MASHABLE — Aug 20 — Group dating has become a cultural phenomenon, gaining popularity in the UK and now the US. Here are some popular online services that cater to the group dating/compa concept:
– Ignighter – a new group dating service from the TechStars camp. You can use their free service on their site or via their facebook app.
– Team Dating – is from http://www.Match.com which focuses on group dating
– Date-My-Mates – started in the UK in 2006
– Let's Meet Out – serves only the New York City area at this time
– PlanJam – they aren't actually a group dating site but they can facilitate such an event
– I Am Free Tonight – is owned by eTwine and offers two Facebook apps called Meet New people and Are You Interested?
FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE
Category: Outlets – Mashable
HOTorNOT Launches Celebrity Gossip Site
MASHABLE — Aug 5 — The gossip site will be hosted by Zack Taylor, celebrity blogger and will have content on prominent pop culture happenings. Using the sites storied voting system, readers will be able to rate items in the same way the rate someone’s photo. FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE
Alexa Changes Rankings
MASHABLE — Apr 17 — Alexa claims "better rankings," and "improved methodology". So far, Alexa has measured rankings of web sites according to the users of their Alexa Toolbar. The Toolbar was mostly used by the tech-savvy demographic which are interested in rankings, and therefore various technology and SEO sites were unfairly well ranked. Now, the Toolbar is not the only source of data anymore, although Alexa doesn't elaborate on what exactly these other sources are. FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE
Mark Brooks: I use Compete and Quantcast in combination with Alexa. Between the three you can get some great data. Of course, you can always see the top Hitwise, Nielsen and comScore rankings by viewing the ranking and links on the right bar.
Compete Acquired By TNS For $75 Million
MASHABLE — Mar 3 — Taylor Nelson Sofres plc (TNS) acquired web
analytics company Compete, Inc. for $75 million in cash plus deferred
cash payments in 2008-2010 of up to another $75 million. The
acquisition comes at a time when Compete announced revenue of $14.9
million for 2007 and a loss of $4.5 million for the same year, due to
investing in "building its panel and industry expertise." Along with
Alexa and Quantcast, Compete has been the only relevant, free, publicly
available metric of website traffic. FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE
Mark Brooks: I use Compete all the time and I hear the information is pretty good.
This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch.
Paltalk Adds Vumber’s Disposable Phone Numbers To Video Chat
MASHABLE — Feb 19 — There are a number of VoIP services, like Jangl and Jajah, that let you chat online, or even via landlines without having to reveal the phone number. Paltalk has integrated Vumber's disposable number service. The biggest benefit of Vumber is that its users can have an easier time taking their Paltalk video chat sessions offline. Paltalk customers get a 30-day free trial of Vumber's service, after which the $4.99 per month rate will kick in. FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE
Cupid.com And RegionalHelpWanted Acquired For $100 Million
MASHABLE — Feb 11 — RegionalHelpWanted.com was purchased by onTargetjobs, a portfolio company of Warburg pincus. The financial terms weren't explicitly disclosed, but according to PE Hub, Classified Intelligence "pegs the figure at $100 million". RegionalHelpWanted is also the company behind the telephone and online dating service Cupid.com, another recognizable brand name. The RegionalHelpWanted portfolio will join the onTarget portfolio that includes other sites like BioSpace.com, Hcareers.com, HEALTHeCAREERS.com, MedHunters.com, JobLoft.com and CareerBank.com. FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE
Mark Brooks: Cupid and RHW are promoted on remnant radio advertising usually at second tier radio stations around the country. What's unusual is that the payouts are on a CPA basis to radio stations. onTargetjobs has picked up a unique marketing channel.
PickupPal Is eHarmony For Hitch-Hikers
MASHABLE — Feb 6 — PickupPal helps its users find a ride. Users can put in a request for getting a ride to where they need to go including the price they are willing to pay. PickupPal gets a 7% commission on the deal. Of course safety is an issue, which is why PickupPal lets users rate each other, and stats are kept on users, indicating the number of rides they've given and taken, as well as the number of packages they've delivered. FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE
Hookups Get More Random, With Jangl On PlentyofFish
MASHABLE — Jan 31 — The very successful , "no-gimmicks" dating site run by one man in his apartment is not known for its great user interface design, or even for its feature set. So it's a noteworthy thing when we find out that PlentyofFish is the latest to integrate Jangl VoIP services in order to offer click-to-call options for its dating users. FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE
People Search For Dating Sites. Copenda Hooks It Up
MASHABLE — Dec 3 — Copenda is a new search tool that scours the web's dating sites to find a perfect match. A good portion of found profiles come from Match.com, Friendster and hi5 (Facebook is on the way). For each result users will see whatever text that individual has included in their original social networking profile, their interests, status (single, married, divorced, etc), and a link to their external profile. FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE
MySpace Founder Sues Over Censorship
MASHABLE BLOG — Nov 2 — Brad Greenspan, the guy who started the company that created MySpace before it was sold to News Corp in July 2005 is suing News Corp over alleged censorship and launched CensorSpace, a blog that aims to shed light on MySpace's tendency to block certain services. Brad is opposed to MySpace blocking certain widgets. In the past they've blocked (and later reinstated) players from YouTube and Revver. Now they've blocked players from Brad's video-sharing site, Vidilife. He's also standing up for Photobucket, Imageshack, and Slide.com, all of which he thinks could be at risk of being blocked in future. FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE BLOG
Mark Brooks: Can you imagine the board room wrangling? Should MySpace block competitive services, or not? Your comments please…