Today I spent some time revising the Tools & Services section. Several companies, most notably Gnumber, seem to have shifted focus from the dating space to other verticals. Their DateNumber service doesn't seem to be on the web anymore, unless Google is missing something. Interestingly enough, Gnumber has relaunched as UnWired Buyer in the hopes that bidding on eBay from your mobile phone will take off.
Over the years I've seen many different types of virtual helpers, from the ill-fated Microsoft Bob to Clippy the Paperclip. I've been doing some research into avatars for dating sites and came across Oddcast. It's straightforward to create an avatar, upload the text and have the avatar speak the text based on specific conditions. Other solutions exist, but Oddcast is the least expensive to integrate. Check it out for yourself.
Patrick Marshall of Thomas Technologies was nice enough to send in his conference notes from iDate in Prague last week.
European iDate’s are generally smaller than Miami but with almost 70 participants from dating and social networking sites, payment processors, marketing/ad firms, affiliate managers, and directory sites Prague didn’t disappoint.
In spite of a few no shows (Meetic, Yonja, 24/7 Real Media) it was a good program. Christian Vollmann did a great job of outlining the German market and shed some light on the particular issues related to payment processing. The Final Panel featured James Hamlin (Match.com), Dr. Arndt Roller (Parship.de), Frederick Bien (Flirt.com), Jan Becker (Friend Scout 24), and Morton Wagner (Dating.dk). As usual Mark Lesnick jumped in with a few stir-the-pot questions.
Cudos to Mark and the iDate team for organizing a first class cocktail reception at the Moevenpick’s Tower Lounge on the first night and a more intimate gathering at his place on the second night (with his Czech pals).
Thomas Technologies, a leader in private-label behavioral assessment software and related reporting, has announced an expansion of their relationship with Allegran Limited. Allegran, whose dating sites are ranked in the UK’s topthree, already features Thomas reporting on LoopyLove.com and Pocado.
Designed for genuine people seeking serious relationships, DreamsDiscovered is unique in marketplace. Members are profiled with the Thomas PPA assessment and then asked to build their ideal date in personality terms.
Intermix has filed SEC documents detailing why they refused a proposal from Intermix founder Brad Greenspan which was based on complicated shareholder equity deal. According to PaidContent, the deal included prized social networking destination Myspace to be the sole company, with Greenspan at the head of the table. Here's the SEC filing.
Intermix CEO Richard Rosenblatt:
The board concluded that the proposed offer from Mr. Greenspan lacked credibility and did not constitute a proposal that was superior for our stockholders in comparison to the pending transaction with News Corporation. We found the proposal to be speculative and incomplete, creating obvious risks to our stockholders.
Remember when Monster.com bought Tickle? Tickle spun off the relationship part of the site into LoveHappens.
LoveHappens has never done anything for me, not a single email from any member and not much going on otherwise. Nobody there seems to be paying attention to it, so I removed my profile. Or at least I tried to.
The directions for removing a profile are clearly listed on the Help page, however in my account page, the link to cancel account does not exist.
Customer support writes back:
"...Your LoveHappens Profile is set to private. Your profile will no longer be viewable by other members and you will no longer receive update emails from LoveHappens."
Totally unacceptable in my book. Not only do they make it impossible to cancel, are not being clear about their policies, and their website remains broken on purpose, they keep my email address and can say they still have N number of members, because nobody can leave.
Many of the niche sites that I have been joining seem to be doing a decent job at customer service, although most of the time it's more thorough help pages, because they simply don't have the staff to do an 800 number.
Add this link to your RSS newsreader to stay on top of jobs in the online dating industry. Feel free to add more company names, this is only a few of the major sites to get you started.
This looks interesting, but it only runs on Series 60 Symbian phones.
True Blue Loveis a mobile phone social networking experience, designed to explore the politics behind intimate phone-based relations. Designed as a program for mobile phones; each participant enters into the program the characteristics of their ideal sexual mate, chosen from a series of preset selections. While the program is running, every time another phone comes within range, a love metric is calculated which is a representation of how close the incoming person matches the participant's ideal mate. If the match is close, the phone will emit a raucous mating call that will be unique to that participant. The concept behind the triggered mating calls is to attempt to undermine the silent technology of messaging and email with vocal communication that expresses the user's desires through a public broadcast, a broadcast that harks back to more primitive exchanges. The ridiculous sounds should function as social ice-breakers, and the unwilling couple may want to discuss what it is that they have in common that triggered the noise.
Staci @ PaidContent writes about Brad Greenspan, the disgruntled founder of Intermix Media precursor eUniverse.
Greenspan is leading an investor group called FreeMySpace LLC in a counter-offer for the company, which previously agreed to be acquired by News Corp. for $12 per share. Greenspan, who contends that price underestimates the company's value, says his group -- he's the only identified investor so far -- can offer $13.50 a share to shareholders for up to half of their shares; the shareholders would retain equity value. The Greenspan group also is asking for the Sept. 28 special meeting of shareholders to be moved back. FreeMySpace press release.
Nielsen Netratings reports an almost doubling of online display advertising for Myspace from 6.3% of all ads in May up to 12.9% of all online advertising impressions delivered online in August.
The power of the forum is the ability to draw from the shared experiences from those who have gone before you. Most people I talk to have similar questions and concerns. Many have expressed their willingness to share what they have learned with others. Love and happieness should not be squandered, and neither should the information you need to make the best decision when it comes to choosing a matchmaker.
This is perfect for the self-absorbed or relationship-challenged.
SaveMyAss is a personal assistant that keeps your girlfriend or wife happy by sending her flowers on your behalf. We make sure you never miss Valentines day, her birthday, or your anniversary (again), and you will surprise her with "just because" flowers on a regular but semi-random basis.
Jdate, part of the Spark Networks dating site network, is being sued by one Soheil Davood, who claims he was taunted by an automated message telling him that he was rejected when he called a women he met on the site. Suing over a stinging practical joke is one thing, the embarrassment of being ridiculed in the national media for not having a sense of humor is another.
Spark needs to do some damage control, probably pay the guy off to make him go away, but what a precedent to set, especially with the Spark Networks IPO on the front burner. I would be surprised if this sort of thing was not covered in the JDate Terms of Service.
I am looking to select a private-label dating site to use with several projects. Site must be hosted, and not use a shared database, or provide some way to segment the database. I'm aware of the usual suspects, some of which are listed in theTools & Services section, which by the way I will be updating soon. Let me know if your company would like to be listed in the directory. Emailme with info.
Spark filed their Form 10, which is a general form for registration of securities, on September 16. I've been getting back into focus mode after a much-needed vacation and have tons of email to wade through, and respond to. In the meantime a quick overview, thanks Markus! Hopefully David at the Internet Stock Blog will weigh in with commentary.
The Offering
9 million shares given to directors at $3.81 as compensation.
ADSs offered by selling shareholders 33,269,160 ADSs (1)
Total ordinary shares outstanding after the offering, including ordinary shares underlying ADSs and GDSs 26,144,160 Ordinary Shares (2)
Use of Proceeds We will not receive any of the net proceeds from the sale of our shares by the selling shareholders. See “Use of Proceeds.”
Proposed Nasdaq National Market symbol SPRK.
Looks like they can raise around 40 million from the exercise of options.
- 8,997,750 ordinary shares issuable upon the exercise of outstanding options as of August 31, 2005, with exercise prices ranging from $0.90 to $9.74 per share and a weighted average exercise price of $4.16 per share;
- 530,000 ordinary shares issuable upon the exercise of warrants outstanding as of August 31, 2005, with an exercise price an exercise price of $2.57 per share; and
- 14,157,000 ordinary shares available for issuance under our share option schemes.
Update: Internet Stock Blog has more on the Spark IPO registration.
Friendster has announced it's all new, again. New features are Customizable profiles and a new Start page. Customization seems to mimic MySpace closely, including the ability to embed audio and video, create custom CSS. Yawn.
DateAGolfer.com is an online golf community developed specifically to help people expand their golf network. DateAGolfer.com is more than just dating, offering members an opportunity to share their passion for golf.
Members of Salon Personals received this email, reproduced in it's entirety.
As you've probably noticed Salon Personals has undergone some major changes over the past 10 days. We're going to try and explain what happened, why, and how it will give you the best personals experience on the web.
First, Spring Street Networks, the company which formerly powered Salon Personals, ran out of funding and was recently acquired by Various Inc., which has rechristened it FastCupid. We've now completed our initial integration period where we've migrated members to the new and supportable platform.
What does this mean for you?
There will be some changes, such as an alternative billing system and added functionality, but fundamentally Salon Personals will remain the same. You'll still be part of an elite group of people who read Salon or one of the other sites in our network like the Onion, Nerve and the Village Voice, so that you have the best prospects around. You'll still use a familiar interface, still benefit from a strict privacy policy and, with any luck, you'll have even better success at finding that perfect someone.
What happened last week?
Due to an unfortunate sequence of events we were forced to change systems before we had all the kinks worked out. We can't apologize enough for the problems that we've caused and are working overtime to fix all the issues and make sure that the new site retains all your information and settings.
We believe that we have resolved most problems but if you're still experiencing a problem please e-mail our support department at salon@fastcupid.com or use our online form and we'll resolve your problem as fast as possible. Our Customer Support team is available 24/7 to help you with everything from lost passwords to how to personalize your experience and increase your chances of finding true love (or whatever!). Got a question, suggestion, or problem? We're here to help... 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
What now?
Now that we have most of the issues resolved we plan on customizing the site so that it works better than ever. Since our initial launch, we've implemented more than 30 design and functionality customizations resulting directly from member suggestions. Because we're starting from scratch (the old company ran out of funding and there was no way to upgrade their software), some changes may take a while. Hang in there, and we promise we'll get there soon!
Unlike before, we now have dozens of programming gurus working overtime to build a better site based on what you (and people like you!) have told us they want. Those changes include:
Richer profiles that give you more opportunities to tell people who you are and find out who they are
A subscription option, in addition to the familiar pay-per-use points system
A way to share private photos , testimonials, and messages with your friends
Blogs and member groups so you can share your thoughts with other members
Bigger photo albums and the ability to make photos private
Free instant messaging and chat rooms
How will the change affect who sees my profile?
We're not merging the FastCupid database with anything else. The potential dates and mates you hear from are still from the same partner sites as always. And we have a strict privacy policy so your information will not be resold or given away.
How do I know the profiles I'm seeing are real?
Our goal is to ensure that all profiles on the site are legitimate and of actual people. Under the new system, we allow, and even encourage, "flagging" of any profiles you find questionable. If a flagged profile is determined to be phony, it's promptly deleted.
You're not going to spam me, are you?
We have a zero-spam policy, both for existing members and for potential members. The only mail you'll receive from us is totally controlled by you. We send emails to tell you about potential matches, let you know about new messages in your inbox, and share news and updates about the sites. But you control whether you get those messages or not. You can go to your Account Page and change the settings any time.
A Journey Starts with the First Step
We've just gotten started. It takes a lot of work to redevelop and re-launch a website. But our strength is using technology to offer new and better ways to connect. We have some things in the pipeline, including video profiles and a faster instant messenger that lets you webcam with other members, plus our team always reviews YOUR ideas on new features. We want FastCupid to stay your favorite way to meet new people online and we will work hard to do it. That's our commitment to you.
The power of the forum is the ability to draw from the shared experiences from those who have gone before you. Most people I talk to have similar questions and concerns. Many have expressed their willingness to share what they have learned with others. Love and happieness should not be squandered, and neither should the information you need to make the best decision when it comes to choosing a matchmaker.
Finally got around to setting up a new e-commerce shopping cart to take Dating Study ordersonline instead of over the phone. This week I'll be performing some blog maintenance, cleaning up sidebars and adding new features. Things got a bit crufty here at ODI over the summer while I was focused on other things. Blogs do require a certain amount of care and feeding, especially if you try out all sorts of plug-ins and other features that can complicate maintenance.
Due to vacation and work plans, I'm not able to attend iDate in Prague this week. If you attend, please email me your take of the event and any photos and I'll post them here.
A few months ago I experimented with Greasemonkey, a set of browser extensions which allows anyone with rudimentary web development skills to remix websites. My example Greasemonkey script ran a single query against Yahoo Personals and Match and listed the results side by side.
After a while, I started thinking about a browser based on Mozilla that was tuned up with extensions and helper apps which facilitated managing multiple dating site accounts and especially profiles. A first step towards integrated profiles and cross-site subscriptions. Why wait for dating sites to federate when we can do the same thing in the browser?
Along comes Flock, which promises to be a "social browser". Out in October, I can't wait to see what kind of features and API it includes. I'm thinking that Flock will do most of the foundation building and someone can come along and build out the dating site browsing features.
Yahoo! Personals is celebrating National Singles Week by inviting singles to take an exclusive look at The Yahoo! Personals Singles'™ Voice Survey which includes brand new research that provides insight into the dating preferences and characteristics of today's™s singles. We are also offering a Free Seven-Day Trial to the world's most successful online dating site! To take advantage of this offer click here.
Date.com, a leading privately-held online dating company established in 1997, seeks an Affiliate Marketing Manager to be responsible for one of the fastest growing segments of the company’s marketing mix.
Usually one to skip past late night television infomercials, I sat up and took notice when I came across Cheaters.com and it's companion website, No Cheaters Date.
Cheaters is a reality TV show based on private investigators who document infidelity, including the final "reveal", when the cheater is exposed in front of their partner. The majority of the show was spent watching various sleazeballs sneak out for a quart of milk at night, only to return hours later or a weeknight night out with the girls turns into a motel room rendezvous and a few humorous examples of the "walk of shame."
The show and the accompanying website promote various vallue-added services, a dating site, attorney services (coming soon), private investigators and a store where you can pick up your Cheaters ball cap or Cheaters DVD. Personally, I would rather see them partner will Girls Gone Wild, which matches the tone of the tv show and website.
The premise behind the show:
Cheaters® the reality TV show, encourages the renewal of temperance and virtue, exposes infidelity and broken trust. Do you suspect that your spouse, lover, or partner is being unfaithful? Do you think that Cheaters® could help expose a cheater and help resolve problems in your relationship? Submit your case!
I wonder how many people actually submit a case against their spouse, or better yet, a practical joke like on Punked.
The dating site contains an ad for eDatingSolution, which seems to be a service of Dating Experts which will help you find singles in your area. I've always been intrigued by the idea of an intermediary that acts as a dating butler, confidant and personal search engine. I've signed up, will let you know what happens.
National Unmarried and Single Americans Week is September 18 - 24. “National Singles Week” was started by the Buckeye Singles Council in Ohio in the 1980s to celebrate single life and recognize singles and their contributions to society. The week is now widely observed during Sept. 19-25 as “Unmarried and Single Americans Week,” an acknowledgment that many unmarried Americans do not identify with the word “single” because they are parents, have partners or are widowed.
- Number of unmarried and single Americans: 95.7 million
- Percentage of unmarried and single Americans who are women: 54%
- Number of unmarried and single Americans age 65 and over: 14.5 milion
- Number of single parents: 12.2 million
Fellow Corante blogger Dominic Basulto, who blogs about New York City, writes about a widow who was scammed out of $100,000 by a New York man on JDate.
InternetWeek wrote an article I contributed to which does a decent job explaining the draw of niche sites in the social networking and dating space. The author sent me a link to a new site, check out Quirkyalone, "a community of independent thought on singledom, life, and love."
Thirtyplussingles is a dating site focusing on, you guessed it, over-30 singles. I received a good-looking promotion from one of their affiliates. Interesting that the "offer" is not for twenty-somethings. I have not signed up for the service, but I cannot imagine that they have a process in places to weed out people which fall outside of their stated demographic via an "Extensive search and screening process."
In the coming weeks I'll be taking a look at ways niche sites attract their target markets. Can a smaller site with 10's, instead of thousands of people in a particular area actually benefit members? What is the psychological effects of a closer knit community based on shared interests and expectations? Mass appeal marketing differs greatly from niche marketing. In some ways, niche marketing is easier due to the fact that focused demographic groups tend to share similar values, language, sense of humor, and shared interests. As software prices fall and marketing costs equalize, niche sites are giving major dating sites a run for their money, including dating site networks with 12+ sites where only one or two of the sites account for the majority of the profit center. Why throw off all that cash supporting loss-leaders when a handful of niche sites will do? Throw in a nimble engineering team, guerilla marketing and a passionate membership, and niche sites start to look more attractive to both first time and veteran online daters.
Spending the week on Plum Island in Massachusetts with family and friends. Replaced my pic to the left with a new one, the blues and stripers are running hard this week and this fellow put up the best fight of the morning.
Comments about the FastCupid situation continue to arrive, including one from someone close to the deal stating I am out of order posting how other companies are taking advantage of the situation. As I explained, that's like saying it's inappropriate to talk about Apple's Switch campaign every time Windows gets a new virus.
If a company makes missteps during a transitional period and it negatively affects customers, who in term have been quite vocal about the problems, that's news. If we've learned anything over the past few weeks with Katrina, have a contingency plan in place and focus on fixing the problem instead of wasting time pointing fingers.
Various websites are offering SpringStreet members special “switch” deals on membership. Consumating is the first I heard about, which offers a special promo code for people who want to quit Spring Street -- they get 5 free points for signing up. Let me know if your site is offering similar deals.
Reader comments continue to come in about the FriendFinder/SpringStreet integration.
Andrew Conru, CEO of FriendFinder, responds, saying that the new SpringStreet database is separate from FriendFinder and pledging commitment to "preserving unique character of the Spring Street network of sites." Andrew knows that there are some troubles with the changeover and is monitoring the rants on the SpringStreet blogs.
Multiple subscription models, tales of forged email headers and removal of profiles continue. These types of upgrades are always full of unforeseen problems. A week or so and we'll have a much better understanding of how the "new" FastCupid network operates.
UPDATE: Nerve.com(part of the FastCupid network) email states: "The new Nerve Personals will include compatibility ratings, social networking, blogs, personality quizzes, and more profile information than ever before. And that’s just a free membership; we haven’t even touched the Silver & Gold benefits."
[FriendFinder](http://www.FriendFinder.com/ "FriendFinder.com") is in the middle of a major network upgrade as it migrates hundreds of thousands of SpringStreet Network members on to the FriendFinder Network.
FF has rebranded it's SpringStreet Networks acquisition as FastCupid.com and I'm hearing a lot of complaints about arbitrary changes to profiles, lost data and upset posts to the FastCupid blogs and in emails.
It looks like FriendFinder has taken all the profiles across the SpringStreet Network, integrated them into the FF database and are running them through the FF templates and supporting pages (billing, help, search, etc.)
In doing so many changes have occurred, many without warning to members, who are losing email, content and patience with FriendFinder.
Some of the complaints:
- Login names changes multiple times in 12 hours.
- Many are reporting lost email.
- New features and UI confusing most often called "complicated."
- Profiles changed.
- Credits purchased recently have been deleted, forcing people into monthly subscription cycle.
- Many people say they feel insulted and are angry at the way the migration occurred.
My Salon.com profile seems ok, I still have the same questions, although the new User Interface leaves a lot to be desired. I have to say the new pages don't look nearly as appealing as the originals, but FF has never been know for it's design or user interface. Spending a few more dollars to have a designer go over the page assets and come up with better layout would have been helpful. As it stands, the clean SpringStreet look & feel is totally gone, replaced with bland FF layout. Sad.
Many people are confused about the new service tiers and pricing structure. Pricing moved from credit-based to monthly subscription. $22.94 per month for Silver Membership, and $34.94 for Gold. Gold and Silver members must pay an additional $19.95 to have enable regular subscribers to contact them.
Full details at [FastCupid](http://www.FastCupid.com/ "FastCupid.com")
More details as I get them.
[Userplane](http://www.userplane.com/ "Userplane Website") announced the release of plug-in modules for software platforms Simple Machines, vBulletin, Mambo and phpNuke. With the release of the modules, website developers and administrators using these platforms can easily and quickly add Userplane to their websites.
Michael Jones, co-founder and CEO, Userplane:
> "We are pleased to embrace standard community software platforms, and open our API to allow quick development and plug-in expansion to systems like these. We have been listening closely to our users, who have asked for a fast and easy installation and distribution methodology for such software systems."
Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab researcher Anmol Madan has created a PDA application that uses a microphone to measure compatibility between singles.
The mobile matchmaker earned the nickname Jerk-O-Meter because the application not only identifies a person's disinterest but also responds by flashing "Stop being a jerk!" on the speaker's screen.
It will be interesting to see how valid this sort of system really is in the real world. It was reported recently that in a study of speed-daters, the hook-up helper predicted with 95% accuracy whether a couple would exchange numbers.
[Link](http://www.nydailynews.com/09-05-2005/city_life/tech/story/343602p-293230c.html "NY Daily News")
Lately I have felt that just about everything that can be said about the major players in the online dating industry has been said, either here, in the MMS (mainstream media) or on other blogs.
To that end, I've decided to cancel my Match, Yahoo and other mainstream dating site subscriptions. Instead, I will subscribe to the handful of niche sites I feel are leading the industry in terms of feature innovation, marketing execution, long-term vision and customer service. I'll subscribe to a few social networking sites as well. After all, online dating is a facet social networking and the two continue to merge.
My profile has been on Match and Yahoo for at least four years now. If the dating industry had frequent flyer miles I'd be traveling first class all the way. Funny how I don't feel that way on most dating sites.
I'll most likely re-subscribe to the major sites at some point, one at a time though. Hopefully open profiles and the like will become popular enough that I can have one profile on many different sites. For now, it's time to explore what else is out there.
Match is charging $29.95 for a one-month trial subscription. Not sure how long this has been going on, last time I checked it was $24.95. In the past I have seen a $400 subscription fee, looks at though there is some price elasticity testing going on.
