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In the beginning of the year we took a look at a new Facebook application called the Little Black Book from Match.com. We were not overly impressed but, felt it did hold some promise. Being maybe a few weeks old at the time, the Little Black Book had 67 daily active users with about 600 total installed users. Our main complaints involved around the clunky user interface and browser compatibility problems.

A month later, David from the Online Dating Insider took a look at the application as well. At this time there was 240 daily active users. While not impressive numbers for a Facebook application, it was an improvement from when I had looked at it. In his review, David had a wish list of improvements and found the browser issues were still present.

Flash forward 11 months and the Little Black Book has disappeared from Facebooks application list. The last appearance I can find of it is a Google Cache page which was capture September 29, 2008. At this time there was only 100 monthly active users with a 1.6 out of 5 star rating. The reviews of the application were not pretty.

Did Match.com take down the application to redevelop and fix its problems or is it gone for good? I think it is in Match.com's best interest to forget about Facebook applications. A search for the term "Dating" on Facebook revealed that the most popular application has over 12 thousand active monthly users. Not a lot when you consider the 1.3 million paid users Match.com website had this past quarter. Match.com employees time would be better spent on other projects.

As mention in a story we did in the spring, Avalanche is on track and has finished their first phase of international expansion. Avalanche is the parent company of Date.com, Matchmaker.com and Amor. These dating sites are now available in Spanish, Portuguese and German languages. Plus, subscribers can now pay by using the popular PayPal service. Avalanche decided to offer Paypal as a payment option because:

Statistically, Europe as a whole has less than 50% penetration rate for credit cards, with specific countries significantly lower, as Europeans prefer local payment options to pay for transactions.

Members who use Paypal gets the added advantage of not sharing financial information and are able to use many additional payment options. This means international members don't need a US bank account anymore.

Read our Date.com review, Amor.com review and Matchmaker.com review for more information on these dating services.

Match.com has renamed their profile writing service MatchStudios to ProfilePro. A good move on their part since the old name MatchStudios doesn't scream profile writing and makes it sound more like a service purely for photos. The new name doesn't seem to have prompted any other changes to the service. The price remains the same at $39.99.

For more dating profile and photo help services, check out this category.

Related Story: Match.com New Service - MatchStudios

A while ago we asked the question Is PlentyOfFish.com going to offer Paid Memberships? Well, it looks like the owner, Markus, will be offering some products and additional features for sale on Plenty of Fish sometime soon. He didn't mention or hint at what the new products or features might be. The reason Marcus gave for his eventual switch from what POF's slogan, 100% Free. Put Away Your Credit Card is:

There is really no money in being free and we have to start experimenting with other models now or we won’t be able to compete in 3 or 4 years.

Now Markus does make a fair bit of money, especially for the low overhead he has but it is not even close to what other popular dating sites are reporting as income. Markus will have to be careful here and I am sure he will take a slow approach to what he plans to offer as not to scare off his members. Products for sale will be the easiest way to go at first. Having real flowers and candy on the site for sale (instead of the virtual kind) could be a big seller. Especially if it is implemented in a way that makes it quick and easy to choose the person and the flowers to send.

I really doubt Plenty of Fish will go completely paid. Instead I see them offering enhancements to existing free memberships. This could include things like improved customer service, profile listing highlighting, having your profile appear higher in search results and an improved matching system. Of course, this is all just speculation. We will have to just wait to see what POF has in store for it's members.

For more information on this service your can read our POF review.

Spark Networks sent out a press release a few days ago about a new website of theirs called Facelink. This site allows visitors to search for singles across 20 of Spark Networks dating websites. Some of these sites include AmericanSingles, JDate, BlackSingles.com and ChristianMingle. Facelink is currently in beta.

The tool is very simple and allows visitors to select what gender they are looking for, age range and a text box where you can enter in keywords which describe the most important attributes of your match. When you search, the site will then bring up any matching profiles with the profile handle, introduction and location. When you click on the profile name in the results, you are then taken to the full profile page on whatever dating site the profile resides on.

I realize Spark Networks is going with the KISS philosophy and Facelink works but, it could use improvements. The search results contain the location but, on the search page you must enter the location in the text keywords box. I think location needs to have its own text box with a radius selection (ie anyone within 15 miles of current location). I also think it is important to list what site the person is on in the search results. This is important as someone who has joined JDate (a Jewish dating site) most likely will not want to date someone practicing another religion. Keyword searching also seems to be limited to the introduction essay and location. Why not include all aspects of the profile. If someone likes watching Lost and mentioned this in Fun Facts, I doubt they would reiterate this point in their introduction. Someone using "Lost" as a keyword for searching may be missing out on a potential match.

I do think the site could use a name change. The name itself FaceLink, instantly brings up comparisons to Facebook, in which the site does not have a whole lot in common with. In the title, the link part works but, maybe they should of tried getting the DatingSiteLink domain or something similar. One thing I did have a laugh at was Spark Networks disclaimer at the bottom of the site.

THANKS TO THE GREAT STATE OF NEW JERSEY, THE GARDEN STATE, HOME OF THE TURNPIKE, GOING DOWN THE SHORE, MYTHICAL HOME TO TONY SOPRANO, AND THE ONLY PLACE WHERE PEOPLE GREET EACH OTHER WITH "REALLY, WHAT EXIT YOU FROM?," WE ARE TELLING YOU, SPARK NETWORKS LIMITED DOES NOT CONDUCT BACKGROUND CHECKS ON THE INDIVIDUALS WHOSE PROFILES CAN BE ACCESSED THROUGH THIS SITE. THE HOME OF THE BOSS HAS GOT YOUR BACK AND WE SUPPORT THEM 100%! NOW DON'T FUHGEDABOUTIT.

This is in reference to the new flawed Internet Dating Safety Act which requires dating sites to notify visitors from New Jersey if the dating site performs background checks or not.

Facelink gives Spark Networks a way to tie all of their dating sites together and allows visitors to search all the sites at once. It saves visitors from having to visit each one individually. Once out of beta they should promote Facelink on all of their dating sites instead of showing other ads.

Click here to visit Facelink.

Over 10 years ago Shaadi.com, the online dating and matrimonial service was born. Recently Shaadi has become available on your cell phone browser and for viewing on satellite TV. Now Shaadi.com has launched Shaadi.com Sapphire. This is a new phone service which allows singles to talk with a trained matchmaking assistant who will help them with every step in dating online. This includes writing a profile, searching for matches and replying to messages.

The service has been designed for the "busy professional" who doesn't have the time to search through all of their matches. Members can call 91-22-67752020 daily between 10am and 7pm to speak to a Matchmaking Assistant and to sign up for the service.

For the full release go to indiaPRwire and, read our review on Shaadi Matrimonial dating service for more information.