BG NEWS — Feb 17 — PerfectMatch.com currently has three million registered members. The biggest difference between Perfect Match and eHarmony is the mainstream attitude of PerfectMatch.com, CEO Dahl said. eHarmony.com does not allow people who have been married multiple times to join. They also exclude homosexuals.
The full article was originally published at BG News, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: A cute spin on speed dating.
ASSOCIATED PRESS — Feb 17 — Craigslist.com is a boon to police cracking down on prostitution. Officers in Nashua have been using the New Hampshire personals section of the site to meet up with people looking to be or hire a prostitute at area hotels.
The full article was originally published at Boston Globe, but is no longer available.
Online Personals Watch — Feb 19 — Online Personals Watch is now listing the monthly top 15 online personals category rankings by special permission of Comscore Mediametrix. I’ve also added a custom listing of the top 20 niche dating sites using Hitwise data, also by special permission.
Hitwise January update: TRUE.com takes over Gay.com to take 4th spot this month. BlackPeopleMeet leaps in to the top 15 at 10th spot. Cupid.com advances two spots to #12 and demotes Hotornot two spots to #14.
Nielsen//Netratings January update: Match.com trumps Yahoo Personals to take the #1 spot and TRUE.com moves ahead of MSN (Match) to take 3rd spot. Adult dating site Mate1.com moves ahead two more spots to #5. Social networking site Tagworld and relationship sites eharmony and Love Happens (Tickle) move up one spot each bumping MyYearBook which disappears from the top 15 ranks this month. PerfectMatch moves up two spots to #10. Friend Finder appears on the charts at #11 and eCrush moves up 3 spots to #12.
Is there anything else you’d like to see in the way of rankings? – Mark Brooks
ILFORD RECORDER 24 — Feb 16 — Launched on Valentines Day, http://www.asiandivorcee.com claims to be the world's first online dating service dedicated to helping Asian divorcees find love again.
The full article was originally published at Ilford Recorder 24, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: Now we have niches of niches.
THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE — Feb 16 — Cohen’s 2-year-old site, Animal Attraction is the dog park gone digital. There are 40 million single people in the country with pets, a pet economy in the U.S. that is much bigger than the toy or candy economy.
Mark Brooks: Robert Yau’s datemypet.com has had lots of press attention as well. A novel and endearing service.
BUSINESS WIRE — Feb 13 — Userplane, the leading provider of live community software, today launched its video advertising network, partnering with Broadband Enterprises for initial video ad placements. eMarketer projects streaming video spending will nearly triple to $640 million in the next two years, and grow to $1.5 billion by 2010. Userplane supports 90,000 communities, serves 200 million impressions a month, and is growing by 5,000 new communities a week.
NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE — Feb 15 — Helen Fisher is a respected anthropologist at Rutgers University who has published four books and given scientific credibility to the idea that brain chemistry undergirds love and romance. She has been recruited by Match.com and given the title of chief scientific adviser of Chemistry.com. "I’m going to be crucified," Fisher, 60, said, anticipating the reaction in the academic world when her association with Chemistry.com, which became nationally available last month, becomes better known. "I asked everyone I knew whether I should do it. Half said, `You’re going to be helping humanity.’ Half said, `You’re crazy."’ Fisher’s lifework has been to demonstrate that romantic attachments, far from being the result of unpredictable forces, have a biological and chemical basis. "I thought there was a chemistry to love and looked into it because it was the last frontier." Fisher identified four personality types she said are associated with chemicals in the body. "Scientists know that women gravitate to men who have a different immune system from theirs," she explained. "Both sexes also gravitate to individuals who have a somewhat different dopamine system, serotonin system and estrogen and testosterone system from their own." She named the four basic types: the Explorer, the Builder, the Negotiator and the Director. Explorers, for example, have an active dopamine system in the brain, Fisher said. "They tend to take risks and seek novelty," she said. They are good matches with Builders, who are noted for their serotonin system and who tend to be calm, managerial and to follow social norms. A questionnaire she created for Chemistry.com establishes which of the four personalities a dater has. Gary Marcus, a psychologist at New York University, said dividing people into four groups is grossly simplistic. Match.com has also partnered with Dr Phil McGraw, to create MindFindBind.com.
Mark Brooks: I’ve listed her latest book, "Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love" on OPW, bottom right.