Category: Outlets – PC World

Bharatmatrimony Group Bags PC World Web Award

Posted on May 8, 2007

BharatlogoPC WORLD — May 8 — BharatMatrimony ranked as the best website for its overall performance in the Matrimony space. PC World recently conducted a research on 126 online Indian companies from various categories. The awards were based on the sites design, usability, technology usage, navigation, framework of the site, interface, user experience, error handling and security. “BharatMatrimony uses lot of visual aids and perfect eye friendly color combinations which makes the layout of the site attractive. The other award winning websites include Yahoo! Games, FutureBazaar for Shopping, Gmail for E-mails, Yahoo for Portals, MonsterIndia for Jobs, and Orkut for social networking. See PC World.

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

Mark Brooks: BharatMatrimony competes with Shaadi in India. They are the leading matrimonials sites.

Finding Love by Cell Phone

Posted on February 16, 2007

Mobile datingPC WORLD — Feb 13 — Mobile dating is gowing partly because of newer cell phones w/cameras, broadband connections and clearer displays. Tole Hart at Gartner said, "Mobile dating will continue to grow because Internet communities like MySpace and Jumbuck Island will grow." Trilibis said Webdate Mobile surged 23% in the past year to 92,000 registered users. Analysts at Frost & Sullivan put global mobile dating revenues at $31 million in 2005, and is expected to grow to $215 million in 2009. Market research firm, Visiongain, said that ~13% of U.S. dating service members accessed Web sites through their cell phones. Sprint offers Webdate Mobile for $3.99/mo and Jumbuck Island for $3.99/mo. Jumbuck Island said 40,000 unique visitors per day use it's Fast Flirting service worldwide. IceBreaker Inc. debuted Crush or Flush on Jan 16th.

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

Mark Brooks: The introduction of the Nokia N95 and Apple iPhone with provide added impetus for the transition to the mobile web and mobile dating.

Finding Love by Cell Phone

Posted on February 16, 2007

Mobile datingPC WORLD — Feb 13 — Mobile dating is gowing partly because of newer cell phones w/cameras, broadband connections and clearer displays. Tole Hart at Gartner said, "Mobile dating will continue to grow because Internet communities like MySpace and Jumbuck Island will grow." Trilibis said Webdate Mobile surged 23% in the past year to 92,000 registered users. Analysts at Frost & Sullivan put global mobile dating revenues at $31 million in 2005, and is expected to grow to $215 million in 2009. Market research firm, Visiongain, said that ~13% of U.S. dating service members accessed Web sites through their cell phones. Sprint offers Webdate Mobile for $3.99/mo and Jumbuck Island for $3.99/mo. Jumbuck Island said 40,000 unique visitors per day use it's Fast Flirting service worldwide. IceBreaker Inc. debuted Crush or Flush on Jan 16th.

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

Mark Brooks: The introduction of the Nokia N95 and Apple iPhone with provide added impetus for the transition to the mobile web and mobile dating.

Just Cancel the @#%$* Account!

Posted on January 9, 2007

PC WORLD — Dec 22 — It took me less than 5 minutes to sign up for a NetZero dial-up Internet account and a week trying to reverse a charge that the service levied after my cancellation request. I had a hard time canceling my $5 monthly Gold Classmates.com account, too. I couldn't find any information on how to cancel until I entered the word cancel in the site's search engine and then click through several pages reminding me of the benefits I'd lose. Sixteen days after I signed up for AOL's 90-Day Risk-Free account I cancelled. An AOL rep peppered me with questions as to why I was unsubscribing. I was still hit with a $25.90 charge. Thinking that I had properly canceled my contract with True.com within two weeks of signing up, I expected to be charged for one month of service: $50. Two months later my statement showed $153.

Mark Brooks: Trust me on this. Members should be able to cancel within 30 seconds and three clicks of logging in. Focus on building value, rather than locking members into your service and throwing away the keys.  Your comments please…

Just Cancel the @#%$* Account!

Posted on January 9, 2007

PC WORLD — Dec 22 — It took me less than 5 minutes to sign up for a NetZero dial-up Internet account and a week trying to reverse a charge that the service levied after my cancellation request. I had a hard time canceling my $5 monthly Gold Classmates.com account, too. I couldn't find any information on how to cancel until I entered the word cancel in the site's search engine and then click through several pages reminding me of the benefits I'd lose. Sixteen days after I signed up for AOL's 90-Day Risk-Free account I cancelled. An AOL rep peppered me with questions as to why I was unsubscribing. I was still hit with a $25.90 charge. Thinking that I had properly canceled my contract with True.com within two weeks of signing up, I expected to be charged for one month of service: $50. Two months later my statement showed $153.

Mark Brooks: Trust me on this. Members should be able to cancel within 30 seconds and three clicks of logging in. Focus on building value, rather than locking members into your service and throwing away the keys.  Your comments please…

MySpace Halts Tracking Sites

Posted on June 22, 2006

Myspace_19PC WORLD — June 21 — SingleStat.us was active for only 10 days before a cease-and-desist letter from MySpace caused its creator to shut down the site. SingleStat charged a small fee to be notified by email when the status of a MySpace user changed, from "in a relationship" to "single." On Tuesday, DatingAnyone.com, a Web site with similar functions was also shuttered after a warning from MySpace. MySpace bared its teeth citing California laws against hacking and federal trademark laws. Stalkerati enables searches at Friendster, Facebook, Technorati. MySpace appears to have added a script to prevent searches.

Mark Brooks: Myspace needs to be seen to be very aggressively going after sites that may undermine their user privacy. (What user privacy).