Category: Uncategorized

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES — Mar 17 — With help from the former president of Intermix Media, an online contextual-advertising start-up has raised $48 million in venture capital (Technology Crossover Ventures) to quickly take a bite out of market giants Google and Yahoo. Adknowledge, which places behaviorally targeted ads in Web pages and emails, aims to provide an alternative to text ads tied to keyword searches. 

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

Mark Brooks: Adbrite is one of my favorite ad companies and does well for online personals ad buys. 

BEHAVIORAL INSIDER — Mar 17 — The new Gather.com (launched Nov. 15) is MySpace for a literate audience. While there are user profiles here, the emphasis is on content, articles that users link to or write themselves, tag, recommend, and comment upon across the full range of editorial topics. Partially funded by NPR, Gather.com's 20,000 members (150,000 daily views) skews older and wiser than MySpace.  F

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

THE SAN FRANSISCO CHRONICLE — Mar 16 — Leslie Beam spent years trying to get laid. Then, she got laid off. "I had been dating heavily — Internet dating — for a couple of years," says Beam during which "came a number of interesting and odd stories." Beam's stories, though, might never have left the office and onto the stage if she hadn't been laid off from her job as a Silicon Valley accountant in November 2004. What's the moral of the story after six years and 300 dates? Beam settles on a three-word epigraph: "Tenacity pays off."  FULL ARTICLE @ THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

Mark Brooks: Dr Gray suggested new online daters go on 20 dates just to have fun and meet new people.

BUSINESS WIRE — Mar 16 — theglobe.com was one of the original and largest communities on the Internet. Members of tglofriends will be able to upload pictures, build profiles, blog, email, network and more. Members will be able to call other members for free with tglophone. 

Mar 19 — There will be a special iDate2006 in San Francisco focusing on background checks and dating on July 13-14.  Mark your calendars.  You’ll learn about providers, legislation, pitfalls, pros and cons.  – Mark Brooks

Mar 17 — The Asian internet dating market is hot…and an unknown quantity for most American dating services.  The Beijing internet dating convention is coming up fast so best get those visas in process if you want to attend.  Visa information for iDate.  Beijing idate2006 takes place May 18-19. – Mark Brooks

CMP NET ASIA — Mar 15 — Friendster has 24 million members and 9 million unique visitors a month. After three years, LinkedIn has 5 million subscribers and believes that number will reach 8 to 10 million by the end of the year. "We’re expecting to reach profitability this month," says VP Konstantin Guericke. Adrian Scott, CEO and founder of business social networking site Ryze.com, claims his site, with six employees and 400,000 users, has been profitable for several years.  FULL ARTICLE @ CMP NET ASIA

Mark Brooks: It took several years for online dating to become profitable. Social networking was primed in 1999, born again in 2003 and should be profitable this year. 

WELWYN & HATFIELD TIMES — Mar 15 — University of Hertfordshire professor, Richard Wiseman, will lead the world's first mass experiment on the science of speed-dating to uncover the secret of finding the perfect partner.  Professor Wiseman, 40, hopes to discover whether people with different personalities get on best, or whether similarity is the secret of success. 

The full article was originally published at Welwyn & Hatfield Times, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: eHarmony matches on similarity.  TRUE and PerfectMatch less so.

AD RANTS — Mar 14 — USA Network launched ShowUsYourCharacter.com, a site that features characters from USA shows but also mimics the social community aspects of MySpace. Visitors can dig deep into the profiles of their favorite characters and then set up a profile of their own to highlight their uniqueness.  RELEASE @ AD RANTS

Mark Brooks: Myspace has pushed bands, Friendster has pushed TV stars.  This makes sense for a network to try and create buzz.

PR WEB — Mar 14 — tBlog has launched tMatch "Thought Matching" system brings users together basedupon the whole of their profile and blogs, matching similar personalities based upon likes, dislikes, hobbies and life outlooks. RELEASE @ PR WEB