OPW – Sep 11 – Jazzed, eHarmony's sister social dating site, is shutting down on Sep 18th. Jazzed launched in August 2010 to compete with less serious dating sites such as Match.com, OKCupid and POF and one year later re-launched as a social dating site where people could connect, meet and share content with likeminded people. Jazzed users are offered a special 3-months deal on eHarmony for $9.95/Mo that will automatically renew at the rate of $29.95/Mo.
Category: eHarmony
Interview With Arvind Mishra, Sr. Director Of Product Management At eHarmony
OPW INTERVIEW – Sep 4 – eHarmony does beautiful mobile apps! Arvind heads the product group and here’s what he had to say about eHarmony’s work on mobile dating. – Mark Brooks
Let’s talk about your pride and joy, the iPad HD app.
The eHarmony HD app was developed a little over a year ago. Our first iPad app was a very functional reproduction of what you would get on the site. We built an experience that was unlike any other dating app. It is warm and encouraging, rich and distinctive. When we demoed it at LaunchPad in 2011, Jason Calacanis said it was one of the most beautiful apps on the iPad in and out of the dating category.
What was the most beautiful part?
eHarmony has the relationship questionnaire that takes people 40-45 minutes to get through. We were able to get that down to 5 minutes.The other thing is we made it very visual and very touch oriented. We revamped the personality profile. We’ve turned it into a product that we call the “Book of You”. Your profile is literally a book, and we use the iPad basic gesture controls for turning pages.
How do you think eHarmony is vastly superior to a real world matchmaker?
We have compatibility, and I think matchmaking in the real world. It’s largely done through intuition. We have an algorithm that is based on research that’s over 30 years old. And then we have the size of our database. In general, your network is only as strong as the amount of people you have in it.
How many questions are on the mobile app?
There’s about a hundred, down from 270 questions.
So knowing that you wanted to have that fast, smooth experience, HTML5 is out the window. You couldn’t have really done HTML5?
There are more challenges. I think HTML5 is kind of in its infancy in terms of developers getting to know the ins and outs of it.
What’s eHarmony’s philosophy on geo-location?
I’d be a liar if I said that we’re not thinking about geo-location. Our user base isn’t exactly clamoring for it. So we have to do it in a way that is very responsible where people’s privacy is protected.
So how’s the Android app different?
The Android app largely mirrors the iPhone app. I think there’s one or two features that we don’t have on Android yet, and that’s just been a timing thing more than anything.
Is there much difference in the monetization between the two apps?
We do see two slightly different types of people that use the iPhone versus the Android. iPhone tends to be used more by women. But for monetization, we’re not seeing huge differences there.
In terms of monetization, you’ve gone the Apple route. So how useful is Apple in leading people? eHarmony’s advertising all the time. Do you really need Apple?
We are reaching new audiences with the product and we are able to do it in a very cost efficient way. So for the time being, it is something that we are keen on keeping.
Are you finding that you’ve got more marketing channels available to you now on mobile?
Absolutely. We are reaching a lot more people, and they’re different people than the ones we were reaching just through TV, radio or print ads.
In terms of the development of the application, were you entirely in house or did you have a portion of the team external?
We’ve fluctuated. At the very beginning we relied more on outside vendors, but as mobile has become a more and more important segment of our business, we have moved about 80% of it in-house.
Are they in USA or abroad?
They are all in USA.
What kind of login ratio is eHarmony seeing on mobile now?
We’re seeing around 30-35% of new customers coming from the mobile channel.
Are there any user behaviors that you’ve notice on mobile that surprised you?
Absolutely. We were pleasantly shocked, that we could get people to take a relationship questionnaire on a mobile device. The second surprise was the level of engagement.
You gather more data on users than most other sites. Why not suggest dates to people?
I can’t say that we haven’t thought of that.
What’s your vision for eHarmony mobile in a year’s time?
Geo-location will be part of it. I think giving people different ways to interact when they are in person also becomes pretty important. I think one interesting way to go is being people’s dating allies.
At SXSW social discovery was a hot topic. I wonder if there’s some potential for you to develop along a social discovery line?
There is and there isn’t. A lot of people don’t want those worlds to mix. It’s hard to think that someone’s going to say: “I need to find a hiking buddy, let me go to eHarmony.”
eHarmony UK Boss Takes Top Global Marketing Job
MARKETING WEEK – Aug 15 – eHarmony has elevated the role of UK country manager Ottokar Rosenberger to look after international marketing for the online dating site. Rosenberger will now lead the marketing and commercial strategies across all eHarmony’s international businesses outside the US, which includes EMEA, Australia and Brazil. He replaces Sean Cornwell, who left the company to “explore other opportunities”. Bryn Snelson, currently UK marketing director, will become country manager for the region.
eHarmony Shuts Down Its eHarmony Advice Discussion Boards
EHARMONY BLOG – Aug 6 – eHarmony has deleted its eHarmony Advice Discussion Boards, deleting five years of member discussions and 20,000 community members. Some members of eHarmony community have started a new community. The unofficial community is up and running. Presently, they are calling it Online Dating Advice. It has 201 members and 8,600 posts right now. eHarmony Advice comments are now powered by Facebook using the Facebook social plugin. The worst part of deleting the forums is losing the biggest eHarmony community and losing the history.
The full article was originally published at eHarmony blog, but is no longer available.
Jeremy Verba Is Leaving eHarmony
ALLTHINGSD – July 31 – The founder and chairman of eHarmony, Dr. Neil Clark Warren, is returning to the job of CEO. He replaces Jeremy Verba, the former Zynga exec who was named to the job a year ago. It’s not clear why the sudden breakup at the dating service but in the memo Verba sent to staff today, he noted: “The Company’s Board and I agreed upon this mutual separation on Friday. Our visions of the future of the business are not entirely aligned and we decided that this step is the best course of action.” eHarmony recently lost its CTO, Joseph Essas, to OpenTable.
eHarmony CEO Job Is A Good Match For Jeremy Verba
New App Help Singles Escape From Bad Dates
DAILYMAIL.CO.UK – July 11 – Bad Date Rescue is a new app that gives singles the perfect escape with fake phone calls. Users of the app can set up a pre-recorded incoming call from their mother, friend, neighbour or boss, and follow a dictated script if improvisation is not a strength. The call can be arranged for a specific time beforehand and then ignored. Users can set it up to look as if anyone from their contact list is calling them.
by Victoria Wellman
See full article at DailyMail.co.uk
Analysis: eHarmony Had Several Password Security Fails
CNET NEWS – June 26 – An analysis of passwords stolen from eHarmony and leaked to the Web recently reveals several problems with the way eHarmony handled password encryption and policies, according to a security expert. The biggest problem clearly was that the passwords, although encrypted and obscured with a hashing algorithm, were not "salted," which would have increased the amount of work password crackers would need to do, writes Mike Kelly, a security analyst at Trustwave SpiderLabs. 99.5% of the passwords did not contain a special character, but 57% contained letters and numbers. Also, the word "love" was the most commonly occurring password of those that were examined, the analysis found.
eHarmony Helps Couples Share Their Love Story On Facebook
LA TIMES – June 14 – While some couples have tried creating a single Facebook account to share between the two of them, which can get a little messy, an upcoming eHarmony app will let couples share their blended life. It's not limited to users of eHarmony. eHarmony's Facebook app capitalizes on Facebook's Timeline by culling from users seperate accounts, shared check-ins, posts between the two of them and photos they're both tagged in. From that information, it puts together a timeline of their romance from their first meeting.
by Michelle Maltais
The full article was originally published at LA Times, but is no longer available.
eHarmony Confirms Password Breach
COMPUTER WORLD – June 7 – Password hashes for eHarmony were released on the same Russian forum which published the LinkedIn hashes. "After investigating reports of compromised passwords, we have found that a small fraction of our user base has been affected," wrote Becky Teraoka, of eHarmony's corporate communications. eHarmony's 1.5M password hashes were released in a forum of a Russian password-cracking website called InsidePro.