Mark Brooks: WebDate has been steadily climbing the ranks.
Month: April 2005
Weezer Star Gives Up On Online Dating
CONTACT MUSIC — Apr 26 — Oddball WEEZER star Rivers Cuomo…"I signed up to eHarmony once, and it took three hours to fill out that online form – so many personal questions. Then I clicked on submit, and instantaneously they responded and said, ‘We are sorry, but there is no one anywhere in the world that is appropriate for you.’ So that was it, I gave up." FULL ARTICLE @ CONTACT MUSIC
Mark Brooks: Same thing happened to me. Then a couple of days later I got a few matches, then a few more…I was so relieved that I wasn’t deemed insane and unmatchable that I immediately paid up. Is this some form of ‘conversion/selling psychology.’
Cupid Aims for Background Checks
LA TIMES — Apr 25 — True's founder and CEO, Herb Vest, believes that every online dating service should conduct background checks, as True does. "The primary motivation is to protect people from criminal predation online. I can't imagine anyone with a hatful of brains being against that." Vest said he spent $200,000 last year on lobbyists around the country. Although opponents charge that his goal is to gain publicity for his site, the legislation has met with at least some success in four states. The Michigan House of Representatives late last year passed legislation based on a model bill written by True; it wasn't approved by the state's Senate but was reintroduced in both houses this year. Similar measures are being considered in Florida and Texas, and an Ohio lawmaker plans to introduce one this month. A California version was pulled before a committee could vote on it this year. "This is one of those feel-good kind of legislations that politicians can get behind," said analyst Charlene Li of Forrester Research Inc.
Internet daters themselves are divided. John Knowlton, 52, a journalism teacher, said he was uncomfortable with government taking a role in the matter. And he found it unfair that online dating was being singled out. Elana Luber, 35, a lawyer in the Los Angeles area, is generally in favor of background checks, saying: "Who wouldn't want to have people screened for something so basic as whether or not they're a criminal?"
Texas state Rep. Will Hartnett, a Republican, put opponents in the same category as those who would "defend child molesters who prey on people on the Internet." He dismissed the worries about privacy being compromised. "As far as I am concerned," he said, "anyone convicted of a felony loses the right of privacy." But Vest acknowledges that it's not clear whether a search of criminal records would have prevented any of several cited incidents. And in California, Assemblywoman Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills) said she withdrew a background-check bill she had introduced after True's lobbyists couldn't give her concrete examples of anything untoward an online dater had endured that a check might have derailed. That's a key problem, said Beth Givens, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse in San Diego. Givens said her objections centered on shortcomings in the records culled by background-checking companies. "Because these sites don't cover every jurisdiction in the country, it could give a false sense of security," Givens said. True uses Rapsheets Criminal Records, owned by ChoicePoint for background checks. The service's coverage is spotty in some states. In California, Rapsheets can search Superior Court records in only four of the state's 58 counties. "The privacy laws in California are stricter than just about anywhere else," said Camille Gamble, director of marketing at Rapsheets, headquartered in Memphis, Tenn. She said the only statewide record the company was able to access for California was a sex-offender list.
Match.com has about 1 million paid subscribers, said spokeswoman Kristin Kelly. She defended the safety of the sites, saying that clients get to know one another online before they mutually decide to meet. She added that there had been fewer than 10 reported violent crimes in connection with people who met at Match.com in a decade of operation.
Vest, 60, defended his plan, saying that it was born less of business interests than a personal crusade against violence. Shortly before his second birthday in 1946, he said, his mother found his father dead at his cabinetry business. The death was judged a suicide, but recently, Vest said, he uncovered evidence that it was a homicide. (The case was featured on CBS-TV's "48 Hours" news program this year.) "The murder of my father certainly left its mark on me," Vest said. "I believe that I perhaps have a great deal more compassion about these matters. Deep down, I want to protect people from criminals." There could be long-term economic benefits from standardized background checks for the entire industry, said Vest, who founded a financial-services company that was sold to Wells Fargo & Co. in 2001 for $127.5 million. "If we gain the overall public acceptance of online dating, we can more than double the number of people coming to us," Vest said. "The other sites are being myopic; they are only interested in short-term gain."
Mark Brooks: The most thorough article on background checks so far. Your comments please…
We’ll Always Have ICQ
WIRED — Apr 22 — It has almost become mainstream to start relationships on the internet. Dr. Marilyn Volker, a Miami-based sexologist who has been in practice more than 30 years, estimates that 90% of the newlyweds she talked to on her Hawaiian vacation last year — and there were a lot — said they met online. There's the Match.com girl you dated three times and have no interest in seeing again. There's the guy who keeps e-mailing you long after he should have given up. What's the etiquette for ending these nontraditional arrangements? Do three dates with someone you met online obligate you to a breakup phone call? Or is e-mail enough? Lynn Harris, co-founder of Breakup Girl, believes that "the only time it's OK to break up by text message is if the entire relationship consisted of text messaging. That goes for e-mail, too."
Userplane Webmessenger Deployed on Friendster
BUSINESS WIRE –Apr 25 — Userplane, the leading provider of live community software, today announced the deployment of its instant messaging solution on Friendster. "Our members asked us for the ability to meet and interact with other members in real time," said Jim Scheinman, Business Development Director, Friendster.
Mark Brooks: Congratulations to Mike Jones and Friendster, on a good choice. 16 million users are going to keep Userplance busy for sure.
Hurry Up and Get Married
ASHLAND DAILY TIDINGS — Apr 22 — I am at the vanguard of a non-marrying generation, the first American generation in which bright young girls grew up assuming they would have careers. The consequences have been remarkable. From 1970 to 2000, the percentage of women ages 30 to 34 who never married almost quadrupled, from 6% to 22%, and from 9% to 30% for men. Many go the Internet route, some 40 million Americans but men swarm around the most attractive female packages like so many sperms racing to an egg. Such women spend half their day working and half their day deleting e-mail messages.
The full article was originally published at Ashland Daily Tidings, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: Men can be ignored, women may be inundated. eHrmony has done a good job of moderating the online dating process and essentially slooowing it down, way down. Which is great for monthly dues and most surely helped them raise their $110 million of VC money not too long ago.
Background Checks Legislation Passes 2nd Committee
OPW Scoop — Apr 26 — The Florida background checks legislation passed the second committee review moments ago…winning 4-2. It's now open for the full senate to vote on. Adjournment is May 6.
Mark Brooks: Brace yourselves!!! Into the final vote it goes!
One2One Living Magazine Unveils Ad Campaign and Oxygen TV Show
PRWEB — Apr 22 — The stylish ad campaign will run on city scapes in major metropolitan cities in the US and Canada. It features two singles stranded on a surreal desert, with the slogan "One2One Living — Fuel for The Single Life." One2One Living also vows to promote laughter, discussion, and thought. New contributors include CNBC columnist and NBC Producer, Brian Bathalsar, Fox"s Good Day LA Executive Producer, Paul Sucheki and Dr John Gray. Accompanying the new creative is a new network TV produced by Media Evolutions. The shows will premier on the Oxygen Television Networks during the new fall season.
Mark Brooks: See the next issue (May) for my three articles on online dating. I will also play the part of a quirky Englishman and online personals industry expert in the pilot Oxygen show. I'm working on the accent now.
Matchmakers Making Comeback
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR — Apr 20 — "We’re getting hundreds of singles, I mean hundreds of singles, saying, ‘I want to find a matchmaker,’" says Lisa Clampitt, matchmaker and director of the Matchmaking Institute in New York, a training program for wannabes and a resource for singles. Driving some of the interest is a desire to explore options beyond personal ads, speed dating, and the Internet. Despite the popularity of online dating sites, some find the process too time-consuming. Some people are also looking for options that offer more privacy and security. "Anybody can say what they want to say online," says Cindy Cleckner, a schoolteacher in her mid-40s. "How do I know the person’s [really] divorced? How do I know they’re not a stalker? How do you know they’ve not had a criminal background?" Typical matchmaking fees range from a few hundred dollars to $10,000 and up.
Mark Brooks: Let me paint a picture. True.com rams background checks down the online personals industry’s throat. We all complain bitterly and stone the executive staff in the streets of the next internet dating convention. Then we realise that, hey, they had a point. We’re charging $20 a month for online dating, when, if we added more services users would gladly pay $50-$100 a month. They are getting sick of going on dates with people who don’t look like their pictures, are perhaps just a little bit married or in really, really, really unusual cases, are a felon. Word gets around. These same users are coughing up $1,000+ for offline services that make them feel more warm and fuzzy. OK, now it’s the industries comeback time. $650 million by 2008, Jupiter hogwash. Let’s up the ante, add checks, verified photographs, more personal services, let’s save the users some time and hey presto, we’ll beat Jupiter’s predictions. Um, oh yeah, lick those wounds Herb/True. Not a bad idea after all…although, please don’t set the government onto us like that again.
TangoPersonals.com Hits 30,000 Profiles
PRNEWSWIRE — Apr 20 — TangoPersonals.com has surpassed 30,000 profiles – a number that is quite an achievement in less than ten months of operation. The site offers a unique system that allows members to talk one-on-one without revealing their telephone number. Tango offers a $2 introductory membership. Tango Personals by Phone began in 1994.
Mark Brooks: Alas, this is actually not very strong for a non-niche site. (Tango’s Alexa rank is 166k. Online Personals Watch is 112k!?) Small sites pretending to be big sites are bad for user experience and the industry. The anonymous phone calling is a great feature.