Contributed by: ElyseRomano on Sunday, February 17 2013 @ 08:48 am
Last modified on
Yikes...
OkCupid's new Crazy Blind Date app has barely had a chance to dip its toe into the dating pond, and it looks like some people have already dumped it.
It can't come as a complete surprise to OkCupid, seeing as they tried to launch a similar service back in 2007 and abandoned it shortly afterwards. It's kind of like going back with someone you already dumped...if the relationship wasn't good the first time around, it probably won't be much better the second time.
Christina Farr, a writer for VentureBeat, teamed up with ABC7 to review the reincarnated Crazy Blind Date app. The plan was simple: she would go on a date, and ABC would interview her date on the spot.
The sign up process barely even takes a minute, but already Christina was skeptical about the service. Although the app scrambles profile pics, it's easy to discern the faces anyway. That could be unsettling anywhere, but Christina found it particularly troubling in her small world of the San Francisco tech community. Members of any close-knit community, where everyone already knows everyone, are likely to recognize familiar faces - even scrambled - easily. So much for the blind part of the blind date.
Her second impression wasn't favorable either. She says she was "a bit underwhelmed by the sheer number of dudes whose ideal first date involves Dunkin' Donuts or Peet's Coffee." She also had trouble finding a date who A) Responded to her and B) Was available to meet at the same time. Finally, she found Robert Leshner, the cofounder of Internet privacy company Safe Shepherd.
She divulged the presence of the ABC7 news crew immediately upon meeting him. But Robert wasn't the one in for a surprise - Christina was.
A few hours prior to their date, a friend of Robert's had recognized Christina's scrambled picture and revealed her identity to him. He had a feeling he was about to be part of a story. The night wasn't a total loss - Christina did leave with her story, as well as a few margaritas - but it left her with doubts about the future of Crazy Blind Date.
"A few bugs prevented me from booking a last minute date," she wrote in a VentureBeat post[*1] . "The app would tell me that 'I'm already busy' on a particular night. I had to delete and reinstall it several times." There's also the fact that people just aren't comfortable meeting total strangers from the Internet with only a name, age, and scrambled photo to go on.
Blind dates are normally set up by friends, who have already vetted your date for you. Without that added sense of commonality and security, can Crazy Blind Date ever be a success?
Related Article: OkCupid Gets “Crazy”