Features

MillionaireMatch.com recently updated their website with some new features. The main new feature is members now can have their photos verified. This works well in conjunction with verifying your income level since, some of the same documentation is needed to do both. Your photo and income level are the two most important parts of the profile on these types of dating sites and having them verified as authentic gives members who have performed this free service a huge advantage over non-verified members. Singles searching through profiles are much more likely to contact a verified member.

The searching of members has also been tweaked. You can now easily remove unwanted profiles from view and you now have the ability to do keyword searching. Keyword searching taked into account the text in the two essay profile questions. You also can now get your profile highlighted in the search results which draws the viewers eye to it first and makes it stand out much more.

For more information, please read our MillionaireMatch Review.

It's official now! The "Who Has Viewed Me" feature is now available to members of eHarmony. You can now see members who have viewed you from up to 2 weeks ago. There is also a new option in your Match Settings which allows members to show their views of profiles as anonymous instead of showing their membership name.

This feature has the side affect of now allowing singles to see if a member is currently actively using eHarmony. If you send them a mail message and if their is no view of your profile (let alone a reply) by the eHarmony member, most likely then it is an inactive profile (unless the member is on vacation or something).

The unofficial eHarmony Blog got a little scoop regarding the possibility of a "Who has viewed me?" feature. SingleGuyInNC noticed the disabled option when it flashed briefly on his screen when he signed into eHarmony today.

If this is a new feature that eHarmony will be adding soon, it should help with the complaints in our user reviews regarding not been able to see which profile has had their member login recently. If some one has viewed you then you know it is an active profile. The only problem is, you still don't know if he or she is a paid member and can communicate with you. Still, I hope they add this feature in. Better yet, eHarmony should just tell us in the profile view when the member has last logged.

For more information on eHarmony, please read our review.

eHarmony announced yesterday that they have a new online id verification service for its members. This service, which is provided by ReliID allows eHarmony members to validate their full name, age and address. RelyID uses publicly available information for the id verification. Once members are verified they will have a RelyID badge displayed with their profile showing other users that they have completed the process successfully.

I'm glad other large dating services have started to offer this type of verification service. It's a great first step which willl go a long way in helping people trust the information they find in a profile. This should generate a lot more communication for eHarmony members who have been verified. But, how much further can eHarmony go? True.com does criminal background checks and I have seen some other sites like MillionaireMate.com verify photos. It would be great to see all of these services combined. I wonder if this service is available on eHarmony Canada?

For more information on this new verification process read this News Release and for more information on eHarmony, check out our review.

Update 2008-01-16: I just notice that Online Dating Insider has some more information on this new verification service including the cost ($5.95) and how the actually verification takes place.

Update 2019-10-22: Please note that the Online Verification Service is not available anymore.

Online Dating Insider has an article about Match.com's new service called MatchStudios. The cost is a one time fee of $40 and includes a review of your profile by Matches experienced profile writer staff. After a review, Match.com will contact you via phone and discuss any text changes with your profile that is recommended. You can either add in these changes yourself or Match.com will do it for you.

Match.com may also recommend you use their Match Photo Review service. The review is no cost, but if changes are recommend, they will put you in contact with a company called LookBetterOnline.com. Look Better Online offer easy access to photo professionals across North America (over 6000 cities). The service costs $149 which seems a little steep, but they do offer a 100% Risk Free Guarantee. There are terms to this guarantee, but they are not too bad. If you don't think the photos will give you more emails than before, then you can ask for a reshoot or your money back. If you ask for your money back, it is less a sitting fee of $60 to $75. For more information about this photo service, click here. There have been a lot of these type of services over the last few years and most of them seem to have disappeared. Look Better Online is one of the few popular ones and has been around for a while.

MatchStudios is designed to make your profile more attractive to other members. I'm sure the service works well, but I think you would most likely get as good advice from your friends and family regarding your profile. According to our poll Do you tell your friends you're Dating Online?, over 55% of 330 votes by our readers don't tell people they use online dating. I guess these singles could use MatchStudios if they feel their profile is inadequate. As far as profile photos are concerned I think most people's picks are pretty good. A picture of you laughing or at a family gathering tells a potential match much more than a professional model shot. Then again, members of sites for Wealthy Singles may want to use a service such as this.

For more information on Match please read our review.

From this Press Release, Lavalife announced the launching of a free Canadian online city guide. Called Where to Go, this guide currently has entries for 5 major Canadian cities. The cities are Toronto Ottawa, Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary. When you visit the site once you have selected the the city, you can then view different restaurants, bars and attractions that are recommended places to take your date. For the more serious relationships there is also a travel, spa and hotel guide.

This is a good idea for probably about 20% of the singles meeting online. Most people look for matches in or near their city where both parties already know the local hot spots. This will be used more for people traveling to meet someone in a city they are both familiar with. It is much better to surprise your date than asking him or her where they would like to go. What would be nice to see is members of Lavalife make recommendations. This way you would probably get a lot more of the smaller restaurants and bars that can offer a more cosy and romantic atmosphere.

FriendFinder does something similar to the Where to Go guide but, it is actually built right into the dating site. FriendFinder goes a step further by offering member recommendations, reviews and ratings on their listings.