Features

I found that missing press release I mentioned in a previous post about the new Spark.com dating site (see Story).

A quick read through doesn't really reveal any additional information. It does confirm what we assumed in the previous post that Spark is made up of the members from AmericanSingles.com and Date.ca. Spark Networks hope that the new clean and easy to navigate interface of Spark.com will give it a more global appeal. The release also mentions the new features of Spark.com (when compared to the old dating sites). These features are the free Color Code Personality Test, the Keyword Search and the "Who's Searching for You?" feature. While these features are new at Spark, they can be found on another Spark Networks brand of dating sites called Mingle Match.

To find out more about this dating site and the new features listed here, you can check out our review of Spark.com.

Since I first tried online dating over seven years ago, the sites have gotten a lot more sophisticated. There’s so much functionality and service built-in on the more popular sites that you can’t help it but to be impressed by the concierge-type service you receive.

I really enjoy Match.com’s Daily 5 concept. Each day when you log in for the first time, they’ve got 5 brand-new matches ready and waiting for you in your Connections. While they won’t always tickle your fancy, it’s great that they make the searching easier by bringing potential matches to you.

It seems that I get anywhere from five to ten new “you’ve caught his attention” notifications from Match each day. This is where you click “I’m Interested” on a particular profile in your Daily 5. But I’m telling ya: that doesn’t do me any good. It’s great that you’re interested, but it doesn’t tell me anything about YOU. So here are a few tips to make you Daily 5 on Match.com work better for you (and the people you express an interest in!).

I visited Date.com this morning and notice one major change right away. They now allow you to login to their dating site using one of 12 different 3rd party accounts you may have. This means it will be easier for new members to create a profile, as information may get pulled from these 3rd party accounts. Some of the accounts you can now associate with your Date.com account includes Google, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, AOL, OpenID and Windows Live ID.

What I was hoping to see, but I didn't, was more integration with some of the Social Networks. It would be nice to see the friends of some of these Date.com members on Social Networks, endorse their single friend.

I also came across Date.com's parent companies (Avalanche, LCC) website, I hadn't found it before this, since no direct link was available on their dating sites. You can find Avalanche's website here.

The only dating sites that I can think of right now that allows members to log into of their dating site with a 3rd party account, is Match.com and Zoosk. Though, Match.com only allows Windows Live ID accounts.

To find out more about this dating site, read our review of Date.com.

Have you always wanted to be able to start conversations with other members easier on OKCupid? Now you can as their new Ice Breakers feature is now in beta. Ice Breakers are a little different on OkCupid than on other dating sites (also called Winks, Flirts, Express Interest). Ice Breakers have their own page which when you visit will show you other people with similar interests. From there you can then write a short message to one or more of these people about those interests, an instant conversation starter.

Thanks to Online Dating Insider for the heads up. To find out more about OkCupid's Ice Breakers read our reviews of OkCupid.

The Unofficial eHarmony Blog sure knows how to dig for eHarmony news. They found this banner on the eHarmony US website:

under the URL "http://www.eharmony.com/static/images/diamondgiver/banner/".

From this banner it looks like eHarmony is creating marketing material for a possible new personalized matchmaking service where eHarmony Matchmakers select matches for you and possibly setup the dates (my thinking on this). All this is speculation, but it does sound close to how the China dating site Zhenai.com operates (see Story). They have a 350 matchmaker call center which sets up dates for clients.

The service looks to be called eHarmony Personal Matchmaker Service but the above banner image was found in a directory called DiamondGiver. In the service industry Diamond usually means the highest quality (and most expensive) service. We didn't see the word Diamond in the image so once again we are just speculating.

Match.com has done this type of service before in which eHarmony may be getting into. They called it Match Platinum (the old Platinum service not the new one, see Story). This Match.com service was only available in Texas and was not tied directly to the Match.com dating site. Match Platinum offered customers a one on one matchmaking service but it has since been shutdown (RIP 2006-2008).

To find out what other think about this dating site, check out some eHarmony reviews.

The United States virtual goods market was worth $500 million in 2008 according InsideFacebook.com. This year it is expected to double to $1 billion and in 2010 virtual goods sales are expected to reach $1.6 billion. The huge growth in the market is due to the popularity of social networking and with more video games adding virtual goods to their online components.

With growth like this expected in the next few years, virtual gifts will be on par with the online dating industry which in 2008 was the third highest revenue grossing industry.

These are predictions from knowledgeable experts but they may not live up to expectations. In a recent Date.com press release about virtual gifts (see Story) their leading analysts estimated the revenue for the industry at $1.5 billion in 2008. This is a $1 billion difference between experts, I wonder which one is closer to the truth?

For more on this story, read Online Media Daily.