Category: YahooPersonals

Yahoo to Offer Incentives for Using Search Engine?

Posted on February 10, 2006

Yahoopersonals_6CNET NEWS — February 8 — "Yahoo is considering launching a program to reward people who make Yahoo their primary search engine. Users would have to log in or use a search box specifically designed for the program, like "a Yahoo rewards toolbar." Potential reward options include: No Yahoo Mail ads, unlimited Yahoo Mail storage,, Outlook Access to Yahoo Mail, Netflix discount, discounted Yahoo Personals subscription. 

The full article was originally published at CNet News, but is no longer available.

DatingDirect Most Visited Dating Site in December

Posted on February 8, 2006

Datingdirect_2Feb 3 — DatingDirect.com was the most visited UK online dating service in Decmber 2005, according to new research. Research from both comScore Europe and Nielsen//NetRatings show DatingDirect ahead of its rivals during the lucrative festive period before Christmas and the new year. Figures from comScore's December 2005 research show DatingDirect.com with nearly 895,000 unique users per month, ahead of its rivals Loopylove.com (674,000 unique users), Yahoo! Personals (622,000) and Match.com (651,000).  In addition, December's Nielsen//NetRatings figures, reveal that the site attracted 16% of all traffic to personals sites, ahead of rivals Match.com, LoveHappens and Yahoo! Personals. Top personal sites according to unique audience in December 2005, according to Nielsen//Netratings. 

Yahoo’s Social Circle

Posted on January 24, 2006

Yahoo_1YAHOO FINANCE — Jan 23 — Yahoo is on a quiet acquisitions tear. First, it snapped up photo-sharing site Flickr in March. In December, it acquired del.icio.us, a service that bookmarks and shares users' favorite Web sites. And on Jan. 6, Yahoo purchased WebJay, a site for creating and sharing music playlists. By cultivating online communities — and encouraging people to tap into the collective knowledge of these groups — Yahoo is hoping to change the way people find information online. Known in industry parlance as "social search," it presents a significant departure from the Google approach, which relies on complicated mathematical models to help users find sites.  Social search gleans input and preferences from the communities which searchers are associated with. Someone seeking "Mexican restaurants," for instance, would arguably be better served by results reflecting preferences of people in the same neighborhood. It could represent a monumental shift in search technology. Google has done far less than Yahoo in the arena of online community building. Google's long-term bet remains on using computing horsepower.  Startup Eurekster hit the market first with its social search technology in early 2004. Jeteye Technologies and Kaboodle followed.  Yahoo is applying social search on a limited basis in its My Web 2.0 beta product. "Social search is not one of these things that will take off overnight," says Forrester Research analyst Charlene Li. "It will take a lot of time to build." 

Mark Brooks: At the core of social search, Yahoo is attempting to capture and bottle 'friendly referrals/recommendations.'  Wouldn't you rather get a referral/recommendation from a friend?  This is groundbreaking work. Yahoo may well apply the social search spin to Yahoo Personals.  They have the critical mass to make this work. A great differentiator that plays to Yahoo's size.  Friendster tried it.  Yahoo has the usership clout to make social search really fly for online personals.  Check out Yahoo's Web 2.0 Search. 

YAHOO! Personals Hooks up With Starbucks

Posted on January 20, 2006

Starbucks_1NY POST — Jan 19 — Starbucks and Yahoo! Personals will announce the start of a new relationship today. The coffee giant will give away $10 Starbucks gift cards to people who register for the Internet dating site through Feb. 19. The site will have a location finder for the nearest Starbucks store. 

Mark Brooks: That's a good start on a great potential relationship.  I was wondering when Starbucks would cotton on and seek out a deal with a dating company.  I recommend the 'coffee date' as the ideal first quick-date after meeting someone online. 

Coffeehouses the Perfect Place for First Dates

Posted on January 20, 2006

Yahoo_personals_1BUSINESS WIRE — Jan  19 — 90% of singles feel more relaxed if that initial face-to-face happens in a familiar place, according to a new national survey of dating preferences (303 surveyed) and trends conducted by StrategyOne. 39% of Americans have gone on a date with someone they met online. Starbucks and Yahoo! Personals have joined forces with the "Espresso Dating Guide" offering advice on coffeehouse first-dates. Singles receive a $10 Starbucks card when they subscribe to Yahoo! Personals, the leaders in making online dating connections that lead to great first dates and more. 

Mark Brooks: Click on 'Meet over Coffee' at Starbucks.com and it leads to a Yahoo Personals cobranded page.

Date and Switch?

Posted on January 3, 2006

Match_87 NEWS BOSTON — Dec 12 — New claims say some of the tempting profiles you see may really be cyber fakes. David Lemay put his profile on the web and got a response from an Elle McPherson look alike.  David emailed back, but nothing.  New lawsuits claim Match.com and Yahoo's sites have posted fake profiles on purpose to lure people into paying for membership renewals.  The complaint lists different potential daters using the exact same phrases in their profiles–too unique to be a coincidence. Match.com calls the suit extortion.  Mark Brooks runs "Online Personals Watch." He admits date baiting can happen but can't believe larger sites do it.  "To have a product manager put the hand up in a meeting and say, 'hey, why don't we put up bogus emails so we can improve our conversion rates'…they'd get fired." Brooks says some companies filter out obscene photos and obvious fakes but they don't make sure postings are real people.  Experts think online daters are targeted when their memberships are expiring. 

The full article was originally published at 7 News Boston, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: Sites will typically bubble up expiring profiles in searches. Nothing new there.  However, product managers, employees, please make sure to delete test profiles.  The profile used in this video looks to me like a test profile.  Not date bait, but a profile that an employee might put up to test the site.  I can see 3rd tier, one-man-band sites succumbing to the temptation of using date bait to raise their conversion rates out of the ashes.  Match, Yahoo, nah!  I have great respect for these companies and their integrity.  As an industry, I think we need to freeze profiles from search results that are completely unresponsive after 20 contacts/2 weeks. 

Computer Courting: Online Dating Discovers a New Age

Posted on January 3, 2006

Computer_courtingPITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE — Jan 3 — Nielsen says computer users 55 and older account for 16.7% of all traffic to online personal sites — the equivalent of 4.2 million unique visitors. At Yahoo Personals, those over 50 account for 21% of their visitors.  Anita Miller, author of the Online Dating Journal, which helps people record their online dating contacts and experiences, said more than 40 million people are using internet dating services. Sites designed exclusively mature adults; SeniorFriendFinder.com, 50yearsplus.com and SeniorsCircle.com.

The full article was originally published at Pitsburgh Post Gazette, but is no longer available.

Single. 40. Now what?

Posted on January 3, 2006

Yahoopersonals_5THE COURIER JOURNAL — Dec — Joan Hardin, a 60-ish widow confesses, "I'm not interested in the sex. I'd rather have more companionship."  About a fifth of visitors to the online dating site Yahoo Personals, for example, are over 50.  More than 40 million Americans over 40 are single — divorced, widowed or never married. One research paper, "Dating in Later Life," explores the courtship experiences of women over 60 (by Kandi L. Walker, Fran C. Dickson and Patrick Hughes). 

November 2005 Site Rankings

Posted on December 27, 2005

Dec 27 — The November rankings are live (see left bar).  Nielsen has tidied social networks Myspace, Facebook, hi5 and Friendster out of their online dating rankings, leaving Yahoo Personals (1), Match (2) and TRUE (3) with the November 2005 top spots.   

Not much change with the Alexa rankings.  Plentyoffish and Friendfinder bump Date.com down two spots to #6.  For the social networking rankings Facebook bumps Friendster out of the top 3.  Myspace now leads the social networking category, followed by Hi5 and Facebook.

TRUE trumps American Singles on the Hitwise top 15 rankings for November and takes the #5 spot.  Singlesnet moves up one spot to #7 and wrestles Plentyoffish and adult oriented Mate1 down one place.  MSN leans on it’s online dating and moves up five full places to take the #10 position.  Niche site Blackpeoplemeet impressively moves up a spot to #11 and Perfect Match gets squeezed out to #12.  Youngsters online dating site, Hotornot, moves up a spot to #13.  – Mark Brooks   

Yahoo to Plug Security Hole in Dating Site

Posted on December 21, 2005

Yahoopersonals_4CNET NEWS — Dec 20 — Yahoo plans to tighten security on its dating site after a security expert uncovered a method for breaking into members’ accounts. Yahoo Personals ads contain clues about key personal information, birth date and ZIP code, that members also use to reset their passwords. If an intruder obtains that data, the only thing that would block him from changing passwords and accessing accounts are members’ secret questions, such as “What’s your pet’s name?” In the age of instant messaging and e-mail, answers to such questions are often easy to obtain with a bit of social engineering.

The full article was originally published at ZDNet News, but is no longer available.