. The PerfectMatch members who meet on Dr. Phil are disappointed that they haven’t all been united with their potential soul mate, but seem to understand that very few things in life ever work out perfectly. About 15 of the couples from the show seem to have hit it off.

The full article was originally published at La City Beat, but is no longer available.

Hurrydate; Comcast Debut of Dating on Demand

Posted on February 10, 2005

REDNOVA — Feb 10 — Comcast is lending Cupid a helping hand this Valentine's Day, making it easier for singles to connect with someone special with the national launch of Dating on Demand, the first service to combine video on demand (VOD) and online dating, on February 14. Dating on Demand offers Comcast Digital Cable customers with VOD the opportunity to view video profiles of single men and women at any time. Comcast is partnering with HurryDate, a leading online and "rapid dating" events company. In addition to Dating on Demand, Comcast's ON DEMAND service features more than 2,200 programs that customers can watch at any time. 

Love, Flowers, Goat-Meat Floggings: History of Valentine’s Day

Posted on February 10, 2005

BANKRATE — Feb 10 — American men and women will spend an average $135 each on gifts for Valentine’s Day this year — dinners and romantic outings excluded. In the Christianization of cultures, ancient celebrations were often replaced by Christian holidays. Some claim that this is the case with Valentine’s Day, which falls around the time of the pagan Lupercalia festival. Lupercalia, like many great ancient rituals, included a good old-fashioned goat slaughter. The goat meat was cut into strips, dunked in sacrificial blood and then used to lightly slap women and crops, a ritual that was supposed to make them more fertile. According to legend, single women would then place their names in an urn. Bachelors of the city would draw a name out of the urn and the couple would be paired for the year.

Date Docs Rate Will Smith’s Romance Prescriptions

Posted on February 10, 2005

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS (front page) — Feb 10 — In the romantic-comedy "Hitch," opening tomorrow, Will Smith plays a "date doctor" who tutors clueless guys in how to impress the women of their dreams. Hitch says: "Use what you've got – if you're shy, use your shyness. If you're outgoing, be outgoing." Dr. Neil Clark Warren, founder of the online dating site eHarmony.com and author of 'Falling in Love For All the Right Reasons,' says,"You don't want to fabricate a persona to make a first date memorable. You can't fool the other person into thinking you're terrific. Plus, you're going to create a front-end identity that over time you can't maintain."

The full article was originally published at NY Daily News, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: Dr Warren has built up incredible momentum as a media spokesperson.

Spark Networks Adds Prominent Venture Philanthropist to Board

Posted on February 10, 2005

PRNEWSWIRE — Feb 10 — Spark Networks appoints Laura Lauder to its Board of Directors. At Lauder Partners, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital fund, Mrs. Lauder’s primary areas of focus include Internet and cable-related technologies. Mrs. Lauder is also involved in a variety of philanthropic initiatives, particularly in the Jewish community. In 2004, Mrs. Lauder was named one of "10 Women to Watch" by Jewish Woman magazine.

Mark Brooks: Spark networks is in the process of sharpening up it’s brands.  Check out Gary Lauder’s alter egos.

16% of Surfers Visit Dating Sites

Posted on February 10, 2005

SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL — Feb 10 — From January to June 2004, Web surfers spent $235.3 million on online personals, according to the Online Publishers Association and comScore Networks. That figure is about 10% more than the $214.3 million spent in the first half of 2003. Just think, in the first half of 2001, people spent only $22.6 million on Web Personals. Of America’s 161 million Internet users, 16% visited a personals site in December 2004. Top 5 Web dating sites, ranked by Comscore Mediametrix by number of unique visitors in December 2004: 1. Yahoo Personals, 5.7 million, 2. Match.com sites, 4.4 million, 3. MatchNet, 3.89 million, 4. Eharmony.com, 1.9 million, 5. True.com, 1.5 million

Mark Brooks: From $50 million to $500 million in 4 years!

JupiterResearch Reports the Number of Users Visiting Online Personals Sites Falling

Posted on February 9, 2005

BUSINESS WIRE — Feb 9 — "Online Dating: Serious Daters Offer Salve For Slowing Growth" is based on a survey of over 2,300 online adults, and also includes JupiterResearch’s forecast for the growth of the online personals market. The report finds that 33% fewer consumers are browsing online personals today than one year ago, causing the industry growth to slow considerably. "The industry grew by 73% in 2002 and 77% in 2003. But in 2004, as the number of users actually started to decline, the market grew by only 19%. In 2005, the industry will grow by just 9%, to $516 million." With fewer users browsing online personals, dating sites have focused on increasing conversions. "Serious daters present an attractive opportunity for personals sites. These users convert 20% more often, are twice as likely to purchase long-term subscriptions and pay up to twice as much per month as casual daters," stated Elliott. For additional information on the online personals report or visit www.jupiterresearch.com or contact Kieran Kelly at 1-800-481-1212.