PR WEB — Nov 25 — Janis Spindel only takes the best as clients and her high standards apply to all the members of her database – she will accept nothing less on her website. Janis specializes in pairing up highly successful, well-educated, attractive professionals, including public figures and celebrities. RELEASE @ PR WEB
Month: November 2005
Online Dating Site Launched Run by a Real Live Matchmaker
PR WEB — Nov 25 — Janis Spindel only takes the best as clients and her high standards apply to all the members of her database – she will accept nothing less on her website. Janis specializes in pairing up highly successful, well-educated, attractive professionals, including public figures and celebrities. RELEASE @ PR WEB
Online Dating Sites Accused of Deception
ASSOCIATED PRESS — Nov 25 — Match is charged with sending a female employee out on a date with a male subscriber as "date bait" to keep him signed up and Yahoo Personals with creating fake profiles to entice subscribers. Match.com denied the allegations and obtained an affidavit from the woman in question, who declared she never worked for the company. The suit says Yahoo posts fake profiles and alleges Yahoo also sent him fake "new match" messages when his monthly subscription was up for renewal. After months of failing to meet a potential match, he became suspicious and discovered the same picture of a woman being posted for different cities under different names. Trish McDermott, chief matchmaker at Engage.com and a Match's former VP Romance, said she never saw any type of consumer fraud during her decade at Match.com. She added that the majority of personals sites, including Yahoo and Match.com, employ a business model she believes fails consumers. It's not clear who is a member and who isn't in the pay-to-respond model, in which a user must join a service to respond to an e-mail sent by a potential match but cannot post a profile, McDermott said. If someone e-mails 100 people and gets only one response, he or she could conclude that most of the profiles are fake when they actually show non-subscribers who can't respond to e-mail, she said.
Mark Brooks: Your comments please…
Online Dating Sites Accused of Deception
ASSOCIATED PRESS — Nov 25 — Match is charged with sending a female employee out on a date with a male subscriber as "date bait" to keep him signed up and Yahoo Personals with creating fake profiles to entice subscribers. Match.com denied the allegations and obtained an affidavit from the woman in question, who declared she never worked for the company. The suit says Yahoo posts fake profiles and alleges Yahoo also sent him fake "new match" messages when his monthly subscription was up for renewal. After months of failing to meet a potential match, he became suspicious and discovered the same picture of a woman being posted for different cities under different names. Trish McDermott, chief matchmaker at Engage.com and a Match's former VP Romance, said she never saw any type of consumer fraud during her decade at Match.com. She added that the majority of personals sites, including Yahoo and Match.com, employ a business model she believes fails consumers. It's not clear who is a member and who isn't in the pay-to-respond model, in which a user must join a service to respond to an e-mail sent by a potential match but cannot post a profile, McDermott said. If someone e-mails 100 people and gets only one response, he or she could conclude that most of the profiles are fake when they actually show non-subscribers who can't respond to e-mail, she said.
Mark Brooks: Your comments please…
Sweetheart, You’re a Real Work of Art
The full article was originally published at Moscow Times, but is no longer available.
Sweetheart, You’re a Real Work of Art
The full article was originally published at Moscow Times, but is no longer available.
Looks Give a Boost in Dating
FORT WORTH STAR TELEGRAM — Nov 24 — Psychologist Robert Kurzban of the University of Pennsylvania says his goal was to distinguish between two possible models of mating behavior. One, called the "matching hypothesis," suggests people seek partners like themselves. The other possibility is the "market model." Everyone agrees on who's most attractive, but in the end we're forced to settle for the best we can get. To determine which scenario most closely resembles the real world, Kurzban turned to Hurrydate, a speed-dating provider. He and colleague Jason Weeden got 2,650 participants to fill out surveys revealing weight, height, age, number of children, previous marriages, and attitudes toward premarital sex. It also asked participants to rate their own faces, bodies and personalities on scales from 1 to 7. The psychologists observed which participants were chosen most often and by whom. In the end the market model won. The same people were consistently deemed desirable. Florida Atlantic University psychologist Todd Shackelford puts it bluntly: People who are 1s and 2s (on a scale from 1 to 10) don't want other 1s and 2s. If you're a 6, say, your partner would rather have a 10 but has to settle for you. FULL ARTICLE @ PSYCHOLOGY IN THE NEWS
Mark Brooks: With speed dating and in person meetings the 'market model' will win. The relationship based dating sites (eHarmony, TRUE, PerfectMatch) give the 'matching hypothesis' a chance…but the market model will always win through in the end. Darwin would agree. However, glossy magazines and the likes of Baywatch have seriously skewed our perceptions of beauty and our expectation levels. I think this has contributed somewhat to the lower marriage rates and higher divorce rates. Our expectations (especially guys) are a little out of synch with what mother nature intended. What do you think the online dating industry can do to help?
Looks Give a Boost in Dating
FORT WORTH STAR TELEGRAM — Nov 24 — Psychologist Robert Kurzban of the University of Pennsylvania says his goal was to distinguish between two possible models of mating behavior. One, called the "matching hypothesis," suggests people seek partners like themselves. The other possibility is the "market model." Everyone agrees on who's most attractive, but in the end we're forced to settle for the best we can get. To determine which scenario most closely resembles the real world, Kurzban turned to Hurrydate, a speed-dating provider. He and colleague Jason Weeden got 2,650 participants to fill out surveys revealing weight, height, age, number of children, previous marriages, and attitudes toward premarital sex. It also asked participants to rate their own faces, bodies and personalities on scales from 1 to 7. The psychologists observed which participants were chosen most often and by whom. In the end the market model won. The same people were consistently deemed desirable. Florida Atlantic University psychologist Todd Shackelford puts it bluntly: People who are 1s and 2s (on a scale from 1 to 10) don't want other 1s and 2s. If you're a 6, say, your partner would rather have a 10 but has to settle for you. FULL ARTICLE @ PSYCHOLOGY IN THE NEWS
Mark Brooks: With speed dating and in person meetings the 'market model' will win. The relationship based dating sites (eHarmony, TRUE, PerfectMatch) give the 'matching hypothesis' a chance…but the market model will always win through in the end. Darwin would agree. However, glossy magazines and the likes of Baywatch have seriously skewed our perceptions of beauty and our expectation levels. I think this has contributed somewhat to the lower marriage rates and higher divorce rates. Our expectations (especially guys) are a little out of synch with what mother nature intended. What do you think the online dating industry can do to help?
Who’s Afraid of Google? Everyone.
The full article was originally published at Wired Magazine, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: At $500 million revenue a year, the internet dating industry is still off Google's radar…we hope
Who’s Afraid of Google? Everyone.
The full article was originally published at Wired Magazine, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: At $500 million revenue a year, the internet dating industry is still off Google's radar…we hope