Online Personals Watch News Summary #1, 4 3 09 from Mark Brooks.
This weeks news covers Skout, eHarmony, IC3, and Mobestar along with my favorite April 1st joke, Steve Wozniak in the new Footloose movie.
Category: Compatible Partners
eHarmony Launches Gay Matchmaking Service
LA TIMES — Mar 30 — eHarmony agreed in November to start the dating service as part of a settlement with the New Jersey attorney general in the wake of a discrimination suit. Dating site consultant Mark Brooks says Compatible Partners will be watched closely. "This will be one of the most scrutinized products in Internet dating," said Brooks. "They will have to introduce an A1 product." It's not a comfortable fit for eHarmony's founder, Neil Clark Warren. "I never had a gay couple." Brooks thinks Compatible Partners could be a winner. "Niche products are proving to be very effective," he said. "People are more likely to connect with a brand that serves it, specifically." FULL ARTICLE @ LA TIMES
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eHarmony’s Same-Sex Dating Site Launches
WSJ — Mar 31 – In response to discrimination litigation, eHarmony will launch the gay version of its heterosexual match-making service on Tuesday. The site, Compatible Partners, was developed as part of a settlement last fall with the New Jersey attorney general. Patrick Perrine, founder and CEO of myPartner.com, an online dating site for gay men, remains skeptical about eHarmony’s new venture. He says the compatibility system on his site, matching men with other men, wouldn’t work for lesbian women. “They’re very different populations that have very different needs,” he said. FULL ARTICLE @ WSJ
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Playing With Matches
BOSTON GLOBE — Mar 11 – eHarmony will launch a new matchmaking website for the gay community by the end of the month. Called Compatible Partners, it might be the first dating site whose owners didn't really want to create it. The sister site will work just like eHarmony, with members filling out long questionnaires. FULL ARTICLE @ BOSTON.COM
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EHarmony’s GLBT Site Will Alienate Gays
OUT&ABOUT — Jan 1 – In accordance with their settlement agreement, eHarmony has created a separate site dedicated to matching same-sex couples called Compatible Partners. Although this site will use the same questionnaire to match same sex couples, the site comes with a hefty disclaimer warning that this new matchmaking site was not created with the use of extensive data on what makes a compatible same-sex couple. eHarmony's straight users and their newly acquired homosexual users will remain completely separate.
The full article was originally published at Out&About, but is no longer available.