Contributed by: Editor on Tuesday, July 17 2007 @ 07:35 pm
Last modified on
CNN Money has an article called "Voice-over-IP powers online love connections". This article talks about a new service eHarmony plans to offer which allows for members to place actual phone calls to other members without giving out personal information. Here is quote from the article that describes the service in more details:
"Using voice-over-Internet Protocol, or VOIP, technology, eHarmony's service enables potential partners to speak on the phone without disclosing personal contact information. If one of the interested parties wants to initiate a call, he or she clicks on a special link on the eHarmony site, and eHarmony then sends an e-mail indicating the caller's interest to the intended call recipient. The eHarmony service, designed by VOIP provider Jajah, then initiates a call to the recipient's preferred phone number, only that data (as well as the phone number of the caller) is completely masked by the site."
eHarmony plans to offer this service for an additional charge of $5.75 which give them an unlimited number of calls to its members. At this point there is no mention of when the service is planned to start.
This type of service is a good idea, especially for people who are not into using Instant Messenger or similar tools. These singles tend to be older and not as technical savy, which fits right into eHarmony's demographic. I like the fact you don't need a VOIP phone that plugs into the internet, a normal phone can be used, which keeps it very simple. The one thing eHarmony needs to allow with this additional service is insure paying members can contact other non paying members. This is my major complaint with a number of dating services. When a member is a paying a fee they should be allowed to contact any member in the system.