Features

CNN did a post about virtual currencies and economies. It is estimated that at least $1 billion USD were transferred into virtual currencies last year. The biggest use of virtual currencies are online games, followed by social networks and virtual worlds. Some websites even earn more revenue through virtual currencies than online advertising. The massive online multiplayer game, World of Warcraft (or WoW for short) uses WoW Gold. Even though it is against the rules set by Blizzard, this currency is bought and sold on the black market. This currency is so sought after, workers in China have been known to play the game just to earn the virtual WoW currency to sell to players in Europe and the US.

Social networking sites like Hi5 and MyYearBook have created their own currency as well. Hi5 has the Hi5 Coin and MyYearBook calls their currency Lunch Money. Hi5 Coins are mainly used to buy virtual gifts while with Lunch Money you can buy virtual gifts, play games and even donate it to charities. Facebook is looking into a unified currency since all the games and application on their platform that use a virtual currency has been created by the application developer. The problem with this for members is, the currency is only good with that one application. Facebook also doesn't see any revenue from these virtual currencies. This could be a way out for Facebooks revenue problems. If they create one unified Facebook currency for the entire site, not only could members spend it through any Facebook applicationg they want, Facebook would get a cut from each transaction.

The virtual world Second Life also has a currency called Linden Dollars. You can trade real currency for Linden Dollars which you can then buy whatever is for sale on Second Life (virtual real estate, entertainment, stores, etc..). Just like with real currencies, the Linden Dollar fluctuates daily against the USD. The buy and sell prices are set by the residents of Second Life on the LindeX Currency Exchange.

Some dating sites have a form of virtual currency called points. While you can't trade or buy something from other members, you can purchase virtual gifts, features and extended memberships from the dating site itself. Usually the way you earn points is by using and / or participating in the dating site. Two dating sites that I know of who use points this way is, Plenty Of Fish and, the FriendFinder Network of dating sites. With POF, every time you log into the site you earn 60 points, with a maximum of 60 points total every 24 hours These points can be used to buy virtual gifts for other members. With FriendFinder you receive points for participating in the site by adding or voting on articles, replying to questions and voting on topics. When you have earned enough points you can then purchase membership upgrades with them. This can include adding extra months to your membership and having your profile highlighted.

Check out CNN.com Technology for the full story. Read our FriendFinder review for more information on this dating service.

We were sent word of the most recent changes and feature updates that have happened to WealthyMen.com over the last few months. These changes in part are a result of a user survey conducted by WealthyMen.com over the past year to find what type of new features members wanted to see implemented on the dating site.

The new changes concentrate on member profiles, searching and fraud detection:

Profile

• Updated and simplified user registration pages.
• More options to profile for ethnicity and religion.
• Added more photo slots to profile gallery.
• Ability to block other members communication.

Search

• New advanced search feature.
• Reorganized search results.
• Expanded number of profiles visible on search results.

Fraud Detection

• Added steps to encourage verifications.
• Created proprietary fraud detection software.
• Added more staff to fraud detection team.
• Improved customer service operations and training.

The result of these updates so far has seen an increased number of verified members and more male members signing up. It is good to see WealthyMen.com concentrating on fraud detection. While I haven't heard of any problems on this dating service, all popular and successful dating sites suffer from scammers to one degree or another. Sugar Daddie and Wealthy dating sites have been among the first dating services to implement member verification. This verification usually is for photos and income level though sites like WealthyMen.com have started profession and education verification as well. Usually to receive verification, members need to email or fax in a number of documents. While not 100% fool proof (I doubt we will ever see anything that is), it is a good step, and users which see a profile has been verify, have less to worry about.

Other sites like eHarmony offer to verify information and/or do criminal background checks which is an excellent idea but little is known how in-depth these checks are. The other thing that sites like eHarmony need to do is offer this service for free (or part of the membership package). Currently eHarmony charges for their RelyID service. Once it is free, I am sure many more members will take the time to verify their information.

For more information on this Millionaire dating site, read our WealthyMen.com review.

I just noticed on the Indian dating service, Shaadi.com Matrimonial, that they now offer a 100% money back guarantee. They are confident to offer this guarantee because of their successful track record of matching singles. Shaadi calls the guarantee an Unconditional Guarantee - 100% money back, but there is a few conditions.

The first condition is, If you do not have at least 1 accepted member in the first month, Shaadi.com will refund your entire Premium Membership fee, with no questions asked. A accepted member is considered to be either a member who expressed interest in you and you responded positively OR a member who responded positively to your interest expressed.

You are also expected to fill in all details of your profile, create a partner profile, upload your photo and actively communicate with members.

For more information on this online dating site, read our Shaadi.com review.

Last Friday on PlentyOfFish.com the Instant Messenger was disabled. Since then POF claims a 10% increase in traffic from the UK and over 15% from Australia. There is no mention on if the visitor traffic increased for the US or Canada. With the traffic increase Markus (CEO of POF) has decided to completely remove the feature. He also mentions that he should of realized there was a reason why a number of the other major dating sites don't use Instant Messengers on their websites.

I'm not sure why Markus attributes POF having more visitors to him removing IM from POF. There was no news story surrounding this (until now) so why would this increase visitors to his site (since no one knew about it)? It probably increased page views of visitors since members now have to use the mail center more instead of the instant messenger. I think it might be a mistake on his part since he freely admits that hundreds of thousands of users used it every day. While Plenty Of Fish's instant messenger may not have been as smooth experience as Microsoft's, it was still definitely useable. Maybe he should of disable IM on a user's account by default and require an action by them to enable it? This way users who don't use IM would never be bothered by it.

POF logo also has been updated. It has a cleaner look and the tag line of the site has changed. It use to say 100% Free Online Dating. Now it says Free Online Dating. Which is true, since POF just recently started to offer a paid membership that has a few additional perks (see Story).

Read our PlentyOfFish.com review for more information on this popular dating site.

Match.com has done a number of smart moves lately to keep members using their dating site. On Tuesday, Match.com launched a free application on the Apple App Store for the iPhone and the iTouch. Members now can use most of the features available on the website, on their iPhone. This includes, viewing and editing of your profile (including taking a picture), viewing other members profiles and, sending and receiving messages. New to Match.com as well is the built-in location-based technology available through the iPhone and iTouch. This is an opt-in feature that gives members the ability to see other members near their current location on a graphic map. This feature uses the iPhone's built in GPS and the iTouch's wireless internet connection IP address location.

Note: Unfortunately the source to the video and/or image which once was displayed here has since been removed by the authors for an unknown reason.

Match.com has another service which is similar to the iPhone App called MatchMobile. It was launched in 2007 and is designed to allow members to access Match.com with most cell phones. This product uses a mobile web interface and has similar features as the Match iPhone Application, except without the location based technology. Match.com also charges $4.99 for 6 months use of MatchMobile. Since the iPhone App is free, I wonder if MatchMobile will soon be offered for free as well?

Over the last year a few dating sites have created location based dating and they must be cringing now with the news that Match.com has stepped up to the plate relatively early to offer this type of service.

Check out the press release for more information and read our Match.com review for an overview of this dating site.

Once again PlentyOfFish is planning to offer a paid service. Their previous attempt with Virtual Gifts wasn't too successful. In my opinion it was due in part to the high cost of the gifts, which ranged from $9 to $30. This time around POF will offer an upgrade to the existing free membership which will last 3, 6 or 12 months. Markus, the CEO of PlentyOfFish is calling the new feature the Serious Member Profile Upgrade. It is designed for members to signal to the community that you are serious about meeting your match.

So what do you get when you sign up for the feature? Advertising will be removed from your profile and a Serious Member Star will appear on your profile beside your main profile photo. A star icon will also appear on any image thumbnail of you. Your search result as well, will be highlighted in gold to make it stand out in the standard search results and the gallery search results. We currently do not know the cost of the new features so we will just have to wait for a few days until the new feature goes live on the site.

I think this is a good move for PlentyOfFish as long as they keep the price down, at least in the beginning so the existing members can get use to it. I don't really see members signing up based on showing that they are a serious dater. They will sign up because their profile will be highlighted and stand out more from the crowd.

Will this new feature steal members away from paid dating sites? I don't really think so, most singles who move on from a dating site (Free or Paid) do so because they have run out of other members to contact. Becoming a serious member will not give you any more people to contact.