Features

Starting this weekend, Saturday June 13th at 12:01 am EDT Facebook users will be able to choose a username for your profile. What this allows is your identity to be easily seen in your Facebook URL which up to now is just a number, as example:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1234567890

The new look will be similar to how Twitter does it:

http://www.facebook.com/your.username.here

There are several reasons for Facebook adding this new feature, with the main one being to allow for easy identification of a profiles URL. This will also make it easier for search engines like Google to identify and index web pages.

This is a first-come, first-serve basis so if you have a name in mind, I would reserve it early Saturday. Full detail instructions are available here and will also be present on your homepage starting this Saturday. Privacy isn't a concern since your new username will have the same privacy settings as your profile name.

For more information, read the Facebook blog post.

What is an online dating aggregator? It is a website that pulls profiles from multiple dating sites based on a search inputted by a user on the aggregator site. James Nord of Rubixx says it is similar to how a travel website like CheapFlights.com works by searching a number of airlines for the best flight. While in theory it sounds like a good idea, practically it has a way to go. One of the main problems is the lack of search criteria. Rubixx allows on their website to input your gender, the gender you are looking for, a age range and a US zip code. This really is not enough information to search on, especially based on the number of profiles that it shows you. You basically end up just looking at pictures. No additional information is present in the simplified profiles Rubixx displays to you in the search results, with the exception of what dating site the profile is found on. Once you find a profile you like, you click on the picture and you are redirected to the dating site where you can look at more details of the profile. Most of the dating sites require you to sign up with a free account before you can view more details. Currently Rubixx gathers profiles from the following dating sites, Match.com, Date.com, Matchmaker.com, AmericanSingles.com Cupid.com, uDate.com, Friendfinder.com and MillionaireMatch.com.

Another similar web portal to Rubixx is Copenda. Copenda calls themselves a Social People Search and Dating engine. With Copenda you can search the social networks hi5, MySpace, Friendster and the dating sites Match.com and PlentyofFish.com. The big news at Copenda is they will be adding Facebook to the search soon in June, 2009. Currently there are more than 200 million users on Facebook. Copenda has more features than Rubixx and in its own way, acts like a dating site. The reason I say this is because you can favorite profiles, add comments to them and even rate them. Comparing multiple profiles is allowed as well as viewing more than one profile photo. Searching at Compenda is more in-depth as well when compared to Rubixx. You can specify keywords, location distance as well as marital status, religion, body type, height range and ethnicity. The only thing missing really is the ability to communicate directly with the person.

For more on the story, read The Washington Post. You can find Rubixx here and Copenda here.

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.