Category: eHarmony

Psychologists Highlight Pitfalls Of Online Dating

Posted on February 7, 2012

Online dating handsHEALTH.COM – Feb 7 – "Online dating is great. It allows people access to potential partners they otherwise would not have," says Eli J. Finkel, Ph.D., the lead author of the new review, which was commissioned by the Association for Psychological Science. One of the weaknesses of online dating is an over reliance on "profiles". Although most dating websites feature photos and detailed, searchable profiles covering everything from personality traits to likes and dislikes, this information isn't necessarily useful in identifying a partner, Finkel and his coauthors write. That's partly because daters don't always know what they want in a mate. The abundance of profiles online also may make daters too picky and judgmental. "Online dating creates a shopping mentality, and that is probably not a particularly good way to go about choosing a mate," says Harry Reis, Ph.D. eHarmony and PerfectMatch.com, claim to minimize the guesswork involved in online dating by using mathematical algorithms to match couples according to various traits — including, in one case, the ratio of index- to ring-finger length. The authors of the review are skeptical of these claims. They weren't able to find a single rigorous study showing the effectiveness of the algorithms, and other research suggests it's extremely difficult to predict the likelihood that a relationship will succeed before two people meet. None of this, however, means that online dating isn't a good way to meet people. Finkel advises online daters to identify promising partners and move the conversation off-line as quickly as possible.

by Amanda Gardner
See full article at CNN

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Religious People Better Adjusted Psychologically

Posted on January 23, 2012

Edarling logo newSTOPTHEACLU – Jan 23 - Psychological research has found that religious people feel great about themselves, with a tendency toward higher social self-esteem and better psychological adjustment than non-believers. But a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that this is only true in countries that put a high value on religion. The researchers got their data from eDarling, a European dating site that is affiliated with eHarmony. Like eHarmony, eDarling uses a long questionnaire to match clients with potential dates. It includes a question about how important your personal religious beliefs are and questions that get at social self-esteem and how psychologically well-adjusted people are.

The full article was originally published at StopTheAclu, but is no longer available.

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Check Criminal Records Of Online Daters, Experts Say

Posted on January 17, 2012

Background checksCBC NEWS – Jan 16 – Online dating companies should be taking advantage of the RCMP criminal records system to keep convicted criminals off their sites, say experts in the identity verification business. "There is no perfect instant criminal record system on the planet," David Dinesen told CBC News. "But Canada is the best in the world. No question." Criminal backgrounds of Canadian daters could be checked without breaking privacy laws, because the daters could authorize or volunteer to provide their criminal conviction record check to the dating sites, he said. Online dating companies such as PlentyofFish, Match.com, eHarmony and others should offer options to their Canadian clients. PlentyofFish, founded by Markus Frind, makes ~$30M annually from advertising on its website. The company espouses a "buyer beware" philosophy and posts warnings and safety tips for clients on its free site. eHarmony sent CBC News an email statement emphasizing that "eHarmony's efforts are focused on empowering people to use good judgment and to be responsible for their safety on eHarmony, as they would anywhere else. Since there is not a comprehensive database of criminal convictions and many crimes go unreported by the victims, eHarmony does not want to give its members a false sense of security. We make it very clear in several places throughout the site that eHarmony does not conduct criminal background checks on our members. In an email, Match.com told CBC News: "Match is always reviewing new ways to keep the community safe and is aware of RCMP National Repository of Criminal Records. Unlike the National Sex Offender Registry, against which Match.com screens against in the United States, the RCMP repository is not public information. Therefore, utilizing this information is not currently possible."

by Jeannie Stiglio
See full article at CBC News

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Online Dating Made Easy With Mobile App

Posted on January 9, 2012

EHarmony-iPad-AppFOX4NEWS – Jan 8 – More and more marriages are starting out with an online connection. FOX 4′s Rich Demuro shows how the matchmaking app makes meeting people easy. “Over 20% of the people have met their spouses in some way online,” eHarmony Senior Research Scientist Gian Gonzaga said. "542 people a day on average get married after meeting on eHarmony, which is pretty extraordinary,” Gonzaga said. eHarmony recently launched a new iPad app.

by Sarah Clark
See full article at Fox4News

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eHarmony Launches First Ever UK-produced Campaign

Posted on December 22, 2011

Eharmony-logoMARKETING WEEK – Dec 22 – eHarmony is launching its first ever marketing campaign produced in the UK as it steps up efforts to take on its rivals. The £1M campaign, which launches on Boxing Day, is aimed at UK singles who are looking for life partners. TV creative will feature a single girl going about her day-to-day activities. At the end she is pictured with her eHarmony partner, while a voiceover says: “Being single can be amazing, so if you’re going to give it up, it has to be for someone who makes being a couple the best thing in the world”.

by Lara O'Reilly
See full article at Marketing Week

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eHarmony Launches eHarmony Premier

Posted on December 16, 2011

Eharmony-logoEHARMONY BLOG – Dec 15 - Below are the features in detail:

  • Ultimate Guarantee: If  members is not satisfied with eHarmony experience during their initial 12 month subscription eHarmony will extend them membership for up to 12 months. 
  • Pause Account: Members may pause the service once for up to 3 months. 
  • 3 Free Memberships to Share: eHarmony will supply new members with 3, one-month basic memberships in the welcome email.
  • Relationship Starter Package: Great tips and expert advice about online dating.
  • Hand-Selected Matches: eHarmony relationship specialist team will select 10 additional matches.
  • Assisted Match Communications: Identify up to 10 matches and we’ll start the introduction for them by sending an initial message. 
  • Profile Advisor.
  • Premium Personality Profile.

The full article was originally published at eHarmony blog, but is no longer available.

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Police Target Lonely Hearts Fraudsters

Posted on November 28, 2011

Soca logoSUNDAY TIMES – Nov 28 – Romance scammers are to be targeted by the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca). According to Soca ~200K people have already been tricked by overseas conmen. Online dating scams have become one of the most lucrative methods. This is because online dating has itself become so successful, with 1,400 dating sites operating in Britain, including Plentyoffish, eHarmony and match.com. Mark Brooks, who runs Courtland Brooks, a consultancy specialising in the online dating industry, said: “Every site has significant problems in dealing with scammers. It is the bane of the industry.” Karl Gregory, head of match.com’s UK division, said cases of fraud were still rare. “Our advice”, he said, “is to stay within the site to build up relationships over time rather than giving out personal details, and never to give money to anyone for any reason.”

by Jonathan Leake
See full article at Sunday Times

Mark Brooks: Actually, this is far more a problem in the USA than the UK.  Most sites are fighting and winning the battle against scammers, I think.  But the isolated cases of date scamming are still very newsworthy and bad for the dating industry. 

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eHarmony Won’t Settle Down With Just One Business Intelligence Tool

Posted on November 8, 2011

Eharmony-logoCOMPUTERWORLD – Nov 8 - The system that powers eHarmony's matchmaking operation relies on four products: Oracle Corp.'s database, the open-source MySQL database, an open-source data-crunching app called Hadoop, and Netezza Corp. data warehousing appliances. Joseph Essas is VP of engineering and operations at eHarmony. 236 of its 20M members get married every day, the site claims. That's just one of "hundreds of metrics" that we "deeply care about," Essas said. eHarmony uses Oracle's database software to do much of the initial matching. But for hard-core data processing, the company relies on a speedy 50-node Hadoop cluster. Speed is important, because eHarmony updates the scores of its relationship matches whenever new members sign up, as well as when existing members update their profiles.

by Eric Lai
See full article at Computerworld

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eHarmony to Make Marketing More UK-focused

Posted on October 19, 2011

Eharmony-logoMARKETING WEEK – Oct 18 - UK country manager Ottokar Rosenberger says eHarmony will focus on what makes UK singles “really tick” and communicate the brand in a “truly local way”. eHarmony has switched creative agencies in the UK from US-based Donat/Wald + Haque to Karmarama, Marketing Week Engage Awards’ agency of the year winner, to develop UK-specific campaigns.

by Lara O'Reilly
See full article at Marketing Week

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eHarmony Ad: ‘As My daughters Say, Get on It’

Posted on October 2, 2011

MUMBREALLA – Sep 29 - The Hallway has launched a TV campaign for eHarmony  – the first Australia-made ad. Rather than focus on finding love, the ads look at the experiences to be gained from online dating.

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