PR WEB – Feb 1 – Match unveils the first of a series of adverts sharing the secrets of lasting love to promote relationship service matchaffinity.com. The ads, which are unscripted, feature real British couples sharing their secrets of lasting love. The couples, found and filmed by documentary makers, FreshOne, were interviewed as part of a six week, 1,500 mile journey across the UK in a motorcycle and sidecar, which is due to end on Valentine’s Day. The multi-million pound campaign will air across terrestrial and multi-channel TV starting from Feb 1st. FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB
Month: February 2011
In The Dating Game, Speaking Styles Count
REUTERS LIFE – Feb 2 – American researchers have found a new way to predict the success of a relationship — compare the speaking style of a couple. In a study of college students they found that couples whose language was in sync were almost four times more likely to want to see each other again than those who did not use similar language, said Professor James Pennebaker, of the University of Texas, who headed the research team. The researchers focused on function words — which are not nouns or verbs but the words that show how those words relate. For example: a, be, anything, that, will, him. "We found that function words are a powerful reflection of somebody's psychological state," Pennebaker said. "You can tell when people are in the same state or are on the same page." ~80% of the couples whose conversational styles were similar were still dating three months after the experiment, compared with 54% of couples whose styles were markedly different. FULL ARTICLE @ REUTERS LIFE
This February, Lavalife Introduces ‘Free Love’
PR NEWSWIRE – Feb 1 – This February, Lavalife.com, is offering a 30-day free trial to all new members. During the 30-day free trial, new members can send unlimited mail and instant messages and even see who has checked them out. Members will also get to experience the all-new Virtual Dating feature on Lavalife – bound to be a hit with Valentine's Day fast approaching. Members can get to know other singles and go on a Virtual Date by creating a personalized avatar and selecting a fun destination.
The full article was originally published at PR Newswire, but is no longer available.
IAC’s Match.com Acquires OkCupid For $50M In Cash
TECH CRUNCH – Feb 2 – IAC’s Match.com is continuing its acquisition strategy today with the purchase of OkCupid for $50M in cash. The deal also includes future earnouts contingent upon performance. While Match.com has a significant userbase, OkCupid singles tend to be younger, which is why Match found it to be a useful acquisition. OkCupid, which has raised $6M, was co founded by Max Krohn, Sam Yagan, Chris Coyne and Christian Rudder. Match has previously acquired dating site People Media for $80M and most recently Singlesnet. Yagan will continue to operate OkCupid. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH
Thread.com Ist Kaput
OPW – Feb 2 – Thread.com, despite $1.2 million in funding from gold VC group Sequioa, is now kaput. Shame. The Thread.com link drove to likeevents.com for a while, and now it just drives to Agora.com, a 'passport for life and work.' Another dud site. RIP Thread.com. Congratulations Zoosk, for stealing their thunder.
Alleged POF Hacker Claims He Was Only Trying To Help
FINANCIAL POST – Feb 1 – On Sunday night, Markus Frind, the founder of Plenty of Fish took to his personal blog to write a story about how his site suffered a serious security breach at the hands of a hacker on Jan. 18. The man he alleges hacked into the Plenty of Fish Website is 23-year-old Chris Russo of Argentina. According to Mr. Frind, Mr. Russo co-ordinated a sophisticated two day attack on Plenty of Fish’s servers in an attempt to gain access to user data, which he allegedly then used in an to attempt to extort money from the site’s owners. The site’s technicians were able shut down the security vulnerability within 60 seconds of learning about it, and that the information from about 345 accounts were accessed. However, in an email to the Financial Post, Mr. Russo said that at no time did he attempt to extort money from Mr. Frind. Rather, he contacted Mr. Frind on Jan. 21 to inform him of the vulnerability in the Plenty of Fish site. He claims Plenty Of Fish thanked him and remained in contact with him and that they were “interested in hiring us as security professionals in order to make an analysis of the platform.” FULL ARTICLE @ FINANCIAL POST
Greg Waldorf Joins Accel As CEO-In-Residence
TECH CRUNCH – Feb 1 – Accel Partners is announcing today the addition of former eHarmony head CEO Greg Waldorf as CEO-in-residence. Waldorf spent eleven years at eHarmony and five as CEO before leaving the company a couple of weeks ago and landing at Accel as of today. As Accel CEO-in-residence, Waldorf will be succeeding LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner and former Googler Singh Cassidy who went on to found Polyvore. When asked what his number one piece of advice for budding entrepreneurs is Waldorf said “pick your partners wisely.” FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH
Vumber Gives You Throw-Away Phone Numbers For Dating
TECH CRUNCH – Feb 1 – Vumber lets you spawn a multitude of phone numbers to be used and discarded at your leisure. The service has been around for four years, but it was originally marketed exclusively toward people on dating sites. The use case is obvious: instead of handing out your real phone number to strangers, Vumber lets you spin up a new phone number, which you then redirect to your real phone. ~30-40% of the service still caters to online dating, but Vumber can be used for other things. Co-founder Cliff Wener says that some of Vumber’s biggest customers are advertising agencies that use it to assign different phone numbers to regional ad placements in print media, so that they can track the response rate. Vumber raised $2.5M in private capital before the company was acquired by video chat community Paltalk in November 2009 for an undisclosed sum. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH
BeNaughty: Facts About Naughty Online Dating
MY NEWSDESK – Feb 1 – ~60% of UK singles would try an online dating service and of the UK’s 15M singles 20% would be interested in a casual fling. This explains the major boom in dating services such as benaughty.com. Now with ~3M members, BeNaughty connect like-minded individuals for sexy encounters.
The full article was originally published at MyNewsdesk, but is no longer available.
LoveFinderGames – A Dating Site Designed For Social Gamers
PR WEB – Feb 1 - LoveFinderGames has announced the launch of its fun-filled speed dating aquarium called, "TheKissingFishGame". TheKissingFishGame is designed for the middle, a single person who is looking for a date. The 5-Minute set-up is another game changer. Players answer 12 push button questions and write a Twitter-like 140 character description. Choosing an aquarium is the fun part of the process. Start with the basics, age, gender and sexual preferences.
The full article was originally published at SF Chronicle, but is no longer available.