ASSOCIATED PRESS — Dec 18 — Older Americans looking for love have taken a cue from young urban singles and are flocking to speed-dating events and online personals sites. Match.com says registrations among people over 50 have soared 340% since 2000. Some dating Web sites now have special seniors-only areas. Spark Networks, started SilverSingles.com last year, and the site now has about 600,000 members. FULL ARTICLE @ INSIDE BAY AREA
Category: Match.com
Desperately Seeking Suckers
MACLEANS CANADA — Dec 14 — Last month, two lawsuits were filed in match.com and Yahoo Personals alleging that the companies entice users into continuing to use the services with fake romantic emails. The damage could spread from match.com and Yahoo Personals to the dozens of other online dating companies playing Cupid. Both match.com and Yahoo Personals fervently deny the charges. In its defence, match.com has acquired a signed affidavit from Autumn Marzec, the woman it allegedly hired, swearing she was not an employee of the company. "The lawsuit is completely baseless," asserts Roldan.
Mark Brooks: Large online dating companies, Yahoo and Match.com, date bait? C'mon. They have far more to lose than gain. Online personals companies live and die by word of mouth these days. These suits are indeed extremely bad for the industry. I believe some small online dating companies may well have succumb to the temptation of sending date bait emails…but not the big boys. It's absolutely unthinkable. Online dating companies 'bubble up' profiles in search results when they are nearing the renewal date so those users receive more emails and winks during that period.
Background Checks Split Matchmaking Sites
Don’t Give up on Internet Dating
OC REGISTER — Dec 5 — After three years of persistence, nothing has clicked. I fear the more successful I become, the tougher it will be to find a man who would genuinely appreciate me and my success. Is it time to check out the convent and see how I look in robes of black?" Success stories keep surfacing that deliver a message: Instead of throwing in the Internet towel, or donning robes of black, keep trying. Diana, 68, a widow, had been on Internet dating site Match.com for three years. Diana and Bill became engaged in July, and plan to marry in February. Diana says both feel more intensity now than either did in their combined 74 years of marriage.
The full article was originally published at OC Register, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: The senior dating niche is hot. Silversingles and Seniorfriendfinder are the category leaders.
Dating Game Changes After 40
USA TODAY — Dec 1 — Of almost 127 million Americans age 40 and over, more than a third are unattached. They're either casualties of the divorce explosion (13%); widowed (11%); or never married (8%). Match.com says registrations by people over 50 are up 340% since 2000. Those over 50 account for 21% of visitors to Yahoo Personals. A Yahoo Personals survey released in September found that 51% of men and 56% of women say it's acceptable for a potential date to be up to 10 years younger. So more older women are taking a cue from celebrities who are linked with men who are years or even decades their junior. "Women of a certain age want to date but don't necessarily want to be married," Carr says. "Women don't feel middle-aged. They feel there's a long life ahead." FULL ARTICLE @ USA TODAY
Graying Singles Adopt New Dating Mores
Online Dating Sites Accused of Deception
ASSOCIATED PRESS — Nov 25 — Match is charged with sending a female employee out on a date with a male subscriber as "date bait" to keep him signed up and Yahoo Personals with creating fake profiles to entice subscribers. Match.com denied the allegations and obtained an affidavit from the woman in question, who declared she never worked for the company. The suit says Yahoo posts fake profiles and alleges Yahoo also sent him fake "new match" messages when his monthly subscription was up for renewal. After months of failing to meet a potential match, he became suspicious and discovered the same picture of a woman being posted for different cities under different names. Trish McDermott, chief matchmaker at Engage.com and a Match's former VP Romance, said she never saw any type of consumer fraud during her decade at Match.com. She added that the majority of personals sites, including Yahoo and Match.com, employ a business model she believes fails consumers. It's not clear who is a member and who isn't in the pay-to-respond model, in which a user must join a service to respond to an e-mail sent by a potential match but cannot post a profile, McDermott said. If someone e-mails 100 people and gets only one response, he or she could conclude that most of the profiles are fake when they actually show non-subscribers who can't respond to e-mail, she said.
Mark Brooks: Your comments please…
Online Dating Sites Accused of Deception
ASSOCIATED PRESS — Nov 25 — Match is charged with sending a female employee out on a date with a male subscriber as "date bait" to keep him signed up and Yahoo Personals with creating fake profiles to entice subscribers. Match.com denied the allegations and obtained an affidavit from the woman in question, who declared she never worked for the company. The suit says Yahoo posts fake profiles and alleges Yahoo also sent him fake "new match" messages when his monthly subscription was up for renewal. After months of failing to meet a potential match, he became suspicious and discovered the same picture of a woman being posted for different cities under different names. Trish McDermott, chief matchmaker at Engage.com and a Match's former VP Romance, said she never saw any type of consumer fraud during her decade at Match.com. She added that the majority of personals sites, including Yahoo and Match.com, employ a business model she believes fails consumers. It's not clear who is a member and who isn't in the pay-to-respond model, in which a user must join a service to respond to an e-mail sent by a potential match but cannot post a profile, McDermott said. If someone e-mails 100 people and gets only one response, he or she could conclude that most of the profiles are fake when they actually show non-subscribers who can't respond to e-mail, she said.
Mark Brooks: Your comments please…
The Truth About Online Dating
Match.Com Says Lawsuit Filed Against Them Is Baseless
ALL HEADLINES — Nov 22 — Online dating powerhouse Match.com, is calling for a class action lawsuit filed against them to be dropped claiming the suit is thoroughly baseless, and the allegations of fake dates for members are entirely fictional. The suit contends people on the Match payroll went on sham dates with subscribers as a marketing ploy. The woman named in the lawsuit as a Match.com employee has confirmed in a sworn statement that she has never been an employee of Match.com, nor was she ever paid to go on dates with any members or subscribers. "The suit apparently was filed by Evans and his attorneys on the basis of no evidence whatsoever and without any investigation of the facts," said Kristin Kelly, spokeswoman for Match.com. "Match.com intends to fight back against this totally baseless attack with all of our resources.“
The full article was originally published at All Headlines, but is no longer available.