CHICAGO TRIBUNE – Dec 23 – Settle for Love is a new dating site that provides a platform for people to recognize, in addition to their positive traits, their imperfections. A user's profile includes a format to submit both "good" and "bad" pictures, a list of "positive" traits and a list of "imperfections."
Category: Outlets – Chicago Tribune
Online Dating Hasn’t Killed Matchmakers
CHICAGO TRIBUNE – Oct 23 – A matchmaking school is reporting growing enrollment. "People have dating overload – they're on Tinder, Match, OKCupid," said Talia Goldstein, co-founder and CEO of Three Day Rule, Match.com's "white glove" matchmaking partner. "People are getting so confused by all the options that they are looking for someone to help them." Three Day Rule charges $3,5K for three months of personal matchmaking and $5K for a six-month package that includes date coaching, styling and professional photography. Some matchmakers say their clientele is getting younger. Business models among matchmakers vary widely. On the high end, Selective Search, charges $25K. 90% of the clients are men, who are matched with dates who do not pay for the service. On the other end is Project Fixup, a startup that charges $20 per setup.
by Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz
See full article at Chicago Tribune
See all posts on ThreeDayRule
See all posts on Selective Search
See all posts on Project Fixup
eHarmony To Use Post-Date Feedback To Make Better Matches
CHICAGO TRIBUNE – Mar 11 – Datebook is a new feature on eHarmony's mobile app. Users can rate their dates on a scale of one to four and eHarmony will work that information into its algorithms to find them better future matches. eHarmony is the first of the big online dating sites to use post-date feedback to shape future matches, said Mark Brooks, editor of onlinepersonalswatch.com. Datebook also allows users to store contact and calendar information about all of their dates, plus any notes they wish to jot down about their experiences.
Can DNA Screening Help You Find Your Soul Mate?
CHICAGO TRIBUNE – Oct 15 – Claudia Haase, an assistant professor in Northwestern University's School of Education and Social Policy says that the formula – Two People + DNA Test = Marital Bliss – is a misinterpretation of the research. "There's no perfect match," she said. "It really depends on the particular couple, and on what you want." There's a gene called 5-HTTLPR (Love Gene) however, which is involved in the body's regulation of the hormone serotonin, which can lead to feelings of happiness. The study found that the length of one's Love Genes can predict how emotions will affect a relationship. A person who has two shorter Love Genes tends to feel the highs and lows of marriage more deeply.
by Rex W. Huppke
The full article was originally published at Chicago Tribune, but is no longer available.
Love In The Time Of GPS
CHICAGO TRIBUNE – Feb 27 – 25.3M people accessed personals sites through mobile devices in Dec, versus 21.3M through a fixed computer, according to comScore. Location-based dating apps have been wildly successful in the gay community (Grindr – 4M users) but slower to catch on among heterosexual daters, likely because women are more wary of announcing their location. SinglesAroundMe, which features a map with drop pins showing where nearby singles are, recently launched an "approximate location" option that lets users displace their coordinates by 1 to 2 miles. Tinder scours a user's Facebook connections to see which friends of friends are single and nearby. MeetMoi sends members a push notification if a match is in the vicinity, getting no more exact than "within .2 miles," and only if both parties agree to chat does the app allow a connection. The app has 3.7M users. Of the 4M active users on OkCupid, half of whom access the site through their mobile phones, 1M have the Locals app. OkCupid also recently launched the mobile app Crazy Blind Date, which sets up a blind date — no photos, no profiles. As with online dating, mobile dating started off catering to people looking for casual relationships, but as it becomes mainstream more serious relationship-seekers are using it as well, said Mark Brooks, an analyst and consultant to the Internet dating industry. "It's more natural, you're out and about," said Brooks, who predicts that dating via mobile phone will change the game profoundly because apps can gather instantaneous feedback about how a date went, resulting in better matches. "People don't really know what they want, so the best way to match people is to look at their behaviors," Brooks said. "Your phone is going to get to know you, it is going to get to know your buying behavior."
by Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz
See full article at Chicago Tribune
See all posts on Grindr See all posts on MeetMoi
See all posts on SinglesAroundMe See all posts on OkCupid
See all posts on Tinder
MyLovelyParent Helps Adult Kids Play Matchmaker For Their Parents
CHICAGO TRIBUNE – Dec 4 - Matt Connolly created
myLovelyParent, which launched in October. It is active in many
countries, including the U.S.
Q: How is this different from other dating sites?
A: I designed it to
be incredibly easy to use. The journey starts with the adult child.
They start the profile. Then parents get the invitation.
Q: Do the adult kids reach out to the potential mates?
A: No, that's only done between the parents.
Q: What kind of feedback have you gotten from clients?
A:
I got the most wonderful email from a lady. She wrote: "Thank you so
much, because no matter what happens with dating, it was worth it just
to read what my son wrote about me.
Computerized Dating Dates To The 1960s
CHICAGO TRIBUNE – Nov 22 – Online dating has a relatively short history characterized by explosive growth in recent years, experts say. Most consider Match.com, launched in 1995, to be the first Internet dating site. The company was a pioneer, but using computers to connect eligible singles predates Match.com by decades. In the mid-1960s two Harvard undergraduates came up with "Operation Match," a computer program that paired men and woman based on a series of questions. Online dating also has become big business. According to IBISWorld, ~3,700 dating service companies generate ~$2 billion in annual revenue.
by Erin Meyer
The full article was originally published at Chicago Tribune, but is no longer available.
Datemyschool.com: Surfing For Romance On Campus
CHICAGO TRIBUNE – Oct 9 – Datemyschool.com launched two years ago by two Columbia University business school students who found it difficult to meet women outside of their department. The site has 150K users at more than 1.3K four-year colleges and universities. The site is free for current students with a college email address. Alumni pay $9 a week.
Mixing In Matching
CHICAGO TRIBUNE – July 10 – According to a recent national poll dating across ethnic lines still carries some apprehension. A study out of the University of California at Berkeley examined more than a million profiles from a free online dating site and found that young white men and women (ages 20 to 39) reached out to other whites 80% of the time, while white men reached out to blacks only 3% of the time and white women did so 8% of the time. Young black daters were much more open, reaching out to whites and blacks about equally. Fewer than 2% of new marriages in the U.S. between 2008 and 2010 were between blacks and whites, according to a Pew Research study.
by Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz
See full article at Chicago Tribune
Mark Brooks: More interracial mating will happen over time, and we'll all end up coffee-colored in 200 years. People who are into interracial dating can find sites that allow them to meet similar. Afroromance is a good example.
State Senate OKs Online Dating Safeguards
CHICAGO TRIBUNE – Mar 29 – The Illinois Senate passed legislation requiring online dating sites to say whether they perform criminal background checks on prospective members. The legislation also would require dating services that say they conduct background checks to use government databases, including criminal court records and sex offender registries. In addition, the sites also would have to say whether they allow someone with a criminal record to sign up. Furthermore, the legislation would require sites to post safety tips, including warnings that background checks aren't foolproof and suggestions to leave their addresses off the sites. Sites that fail to follow the requirements or that lie about conducting background checks could face fines of up to $50K per violation.
by Alissa Groeninger
The full article was originally published at Chicago Tribune, but is no longer available.