|
|
Category Archives
This page will redirect you to the new home of Online Dating Insider in 10 seconds.
«
Seniors |
social networking
|
spark networks
»
November 29, 2006
Posted by Dave Evans
I'm working on some feature comparison's for clients and this morning I slurped down a few dozen personal ads from the top ten dating sites.
Initially I was looking for ways to increase the value of ads by giving members the ability to add metatdata to each other's profiles but the exercise reaffirmed my general impression that all dating sites share 99.5% of their DNA.
I hear about sites adding tons of features all the time. Sites with no money, no marketing plan and no clear path to profitability. Go ahead, add Skype and a blog, you're treading water already, these features aren't going to bring you to dry land unless you have an integration plan that makes sense.
The only difference that matters is the members. 90% of the dating sites out there have databases full crap and they do nothing to fix this, thinking more is better. Wrong.
Dating sites clearly have a long way to go when it comes to promoting the demographic differences of their sites and the dating site reviews aren't doing much to help the situation. What's the difference between Yahoo and Match members? Zero.
Are eHarmony members really more “serious” than on Match? Go ask 5 members from each service. I did. No difference.
Niche sites have it a lot easier, that's for sure.
I bet I could take eHarmony's marketing budget and make any other dating site in the top 20 just as much money. It's not the questions, it's the advertising. And I'm not talking about Mate1 and True on Myspace, that's short lived revenue.
This is why Yahoo is losing ground so quickly. Their marketing seems to be mostly internal to the Yahoo network, which is enormous, but their brand footprint around the net is tiny. They may spend a lot on banner ads but I don't see them.
Social networks don't have to advertise, the media does it for them. A nice place to be.
A quick gut check of the demographics of the major social networks shows they're all pretty much the same, the only major differentiator is age, some cater to teens, others twentysomethings and a few think they are going to make it based on the needs of us thirtysomethings.
The big money is in the mass market for dating and social networking. There are a few niche sites doing well, clearly the exception to the rule and I hope they keep growing. My problem is that I'm not really a niche guy unless you count ENFP,Mac,snowboarding,consultant as a niche. I haven't see that site yet.
The biggest underserved niche is clearly geography. Some sites get it right, others not so much. I live in New England, that's generally considered three states. Why can I only sign up for one state at a time on most sites or have a radius of 200 miles? I don't want to drive to CT and I probably wouldn't date someone from NH, but MA, VT and ME are fine. So let me define my home base and area according to my needs. Typing in a zip code is so crude.
Looking for some final post-coffee inspiration for comparing social nets and dating, I revisited the new Facebook privacy features and Bebo's new personalize home page. Look at the incredible amount of personalization and customization these sites offer. I went back to the dating site profiles and immediately felt sad. Look at these poor static pages. Nobody to link to, no private information to share with people after a few dates, same generic color schemes.
I don't need my profile to look like a Myspace acid trip, but surely you can give me a few color scheme options, additional layout options and maybe a video player. Anything to differentiate myself from the other dudes in my zip code. Please?
This article is the first in an ongoing comparison between social networking and dating sites.
Technorati Tags: datingvssocial
Comments (1)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Dating Site | innovation | social networking
November 20, 2006
Posted by Dave Evans
It appears Match.com has finally had enough of watching True.com come out of nowhere to cruise past them in the unique visitor rankings at Hitwise (at least according to Hitwise).
Here we have the latest Match ads on Myspace, which feature the video of various women looking at their webcams or Match profiles, I'm not sure which. Being that Match doesn't offer video profiles, I'd say I've never seen a woman so happy looking a personal ad. The ad links to search results for women in southern California. I don't have a female Myspace profile (there are only so many hours in the day), so I can't tell if they get SoCal hunks on their Myspace pages.
 
 
Unlike the True T&A ads, the Match ads are really tame. Hotties in their dormrooms, yes, exciting, titilating or interesting? Not so much. I don't see this campaign helping Match much. If you're going to have video of a hottie in college, she should probably be doing something a more exciting than staring at a computer or tying her shoes. They better have some ads in the pipeline that are a lot more exciting than these if they want to take on True in the traffic wars.
After a few page loads, I finally got some True ads:
 
Hmm, which site is Joe America going to go check out?
Match will undoubtedly get a certain amount of traffic from the Myspace inventory. We'll have to compare their Hitwise ranking to True's over the next few months to see if this, and hopefully more creative, ads play out on millions of Myspace homepages.
The load time on Myspace is slooow tonight. My browser progress bar shows the Userplane stuff is hanging on the pageloads for minutes at a time. Probably a temporary glitch, but it's making Myspace almost unusable at the moment.
Technorati Tags: match.com, myspace, advertising, true.com
Comments (2)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Dating Site | Marketing | social networking
November 7, 2006
Posted by Dave Evans
Here's one of those niche dating/social sites that makes me smile.
Introducing Trucker Passions, a 100% free online dating and social networking site for people in the trucking industry. Anyone familiar with trucking knows that the time on the road can make for a lonely life, unless you have the right person with you...or the right person waiting at home for you. Whether you drive a big rig, or you are interested in those who do, Trucker Passions hopes to make it easier to meet new people for friendship or more.
If your idea of a good time involves Big Rigs, Box Trucks, Cab-Overs, Car Haulers, Flatbeds, Semis and Tanker Trucks, you should probably check out Trucker Passions.
Replace trucks with cowboys and you have my favorite nice site, Cowboy Date.
Press Release.
Technorati Tags: truckerpassions
Comments (0)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Dating Site | social networking
October 23, 2006
Posted by Dave Evans
TechCrunch talks about event and activities-driven social networking. The Craigslist comparisons are tired and off-base but this post is yet another indicator that people/singles are looking to connect on things other than favorite football team and the ability to "look good in a little black dress or jeans" which is the kind of statement which should be stricken from all personal ads from this point forward.
I am totally biased towards HeyLetsgo. I feel about them as I did about YouTube last year. I have a strong feeling it's going to be the winner in the event-driven space. Call it a gut reaction, but after checking the other services my feelings were redoubled.
MatchActivity is interesting and looks good but there is not local flavor or personality, which will most likely be what hinders growth of the site.
Who's Going is almost too much like a web service, not much to do but search for events. Paying for access at a dollar a pop will never fly. Reminds me of tourb.us. Not very useful on its own, but when in-lined with other sites, the value is much stronger. Plus I need another profile on another social site like I need a hole in the head.
Microsoft's Cardspace should make this less of an issue next year when it rolls out with Vista. If you run a dating site and don't have a lock on the opportunities Cardspace bring to the table, let's talk. At least peruse the pundits and experts such as Kim Cameron, who evangelizes Cardspace for Microsoft. I met Kim and many others in the online identity space this summer at the Harvard Identity Mashup. The people who spoke there outlined many different methods, technologies and use cases that mesh perfectly with many of the problems we see concerning identity, privacy, safety and effectiveness of online dating and social networking.
Big idea for the day: a Cardspace-enabled dating site which uses a person's profile information on their card as their personal profile. You heard it here first.
Technorati Tags: cardspace, event+based+dating
Comments (3)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: social networking
October 18, 2006
Posted by Dave Evans
This really should be subtitled "How To Build a Dating Site Part IV."
I will treat dating sites with respect when they do the same for their members. I try hard to say nice things about the industry, but it's difficult, and I am generally a positive person.
Dating sites think singles are sheep with credit cards tattooed on their foreheads. I look forward to the day when dating and social networking sites begin to respect their members and cater to their deeper, more evolved needs.
I have belonged to 50+ dating sites and have read over 3,000 profiles for research projects. Right now I don't belong to any dating sites, a protest against the current state of the online dating experience which gets me thinking about other things for a while.
Why is it that the sites that make the most money selling banner ads and buying inventory on social networking sites are the sites most likely not to give a crap about their members?
I'm constantly blown away by all the money dating sites are leaving on the table. Millions of people waiting at your doorstep, yet the door remains closed.
Mainstream dating sites make all the money, while more and more people are meeting on local or niche sites. The problem is, I want to belong to both, without paying multiple times.
I will pay a hell of a lot more than $20 to meet my future wife. The problem is, there is not one single site or service in the US that I would, or could, give my money to that caters to my demographic and that I have a reasonably high level of confidence in. Totally depressing. Where is the $500 hands-on service?
Where is my 7-day pass to a network of dating sites? I want to check out Yahoo, several Spark Networks properties and a few others, free and paid. Let me create a single profile that works across all of them.
Event-based dating sites are taking off, this is good to see. I made three event dates this week, that's huge compared to the usual hunt and pick on most dating sites.
Mspace is hurting the online dating industry, for now, but only a portion of it, young 20-somethings that will never make it to paying dating sites because the value proposition is so off for them. Nobody can be cool on a dating site. Who the heck wants to be a voyeur, paid or otherwise, on a dating site when we have Girls Gone Wild on Myspace?
Blogging gets boring from time to time, it's difficult to stay charged up all the time about the next new dating site. Look at Onlinepersonalswatch, Mark works in the diet industry now, scans news feeds and writes about YouTube. It's hard to stay focused when most industry news is a snooze. Social networking stole online dating's thunder, from a media and revenue standpoint. Go ahead, start another blog about social networking. When do you have time to get any work done?
PlentyOfFish is a great media story, although I often wonder how long Markus will rule the free dating world. I'm dying to check his server logs, same goes for Mate1.
Dating sites need to grow a pair and put programs into place to get rid of stale profiles. Six months is stale. Match, Yahoo and everyone else on down the line have been misleading consumers for years. Clean up your act and your database. Less profiles will lead to more money. Embrace the dynamic nature of the real-time web. A dating site database is not a card catalog, it should be a guided, rich multimedia experience, with a profile stream that flows like water. If you don't understand the concept, it's time to get smart. Email me learn more.
Europe is learning the lessons the US dating market learned 3 years ago. This was to be expected. Why then, as I thumb through the Amsterdam iDate conference proceedings, is everything about mobile dating? Haven't we been through this before? Sure, EU singles use their phone more, but why are 1/3 of all presentations about mobile dating? How big is the leading social network in Estonia and why was the CEO speaking? Why is it important to convert males to customers? Aren't females the minority?
Profile helpers are coming out of the woodwork. They all work off the same script, zzzzz, and they certainly don't scale well.
People don't join a dating site because of an expert. I would like to see how much more money sites make when they hire said "experts."
Where is the next generation of personality testing? How come I can't collaborate and take a test *with* someone?
The technical minutia of personality testing is lost on 100% of online daters, who tend to judge effectiveness on results, not weighted averages. How does one testing service differentiate from another when the mechanics and algorithm are not taken into consideration?
User-created video posted to free sites like YouTube will be huge. Major sites need to add video back into the mix. What they didn't do last time was provide privacy and progressive communication controls. Everyone emails the blonde with the big boobs, so give her the tools to protect and manage her suitors. Where are the scripts, the helper-apps to make creating a profile and video easier? Why do I have to pay someone to help me with that? There is a strong argument it should be part of the service offering from dating sites. Yup, there goes some of your margin, but the upside will be huge. Background checks I'm not so sure about adding into the monthly price, seems like an added-cost for the time being.
Speaking of background checks, how many women need to bilked out of their money or assaulted before dating sites start offering their services? I just heard from a women who was bilked out of six figures by a scammer on Match. And she wants to sue. I have a hard time sympathizing with people who get scammed. Being lonely certainly lowers the defenses.
Dating site executives often do not belong to multiple sites. That's crazy! That's as bad as singles not checking out the same-sex competition to see how they stack up.
What ever happened to live events? IRL went kaput pretty fast and Match Events fizzled for a reason. Time to try again.
Anonymous calling, Background checks, voice/chat providers, time to get in bed together, on your own you're not going anywhere fast. Userplane not included, they are the gold standard for integration and advertising models, although I don't feel comfortable with chat interface, but 125,000 websites do, what do I know.
If you work in the dating industry, go brainstorm something useful and cool for your site, create a new ad campaign, market to a new niche or tweak your search algorithm or find a new way to entice people to sign up for your site. Do something extraordinary that differentiates you from the competition.
If you're single, go outside and do something outside your comfort zone. Talk to a stranger that catches your eye, strike up a conversation with new people, they are often more likely to connect you with someone than your friends.
Comments (14)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Dating Site | Features | Finance | Safety | Traffic | partnerships | personality testing | social networking | startups
October 5, 2006
Posted by Dave Evans
 Spyder is a social network browser that runs on Macs (sorry, no PC version, how often do you hear that?).
Spyder makes it easy to keep in touch with your friends or fan-base by message or comment. Add as many friends as you want, Spyder allows you to send friend requests too. Organize your friends or other users the way you want. Use the friends view to quickly scan for users by picture if your better at faces not names. Spyder also helps you manage all your accounts, whether you have just a personal account or an additional band or business account you can easily switch between your different accounts in Spyder. And for people that remember faces better than names Spyder downloads users pictures automatically.
It's first generation and needs a lot more features to be truly useful, but it's the cleanest implementation of an online profile management I've seen so far. These types of apps are going to become more prevalent as social nets continue to splinter into micro-niches and your "about me" essay propogates to 5,10 or 20 dating and social networks, not to mention Youtube, LinkedIn and so forth. No way anyone is going to pay $25 for it though, better off ad-supported. Band and brand managers may find this the most useful in the meantime.
Technorati Tags: brand+management, social+tools
Comments (0)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: social networking
September 29, 2006
Posted by Dave Evans
Mark Brooks over at onlinepersonalswatch thinks liars are hurting not only themselves but also the online dating industry.
Lies are always good for the short term and bad for the long term. Singles need to hold themselves to a higher standard of integrity. I advise anyone who goes on a date and finds themselves in front of a liar to immediately excuse themselves from that date. "Sorry, I'm not comfortable continuing with this date because you lied to me. It was a pleasure meeting you however. Thanks, bye."
Can you imagine if people did this? Bars and coffee houses around the nation would be littered with overturned chairs by people leaving in a huff.
Approximately 35 million people have tried online dating in the US. Taking various reports (research and anecdotal) into account, about a third of them are lying through their teeth, a big reason why online dating is foundering against the shoals of social networking.
One would think people paying for dating sites would be more truthful, such is not the case.
This is the primary reason why social networks can be more effective than dating sites to meet people. People tend to be more honest about themselves on social networks.
Here's what I think is going to happen. Dating sites will drag their feet until they are forced to offer background checks. In the meantime, the spammers, scammers and wackos are migrating to social networking sites. Because Myspace is owned by a global conglomerate which must squeeze as much revenue as possible before fickle kids move on to the next big thing, they will adopt privacy standards, terms of service and security measures far beyond anything the dating industry is willing to implement at this time.
Interesting that a romance coach is the only commenter who used the word trust. I'd rather see people argue the merits of establishing trust as opposed to approaching the issue from the white lie perspective.
A background check may keep you from having coffee with an ex-con, but hardly make people more honest. Background check companies (clients of mine), have been working to develop a value proposition that appeals to dating sites as a win-win situation.
Dating sites want to see the money, they are not interested in increasing the level of trust and the overall quality of members on their site. This somewhat myopic yet understandable perspective will gradually shift as dating sites begin to take into consideration the quality and reputation of their members. Especially when it comes time to be acquired.
As I have stated often, the dating industry need to establish a set of common trust protocols, sharable across different sites. Several companies are close to coming up with various solutions which all sites can use. These are not the typical rateadate sites currently vying for people's attention. Rating sites, while fun to peruse, don't have the traction, features or reliability to be truly useful, although progress is being made.
Not many daters take advantage of profile services or romance coaches and they certainly don't take advice from dating columns on dating sites or newspapers. These are reliable source of information, and pieces of the trust puzzle, but the complete solution continues to allude the industry as a whole.
Technorati Tags: trust
Comments (0)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Safety | social networking
September 25, 2006
Posted by Dave Evans
Comments (0)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: innovation | social networking
September 21, 2006
Posted by Dave Evans
The Unofficial Apple Weblog has a story about Spyder, a Mac desktop application for managing social networking. For now, it only works with Myspace, and the price is a whopping $40. this totally breaks Myspace's terms and conditions, I don't expect it to gain much traction due to that and the price tag.
Technorati Tags: profile+management, spyder
Comments (0)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: social networking
Posted by Dave Evans
Tech Crunch says:
Friends For Families, a sort of match.com for families, quotes a study that says 25% of people claim that that they have no close personal friends. They aim to help families find other, compatible families to establish friendships. At its core it’s a match.com for families (without the dating and sex, I assume). It will officially launch on September 19.
$20 to join, no free membership. We'll see how that works out. Lots of good comments to read about the site, including from the founders.
Technorati Tags: friendsforfamilies, family+networking
Comments (1)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: social networking
September 12, 2006
Posted by Dave Evans
Facebook membership is being expanded through 500 geographical regions, filtering access based on location.
Under its new system, Facebook will create new networks for 500 geographic regions, and it will allow anyone to join them. In the default setting, people in the region — like the New York City area — will be able to see the full profile of other members in the same region. Facebook has long offered a series of options that allow users to expand or contract the information shown to various sorts of people.
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's CEO:
We give people tight control over their information. You can say, I want people in my company to see the pictures in my photo album but I don’t want my mom to see them.'
This is how Matchmaker, now owned by Date.com, operated back in the day. It was the only site with geographic silos and one of the first to feature Essay-style questions instead of the brevity of today's "what's your favorite sports team" inquiries.
Via New York Times (reg req'd).
Technorati Tags: facebook, open+profiles, privacy+controls
Comments (1)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: social networking
September 8, 2006
Posted by Dave Evans
Fred Stutzman on how Facebook Broke its Culture.
PaidContent on startup CEO's stepping down and making way for more experienced leadership.
Fred Wilson weighs in and actually takes the time to create a Facebook profile unlike many commenting on the situation.
Bambi Francisco at SeekingAlpha: Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg told me last week that the decision is aligned with his long-held mission statement at Facebook. "We're a company trying to help people understand their world," he said, suggesting that the word "people" is broad, comprising more than just those who are in colleges, high school and at work (except for those under 13 years of age, for now).
Technorati Tags: facebook
Comments (0)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: social networking
September 6, 2006
Posted by Dave Evans
According to Tech Crunch:
There has been an overwhelmingly negative public response to Facebook’s launch of two new products yesterday. The products, called News Feed and Mini Feed, allow users to get a quick view of what their friends are up to, including relationship changes, groups joined, pictures uploaded, etc., in a streaming news format.
Many tens of thousands of Facebook users are not happy with the changes. Frank Gruber notes that a Facebook group has been formed called “Students Against Facebook News Feed”. A commenter in our previous post said the group was closing in on 100,000 members as of 9:33 PM PST, less than a day after the new features were launched.
Digging into the comments on various sites, it seems people are a) freaked out by change, b) not paying attention to how the Facebook privacy features worked, c) feel they are losing control over their data, which does not in fact appear to be the case.
Just wait until Myspace does something similar. A savvy politico could launch a political career my representing Facebook and Myspace users.
Reminds me of the uproar over the FriendFinder integration of SpringStreet a few short months ago. Blog and message boards rattled for days over the supposedly b0rked changeover to FF systems. I actually cancelled my account recently due to the fact that it appears the FastCupid (was SpringStreet) site has been left to slowly die off.
With Heyletsgo taking over the social aspects of Craigslist Boston, I'm basically off Myspace and Tribe, which have been rendered moot for me.
Fred Stutzman of ClaimID fame has more great insights into the situation. Fred is a total academic stud when it comes to covering Facebook.
As Scott McNealy said to the consternation of many: "You have no privacy. Get over it."
Technorati Tags: facebook, privacy
Comments (1)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Safety | social networking
Posted by Dave Evans
According to Tech Crunch:
There has been an overwhelmingly negative public response to Facebook’s launch of two new products yesterday. The products, called News Feed and Mini Feed, allow users to get a quick view of what their friends are up to, including relationship changes, groups joined, pictures uploaded, etc., in a streaming news format.
Many tens of thousands of Facebook users are not happy with the changes. Frank Gruber notes that a Facebook group has been formed called “Students Against Facebook News Feed”. A commenter in our previous post said the group was closing in on 100,000 members as of 9:33 PM PST, less than a day after the new features were launched.
Digging into the comments on various sites, it seems people are a) freaked out by change, b) not paying attention to how the Facebook privacy features worked, c) feel they are losing control over their data, which does not in fact appear to be the case.
Just wait until Myspace does something similar. A savvy politico could launch a political career my representing Facebook and Myspace users.
Reminds me of the uproar over the FriendFinder integration of SpringStreet a few short months ago. Blog and message boards rattled for days over the supposedly b0rked changeover to FF systems. I actually cancelled my account recently due to the fact that it appears the FastCupid (was SpringStreet) site has been left to slowly die off.
With Heyletsgo taking over the social aspects of Craigslist Boston, I'm basically off Myspace and Tribe, which have been rendered moot for me.
Fred Stutzman of ClaimID fame has more great insights into the situation. Fred is a total academic stud when it comes to covering Facebook.
As Scott McNealy said to the consternation of many: "You have no privacy. Get over it."
Update: Facebook Followup.
Technorati Tags: facebook, privacy
Comments (4)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Safety | social networking
Posted by Dave Evans
Yesterday I had coffee with Jeana Frost, creator of Virtual Dates, an application well suited for the icebreaker portion of meeting someone online. You know the feeling. Someone catches your eye, but their profile doesn't leave you with much to start a conversation with. You sit there re-reading the profile over and over, trying to glean that tidbit of information that's going to tip the scale over and have you reaching for the Wink or Email button.
Suffice to say it was clear early on in our conversation that we shared common ground when it comes to our views on the shortcomings of online dating.
Jeana and her fellow academics think the current model for meeting someone online is artificial and static, and far removed from everyday social interaction. I couldn't agree more.
According to Jeana and co's research, online dating is terribly inefficient, lacks appropriate filters and a mechanism for social feedback. Where is the information we really want to know about a person? The attributes we need most that aren't described by income, religion or favorite sports team?
To begin to address the perceived shortcomings of today's dating sites, Jeana built Virtual Dates while at the MIT Media Lab. Virtual Dates is built on Chat Circles, part of of Sociable Media Group.
Chat Circles is an abstract graphical interface for synchronous text conversation. Here, color and form are used to convey social presence and activity, and proximity-based filtering is used intuitively to break large groups into conversational clusters. The system also includes an integrated history interface, which visualizes archival Chat Circle logs. Our goal in this work is to create a richer environment for online discussions.
While I haven't seen the demo, from the description, it sounds like it could be a useful feature for dating and social networking sites, if the user experience is done just right and the final product is properly integrated. It's got to be dead simple to stick on a site like a Userplane chat and tightly integrated, like WeAttract on Yahoo Personals. Speaking of WeAtttract, whatever happened to them?
I'm often frustrated with my dating site clients when it comes to baseline metrics for measuring various site stats. Thankfully, being a Media Lab alumni, Jeana knows how important the role of data logging can be in monitoring and measuring the performance of an application like Virtual Dates.
Thankfully there is a phenomenal testing lab available, Myspace. Unleash your app out into the wild, get 50k users in a few weeks and log loads of data about how people are, and aren't using the service.
Less than half of all singles in the US has tried online dating. The other half remains a cagey quarry unlikely to sign up for a dating site any time soon due to a number of factors, known and unknown.
Dating sites should be doing everything in their power to figure out ways to entice more people to try online dating. Adding social networking features is part of the solution, but the real answer is the unknown and often intangible gut reaction people get to a particular blend of features, user experience and quality of the members. The vibe of a site is often what makes or breaks it's success and it's almost impossible to stumble across the perfect blend of paid subscription, social networking, dating, collaboration and communication tools which will define the online dating experience of the future.
Perhaps applications like Virtual Dates, or an environment based on the concept, is what's needed to entice the other 50 million singles to give online dating a shot.
Jeana's dissertation is titled "Decision Making in the Information Age: A Study of and Design for Online Dating." You can bet that's going to be on my reading shelf in the near future. Harvard Business School did a story on Virtual Dates last week.
Dating and social networking executives would do well to seek out Jeana at jeana.frost at gmail dot com to find out more about how new social interaction applications will drive the next generation of online dating and social networking. If enough interest is drummed up, I'm hoping we'll see Virtual Dates on dating sites soon enough.
Technorati Tags: progressive+communication, social+interaction, virtual+dates
Comments (1)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Features | Online Dating Software | Research | Technology | innovation | social networking
September 5, 2006
Posted by Dave Evans
I talked to Matt Muro, founder of LifeKnot last week after I came across this Yahoo News press release (listing Yahoo as news source to get some link love, they don't seem to like me much there as opposed to Google, which treats this blog very well):
Lifeknot.com, a novel site that has features in common with social networking and online dating web sites, has launched a mobile version of its web site. lifeknot’s mobile site enables members to use their cell phones as a digital ice-breaking device -- as well as to search and view member profiles and pictures from their cell phones.
Enter the usernames of two lifeknot members into a cell phone to see a list of shared activity interests, bands, books, movies and tv shows. Scrolling down through a list of shared interests gives you an immediate indication of your compatibility and some great talking points that will help break the ice. What makes this comparison so interesting is lifeknot’s extensive member-suggested activity listings. From the usual (hiking, biking, camping, and cooking) to the unique (beekeeping, home brewing, longboarding, and belly dancing) members are certain to share some of the 1,100 and growing activities listed.
lifeknot maintains the personal intimacy found at online dating sites and incorporates aspects of social networking by connecting people through shared activity interests and not limiting their service to singles only. The result is an online community where the focus is simply making new friends that share interests and passions in any activity imaginable. "You can truly sift through and find people who enjoy the same things without any pressure to date," states Mary Robinson of San Diego, California.
Matt says they have a good user base, mainly in and around Boston and California.
I'm all for activity-based social networking, the mobile stuff I can live with or without. These days adding mobile access to sites is getting much easier, not the heavy lifting required as little as two years ago. In two more years mobile is just going to be another channel, or the Third Screen, as some people call it. Location-based services will take off, and you can badger your friends every 5 minutes, telling them where you are and what you're doing.
Technorati Tags: activity+dating
Comments (0)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Dating Site | Mobile | social networking
Posted by Dave Evans
EasyDate has introduced the ability to update personal profiles with photos taken by and sent from mobile phones.
Sean Wood, Marketing Manager at Easydate ltd:
We realised by the number of photos we received in the post that not all our members had access to a scanner or a digital camera, so we looked at options that would give them the easiest possible method of completing their profile and increasing their chances of finding a date online. It occured to us that most mobile phones had integrated cameras so this was definitely the way to go. Our initial trials have proven very successful so we are now implementing this technology across our network of sites.
This is similar to the deal Helio has with Myspace. Helio phones, from KT Telcom, have built-in features to send higer-than-average resolution pictures to your Myspace profile and also allow begging from other Helio users for acquiring games, ringtones and other phone bling.
Technorati Tags: profile+writing, mnvo, mobile+dating, profile+management
Comments (0)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Dating Site | Mobile | social networking
Posted by Dave Evans
Dating in SecondLife seems to be alive and well, although I'm not reading much about it. A few speed-dating events have occurred, and today I found Digiluv.
Digiluv is a sexy new service that allows you to create a character and meet other people in a tropical virtual world.
The service features groups, blogs, friends list, events and more. This really should exist 100% in second life, have external profiles and chat rooms makes no sense, that's what SecondLife is for, and it does it much better.
There are entire micro-communities in Second Life that support online 3D relationships, from stores selling sexy outfits and special body parts to customized physics modules you can share with that special someone, or something.
SecondLife dating and social networking is going to be huge. It will take a few more years to reach critical mass but it's going to happen.
Technorati Tags: virtual+sex, secondlife, virtual+boyfriend, virtual+girlfriend, virtual+reality
Comments (7)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Dating Site | innovation | social networking
Posted by Dave Evans
My Circles, a new adult-themed social network, has pushed its launch date from September 2 to the 15th due to "some incredible developments."
Adult Friendfinder has been such a financial success story we are bound to see copy cats. MyCircles has partnered with Amore TV to develop and produce a line of Adult Content (videos, erotica stories, and products) to be marketed exclusively to the members of this new adult community.
Strange that the pre-release version of the site doesn't say much of anything about being adult-oriented.
Develop a line of adult content? Why go and waste all your money doing that? Don't these people pay attention to YouTube? Have members make their own pr0n and sell that. The adult market, for being so forward thinking and making so much bank, sure seems to miss some pretty obvious internet trends.
I tried to call Beth Dean at Amore TV to ask about the deal but their phone number has been temporarily disconnected.
Via alarm:clock.
Technorati Tags: adult, user+generated+content
Comments (1)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: social networking
Posted by Dave Evans
 Pete Cashmore at Mashable reviews Social21, a new dating/social networking hybrid.
Social21 is a better designed Myspace with local flavor. The video uploading feature, blog, eWink etc. are features all dating/social networking sites are implementing.
The success of these types of sites is 100% about marketing. How much are they going to spend, and where are the primary factors of their success.
I talked with Shmuel Gordon at Social21 and he had this to say:
The emergence of free social networking communities is creating a state of flux in the online dating industry as consumer’s expectations are rapidly evolving. AHS Ventures, the leader of local online dating, views this market shift as an opportunity to enter the national/global online dating sector. Therefore, we launched Social21.com, a hybrid community that offers rich social networking technologies while remaining true to its online dating roots. Social21.com is about meeting like-minded people; not creating enormous friend lists for self-promotion.
Social21.com is 100% free to use and currently available for Singles aged 21+ in the U.S. and Canada with plans for global expansion in 2007. In addition, Social21.com will be seamlessly connected with AHS’s current and future “connect” local communities to allow online daters the best of both worlds, local and global. What does this mean? The consumer wins.
Social21 is positioned to capitalize on the vacuum left by several localized dating networks that have folded or wound down recently. Again, it's back to how well the service is marketed or how viral it goes.
Technorati Tags: social21
Comments (1)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Dating Site | social networking | startups
Posted by Dave Evans
Key differences between Myspace and Facebook. Myspace is busy adding areas to the site that assuage advertisers while Facebook adds features and functionality that makes it a better service for users. Liz at GigaOM says:
Sometimes Mark Zuckerberg and his crew of big-picture thinkers try too hard to separate themselves, calling a blogging tool “notes” or adding a company blog without a feed. But other times they seem to really get it — for instance, today’s new features: news feeds that show, chronologically, your friends’ most recent activities across the site, and your own most recent activities across the site. In 30 seconds, I can find out what my family, my college friends, my current friends, and even some of my work contacts have been doing. If I think my own “mini-feed” has too much information in it, I can adjust it item-by-item to leave no trace.
More at the Facebook blog.
I was reading someone over the weekend saying they were enjoying tracking their friend's via SMS messages on Dodgeball. I've started doing that at heyletsgo. Then I read about a guy who thinks Google Calendar makes it too easy to rob people.
Technorati Tags: facebook, features, myspace
Comments (4)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: innovation | social networking
September 4, 2006
Posted by Dave Evans
It seems there is quite the hubub about etiquette when it comes to the proper procedure for breaking up on Myspace. If you are over 30, go mow the lawn or something, this will probably make you grind your teeth. We're at war and for all we know could be nuked into the stone age any day now and the New York Times is telling us there is a big problem with how Thor and Tiffany broke up online and the frustration and pain it's causing their friends.
A new button has been proposed, "we're having a spat" or perhaps "he doesn't appreciate me" to represent the times between dating and being single. Is this really necessary? Of course not. I say we should focus on progressive communication, helping bring people together, before we worry about how many hours you wait to switch your profiles back to "single."
There is a part of me which thinks that social networking sites are making it harder, not easier, for people to communicate. Or is it just me?
I went to a hipster bar with a friend and her 20-something brother and his musician friends over the weekend. My friend and I felt like we were chaperons, which was amusing until I started conversing with a group of 21 year old women with tattoos that scared the hell out of me. I think I prefer being a voyeur on Myspace as opposed to attempting conversation with people 20 years younger.
They were simultaneously drinking PBR's, texting, carrying on conversations and looking uber-cool while I was struggling to stay awake and follow the threads of their conversations, if a lot of head-nodding, cryptic back-channel communications and longing glances can be called conversing.
Several times people told me that age was a state of mind, ouch! My mind finally hit the pillow at 4am, the things I do to stay informed.
Technorati Tags: im+too+old+for+this, social+etiquette
Comments (0)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: social networking
Posted by Dave Evans
 Boston, my home base, has a new social site called heyletsgo. It takes a lot to get me interested in a new site, let alone to sign up and participate, and heyletsgo has me hooked. Planning my fall social calendar just got a whole lot easier.
I recently met with the founders on Boston Common, where we engeged in lively coversation, people watching, soaking up the Puritan urban environment and dodging pigeons.
HLG is at it's heart a social networking site grounded in event planning.
The feature set includes just about everything a social site needs to compete in today's cut-throat social networking scene. Features include profiles, blog, events, restaurants, photos, wish list, people/friend/group lists, favorites and comments.
I'm liking the update feature, a simple blog entry that shows up at the top of my public profile. Perfect for quickly posting what you're up to. The wishlist and group feature have been great for connecting with old friends I haven't seen in a while and being exposed to new friends, activity partners and singles.
There have been many event-based social networking/dating sites, but few come close to heyletsgo. It's local, relevant, easy on the eyes and has all the features that are necessary, without the extra bells and whistles that most people don't use anyway.
There is some patent-pending intellectual property they wouldn't talk about but suffice to say HLG manages it's user-generated event listings well.
I'm bullish on event-driven sites these days. Event/activity planning is going to be a big feature from here on out on dating sites. There is simply no better low-risk way to meet new people. Basing a get-together on ballooning on Boston Common with 4 other people is a lot less stressful for all involved, you're there to have fun and do something new and novel. If you hit it off with someone, great, if not, you met a few people and that's that.
It remains to see if local/niche sites will take off or if Match or Yahoo can figure out how to go local (again) while remaining global brands. Match botched live events once, can it come back again and make it work?
Almost everyone I know that has recently started dating someone met them at adult education classes (cooking, lectures, game nights, interest groups) or group events (sports, concerts, outdoor activities).
Craigslist has had an events category forever, but there was always something sketchy about it, you never really knew who you were dealing with until you were F2F. Now I can check out people, see who their friends are, and get a much better sense of their personality based on their profile, groups they belong to and their comments across the site.
I don't know what's in my coffee this morning but heyletsgo has me all warm and fuzzy. That and 100,000 college students arriving over the weekend to re-take Boston. You can feel the energy in the air, the doldrums of August are over, time to get back to work.
Technorati Tags: dating+activity, metro+dating, event+planning, group+events
Comments (1)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Dating Events | social networking
August 25, 2006
Posted by Dave Evans
JDupe: PocketChange mag dupes women into meeting mirage Richard Nouveau via JDate.
Re-Tribe: Mark Pincus is back as CEO of Tribe.net after being ousted in April. (possible hoax?)
Ex eDonkey (file sharing service) CEO starts YADS (Yet Another Dating Site). Supposedly traffic is thriving.
Version 5 of SkaDate software is available. What is it with the Eastern European lock on dating site software?
FaceBook adds blogs, just don't call them that.
JDate gets political: raises $30,000 in donations for children in the North affected by the conflict.
Apple, Microsoft Try Social Software Model: Apple's new OS, Leopard will have wikis and social networking feature. Microsoft announced XNA Game Studio Express, which costs $99 per year and allows you to compile code to run on PCs and the 360 as well as share your work with others in the same network.
Technorati Tags: jdate, tribe.net, dating+site+software, facebook, SkaDate
Comments (1)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Dating Site | Online Dating Software | social networking
August 21, 2006
Posted by Dave Evans
While I was away for the weekend at a bachelor party, Liz Gannes at GigaOM (congrats on the move Liz!) wrote that Friendster has raised another $10 million dollars.
This appears to be separate from the company’s $3.1 million recapitalization round earlier this year. The social network, for all the hits it takes in Silicon Valley, has a pretty strong audience, especially in Asia. The problem is that they cannot monetize that demographic. Alexa gives it a rank of 35th overall and shows upward growth, outpacing Facebook.
They couldn't sell it for $5 million and now they've taken another $13 million. Who cares about not monetizing the Philippines when your next big revenue stream is patent enforcement.
We'll see how the Facebook API affects traffic over the next few months.
Technorati Tags: friendster
Comments (1)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Finance | social networking
August 18, 2006
Posted by Dave Evans
Markus doesn't get the point about dating sites opening up their database to third parties. He's worried legal headaches and privacy issues.
The point is that dating sites can make more money by opening up their member database to third parties who share revenue based on new value-added features, signups, conversions and membership extensions.
In fact, I just got off the phone with someone who has a service, that if implemented properly, would greatly increase incoming cash flow to dating sites facing dwindling cash flows and stagnating member databases.
I agree there are spam and legal issues to be addressed, but we should not let them get in the way of innovation. This obviously needs to be thought out a lot more than the current ramblings about data privacy.
Some people like to labor through their bookmark list, others appreciate the ability to read their news and view sites through an RSS reader. Dating and social networking sites need to realize this and provide interoperability that facilitates open profiles and the ability to find a date through any service they choose.
How many amazing dating service ideas will never get off the ground due to the increasingly high barriers to entry, mainly acquiring enough traffic to make the service worthwhile to new members?
I don't expect everyone to buy into this model, but I will continue to defend and refine it because there is clearly a need that isn't being met for the millions of singles who haven't tried online dating yet. More ad spend is not going to do it.
Clearly, social networking is the new porn in terms of leading the way for new business models on the internet.
Technorati Tags: private+label, open+profiles, people+aggregator, partnerships
Comments (0)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: social networking
Posted by Dave Evans
Marc Cantor is ecstatic to hear that Facebook is opening up it's walled garden by providing developers with a public API (Application Programming Interface). This makes retrieving information from Facebook and displaying the results in any application a snap.
Marc says:
A full 6-12 months ahead of schedule Facebook has - in a single blow - broken open this whole game. Now the race begins to build out services and applications (even content) around these APIs. Anyone wish to guess on how long it’ll take MySpace and Bebo to respond?
This is exactly what I've been talking about for the dating industry! I just found out that Yahoo Personals has had an invite-only partner API since January, which I will talk about soon.
Dating sites will open up their walled gardens when they figure out how to make money doing so. Problem is, most of the sites that have approached them haven't had the vision to create a truly useful service or the technical chops to make it work.
Hopefully the Facebook deal will quicken the pace for well-funded, strategically savvy companies to come knocking on the dating industry's door and offer up the kinds of value-added services that the major dating sites couldn't dream of.
SJ Mercury News has a good article about how MySpace drives a growing ecosystem, where several websites have launched complimentary services and gone on to great heights (YouTube and Photobucked.)
GigaOm says that XuQa is letting people import their MySpace profiles wholesale. As an aside, Browser (PC only, boo!) cleans up ugly Myspace pages into a readable format.
Silicon Beat on the MySpace ecosystem.
The only thing a start-up needs is to have MySpace users rave about its features, and its growth will skyrocket.
MySpace is clearly having difficulty figuring out its policy -- it is on the fence about how much to encourage other companies serving the ecoystem, or to discourage it.
Absolutely. There are a lot of companies doing much better than expected due to high adoptation rates on MySpace. It's an incredibly effective way to test new services.
This WSJ article, Moguls of New Media, talks about how Christine Dolce, whose MySpace page boasts nearly one million friends, has leveraged her looks and connections into a start-up clothing company, fame and growing fortune.
There are a lot of young people taking advantage of the viral nature of social networking to launch promising careers built on countless late night webcam sessions in surburban housing tracts across America.
I need to work on my new version of Lazy Sunday. I'm sure it's going to make me a star.
Technorati Tags: open+profiles, viral+video
Comments (3)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Marketing | Traffic | audio&video | social networking
July 19, 2006
Posted by Dave Evans
Walmart has launched The Hub, a heavily censored, strictly monitored, squeeky-clean social networking site that doesn't allow messaging between users and alerts parents when their child signs up for the site. I can't imagine this is going to keep Myspace awake at night. How long until Target creates a social networking site? Via TechDirt.
Technorati Tags: the+hub
Comments (0)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: social networking
July 14, 2006
Posted by Dave Evans
Friendster's recent attempt to patent social networking has elicited remarks from industry insiders that range from "who cares" to careful dissection of the patents' wording. Friendster's June 27 patent refers to a "system, method, and apparatus for connecting users in an online computer system based on their relationships within social networks." BusinessWeek has more.
I knew some of the guys at Sixdegrees.com when they were building the site in Silicon Alley in the mid-90's. Sixdegrees earned a patent in 2001. Tribe.net founder Marc Pincus, purchased that patent at an auction in 2003. Pincus and Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn, formed a limited partnership without Friendster founder Jonathan Abrams, in order to purchase the so-called "Six Degrees" patent for $700,000. Here's more on their fallout.
I like the Friendster service, don't get me wrong. There was a time when it was a fun place to be and I'm sure after a few more lifecycles it will get some of it's mojo back. For the meantime, I'm taking down my Friendster profile because it's been languishing for about a year, hardly any pageviews and everyone I know is on Myspace or LinkedIn now. I simply can't justify continuing to maintain multiple social networking profiles and I need contacts and consulting work more than I need new friends.
I'm still waiting for the social networking site for 30-somethings, somewhere between Myspace and LinkedIn. Where is it?
Technorati Tags: friendster
Comments (1)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Dating Site | Finance | Legal | social networking | startups
Posted by Dave Evans
Read/Write Web has several posts about online dating this week. Fellow Corante blogger Ken Yarmosh says Myspace is unofficially a dating site. Link
PeopleAggregator is the focus of this post. Open social networks are the future. Open profiles are coming to social networking, heck, they're here already. How long until the dating industry gets behind the movement? Large social networks make more from advertising dollars than they do subscriptions.
Social networks are creating new ways to mimic the "paywalls" dating sites rely on. In the past, daters have considered paywalls part of what separates the casual daters from serious daters.
To date, dating sites have failed to emulate social networking sites, mainly due to the paywall issue. Nobody is going to pay for social networks in their current incarnation. Match.com squandered this opportunity long ago.
Social networks need to come up with new ways to recreated the "serious dater" filter through what I call "intention filters" and identity mechanisms that create a level of accountability and responsibility that avoids the nightmare that Google Romance would become if someone actually builds that.
Up-and-coming sites like PeopleAggregator are leading the charge, making it easier than ever to enable people to create relationships within and across social networking systems.
After a long drought the dating industry faces an incredible opportunity to take advantage of the appeal of social networks while maintaining their focus on dating and relationships.
Technorati Tags: people aggregator
Comments (4)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: social networking
July 6, 2006
Posted by Dave Evans
 Safe dating site TrueDater has launched a site for bookmarking people across multiple social networks. I've been critical of TrueDater in the past. I'm not convinced the service has the audience or features to be considered useful. I think something along the lines of member whitelists are where the industry needs to be heading.
Freckl.com is the first ever “social bookmarking” site for people! Just like you can save links to your “Favorite” web sites in your web browser, on freckL.com you can save links to profiles of people on your favorite dating or social networking sites. Even better, you can share your favorites with others! Also, you can “tag” your favorites with keywords and use these keywords to find new people to meet.
Social bookmarking has been done before in the dating space, but there was never any long-term value to the service, whereas aggregating Favorites across several social networking sites is a smart step in a new longer-term direction for TrueDater.
The home page is split into the "hottest" males and females. Clicking a link brings up a page for each person, with tags, some metadata and their entire profile in a window. In this context, in-lining entire Myspace pages is wrong, plain and simple. I predict Myspace and Yahoo will shut them down or make them remove the functionality in short order.
I can see pulling the person's photo, but what is the value of displaying the entire page?
Profile data as part of an RSS feed- we've talked about this many times before, and this is a perfect example of a third-party site that could drive traffic to dating sites.
Myspace has made voyeurism and profile hopping simple. Does Freckl think they can do it better?
One you bookmark someone, you have to enter in the screen name gender orientation age and tags. Everything but the user-created tags can be pulled directly from the profile. Why make people type in the information? Lazy, they could have avoided the wrath of Myspace if they had taken a few more days to tweak the code.
Voting for the profile is limited to hot, scam or cheesy. Most Myspace profiles are cheesy or scams, not much value to this rating system. There are thumbs up or down buttons as well.
The real value of Freckl is what you can do with each person's meta-list of people. Advertisers and live events and group buying comes to mind initially. Anything is better than useless, unfocused Google Ads.
In it's current form, the site is really a directory for soft porn, Hot-or-Not meets social networking. There is no focus on the value to people otherwise. This may change over time, but until they make it worth the while, it's easier and more fun browse sites directly.
Technorati Tags: social networking, freckl, social bookmarking
Comments (2)
| Category: Dating Site | innovation | social networking
June 28, 2006
Posted by Dave Evans
It was only a matter of time. A spammer, er, marketer, is looking to buy Myspace profiles with more than 20k contacts. Join a Friend Train, sell your profile and then start a new one. I can see people doing this multiple times over for a few extra bucks. Myspace recently began charging companies $35,000 to establish profiles, although many companies are not paying the fee, instead hoping to blend in with the 70+ million profiles on the site.
Via BoingBoing.
Technorati Tags: social+marketing
Comments (0)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: social networking
May 9, 2006
Posted by Dave Evans
Basically, an aggregator to collect and connect to various parts of the web, like Tribe.net. Details at TechCrunch.
Technorati Tags: aimpages
Comments (0)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: social networking
Posted by Dave Evans
Comments (0)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: social networking
March 31, 2006
Posted by Dave Evans
Took a nice run today, my body is not used to the heat, 73 today. Running along the Charles this time of year is sobering, as the Boston Marathoners in training fly by doing 6-minute miles.
Myspace has removed 200,000 objectionable profiles. Dating sites, take note, this is how you leverage goodwill into good PR. Transparency is a benefit, get it? Ross Leinsohn, head of New Corp's internet division, says myspace is safer in the last two months. Foolish quote, doesn't he read his own media?
250k new signups a day at Myspace, not losing members like Facebook, which Businessweek recently said may be on the block for 2 billion. More irresponsible journalism from a trusted source. Where is the fact-checking website for reporters and bloggers? Anybody who pays more than $500m for Facebook is getting the bad end of the deal. Facebook ain't no Myspace.
50 is the new 30. From Adrants:
Results released yesterday from Survey Sampling International review of Census data notes 78 million baby boomers will turn 50 over the next ten years increasing the size of the 50+ demo from 89.3 million in 2006 to 111.3 million in 2016, a 25 percent increase. In contrast, the 18-49 demo, while still larger overall, will see a measly one percent increase in size from 135.1 million in 2006 to 135.9 million in 2016.
Technorati Tags: myspace, seniors
Comments (0)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Seniors | social networking
March 2, 2006
Posted by Dave Evans
Viacom CEO Tom Freston told the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit the company will get into social networking this year:
We don't believe the game is over ... Really, it's just started. ... I would expect within this year you'll see some good social networking capabilities in our company.
Staci at Paid Content hears that Viacom believes it can develop some serious efforts in house.
Yahoo Press Release.
Technorati Tags: viacom
Comments (1)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: social networking
February 17, 2006
Posted by Dave Evans
BoingBoing has a link to a funny video about Myspace and social networking that recently aired on The Daily Show.
Technorati Tags: myspace
Comments (1)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: News | social networking
|
|
