General News

Last month on the Canadian TV show The Disruptors, an unlikely interview took place between host Bruce Croxton and Markus Frind, the founder of popular online dating site Plenty of Fish. (Broxton was the founder of dating site Lavalife, which raked in members until POF’s free service hit the market.)

For the first time, the two former rivals were sitting down together to discuss the current state of the dating industry, and the history of their two companies.

Broxton noted the quick success of POF, which because of its free service, quickly gained a lot of users – many of whom hadn’t tried online dating previously. Typically, dating sites made their money through selling subscriptions to members, but POF tried a different model to attract a larger audience, and it worked. Instead of selling subscriptions, the site made its money by selling ad space. After all, they had an engaged audience.

At its peak and before its sale in 2004, Lavalife had over four hundred employees. Frind launched POF in 2003 and operated the service alone from his apartment for the first five years, without hiring another employee despite the service’s rapid growth. He managed to turn it into the largest dating site in the world by focusing on the US market (even though he was based in Canada), and by keeping the service free despite the naysayers.

Frind’s experience wasn’t in the dating industry when he first thought of the idea for POF. In the interview, he admitted that he just needed to learn a new programming language and the best way to do that would be through creating a dating website.

Croxton was complimentary in the interview, admitting that Frind was incredibly innovative in the dating space, despite the endless number of dating apps launched in the last few years claiming to change the online dating industry. “I find it ironic because many of the tech ideas on the show really emphasize that it’s not about the technology anymore because you can be up and running very quickly, it’s really a marketing barrier to entry. But you were pioneering that back in 2003,” Croxon said.

Frind Agreed, noting that he sold his company (for $800 million) because he was tired: “There isn’t really much innovation in the dating space; the features we have today are the same features we had five years ago. It just got kind of boring and I wanted to do something new.”

You can watch the whole interview here. To find out more about POF you can read our review on Plenty of Fish.

Tinder has released a new update for users to help improve the photo selection process and enhance messaging options.

The update is a result of one of Tinder’s most requested features: the ability to upload profile photos to the app directly from your camera roll. The old version of the app pulled photos from Facebook only, which didn’t give users much flexibility. Instead of being able to pull photos from their camera roll specifically for the dating app, they would have to post photos to their Facebook profile (and advertise their flirtatious Tinder selfies to all their friends), or try to get around the problem by creating a fake Facebook profile (not so easy to do), or adding “private” photo albums.

Now, users can pull photos directly from their camera rolls, bypassing Facebook. And to enhance this feature, Tinder has made cards and photos larger on the screen.

While this comes as a relief to many Tinder fans, another issue has been created. Tinder already has a challenge with some users creating fake profiles to scam other users, but the fact that every user has to tie their account to a real Facebook account made things a bit more secure. Now with the latest update, it’s much easier to post fake photos, so there might be a backlash with the current security measures.

Co-founder of Scamalytics Dan Winchester noted that this is good news for scammers, because it reduces the obstacle of having to create a fake Facebook profile. “Scammers almost universally rely on faking their identity in order to execute their scams. On a photo dating app like Tinder, clearly the photo is one of the key things they need to fake...adding direct from camera roll makes life even easier for scammers, and Tinder will want to balance the undoubted appeal of this feature with users against the increased security risk introduced into their platform.”

Another important feature in the new update concerns messaging. With a nod to Facebook features, Tinder is allowing you to “like” a message by tapping a green heart that appears next to a message you receive. iPhone 6 and 6 Plus users can also use 3D touch to preview links sent within messages. And yes, emojis will now be available in larger format – just to make things more fun.

Tinder has also teamed up with GIPHY to allow users to exchange GIFs with their matches. (And yes, there are millions of your favorite GIFS  - including one of a Kristin Wiig character from Saturday Night Live and numerous cute kittens, in case you were wondering about the options.) To use a GIF, you can select the blue “GIF” button found at the bottom left of the chat interface.

To find out more about this dating app, please read our review of Tinder.

Human matchmakers have plied their trade for hundreds of years, but only in the 21^st century could something like this exist. Meet Connectidy, a new app that uses IBM's Watson AI to improve the dating experience.

Connectidy bills itself as “the dating app for evolved people.” Powered by a mix of Watson and proprietary algorithms, the app promises to give you a higher level of emotional intelligence and a deeper understanding of what you really want in a partner. Connectidy hopes to empower users to make smarter choices and, ultimately, increase the odds of meeting that special someone.

How does it work? Connectidy analyzes what users write and, more importantly, how they write, then presents an objective personality profile. The assessment is based on the Big Five personality traits, commonly used by psychologists to describe the human personality: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.

To create your profile, IBM’s Watson AI inspects written text pulled from any or all of your social media accounts. You will also be asked to answer a series of open-ended questions. Leveraging the Praescripto Engine, Connectidy then uses its patent-pending 5 pass algorithms to deliver a highly accurate personality assessment. The more you communicate with others, the better Connectidy understands you. Answer the questions thoroughly and the website promises a profile that is 90 percent accurate or better.

Connectidy users aren't just able to create more authentic profiles. They also develop a deeper understanding of their own personalities so they can find partners who best complement those traits. Connectidy reveals how your dating decisions affect an outcome, allowing you to weigh the impact and adjust accordingly.

When a match is made, the service acts as a go-between to make sure you're sending the most effective communication possible. Tone Analyzer, also powered by Watson, evaluates your messages to provide tailored advice on word choice and tone. A user who scored highly on the extraversion personality trait, for instance, will get different recommendations that someone Connectidy deemed to be more introverted.

The goal at the end of it all is simple: meaningful relationships. There are apps a-plenty for users who are into serial dating and hookups, but it's harder to make an effective service for finding real, lasting compatibility. Connectidy hopes to be that app.

According to the company's president, Dineen Tallering, “Connectidy’s mission is to say ‘goodbye.’ As part of our success, we will change the current system that pulls daters in and never lets them out. We want to help users find that special someone so we have built technology that truly can end the online dating merry-go-round.”

eHarmony announced free communication from Thursday March 17th to Wednesday March 23rd, 2016. This week long event is available in the United States and Canada.

eHarmony rarely has a 7 day event where you can message all of your matches for free. If you are interested in trying out online dating and the eHarmony service in particular, I would suggest signing up for a free membership today. This way you will have a full week to try out the service at no cost to you and with no credit card required. When you do decide to join make sure to give yourself at least a half hour for the process as it takes that long to fill out your dating profile and answer the questionnaire. Most questions are multiple-choice but some do require a bit of reflecting about yourself. There are no right or wrong answers, you just want to make sure you answer the questions truthfully in terms of your point of view. After all your answers are what is used by the eHarmony matchmaking algorithm to match you with other members who are looking for a long-term relationship.

The free trial is available both on the eHarmony websites and through their dating apps which can be found on Google Play and iTunes. Features not included during this event are skipping the guided communication process and going straight to email. The guided communication component is a key part of eHarmony's process which allows member's to ask and answer questions about each other. These couple of questions allows you to break the ice with your matches and gives you something to talk about when you start to send actual messages to each other. Viewing of profile photo's and the secure phone call service, which allows you to communicate with your matches over the phone but still keep your phone number private, are also not included in this event and are for paid members only.

For more about this popular online matchmaking service, you can read our review of eHarmony.

Maybe you’ve heard the statistics, but if not – pay attention, and turn on your spell check. Correct grammar usage and spelling goes a long way when you’re online dating. In fact, according to recent studies by online dating site Match, bad grammar is one of the biggest turn-offs for men and women – a close second behind poor hygiene.

In other words, make sure you know the difference between "your" and "you’re" before you message a potential match.

Website Grammerly did its own collection of data regarding dating and grammar usage, and came up with some interesting findings. As it turns out, people aren’t only aware of grammar mistakes – they pay attention to the specific words you use, too. Some terms are more attractive than others when you’re writing messages or an online dating profile.

For instance, men who use the word “women” rather than “girls” in their messaging are 28% more successful at getting responses. And those who use the word “whom” correctly do even better – they are 31% more successful than those who use it incorrectly.

Men are a little easier on women overall, but there are certain phrases they don’t like. When women use the words “divorce,” “separate,” or “my ex” they receive 4% fewer messages than those who don’t. (So maybe save your dating histories for the actual date, ladies.)

Spelling can be a big deal too, at least for women. Guys – if you have just two spelling errors in your profile, you reduce your chances of a response by 14%. As for the ladies? Men just aren’t so picky – spelling errors don’t affect their chances of getting a response. (Which may explain why women make nearly twice as many spelling, grammar and punctuation mistakes in their messages and profiles than men---it doesn’t seem to matter as much!)

Some other fun stats:

• According to OkCupid, women receive 17 times as many messages as men – which may explain why they can be picky, but don’t have to watch their spelling and grammar mistakes.
• Both men and women rate grammar as more important than confidence in online dating.
• Eighty-eight percent of women judge their dates’ grammar mistakes, compared to 84% who judge their dates by their level of confidence. For men, it was 75% and 69% respectively.
• Men use 21.9% more words than women do in their responses to questions                regarding their online dating profiles.
• Roughly 11% of American adults (24  million people) have used an online dating site or app

Bottom line: check your messages before you hit “send” – it could make a huge difference in your online dating success.

Lulu, a dating app designed to help women rate and share information about the men they date, has become part of online dating giant Badoo.

Lulu has had an interesting history. Founded in 2011 by Alexandra Chong, the app was originally created to help women have a safer online dating experience by encouraging them to communicate with other women over the app about the men they dated. Users were given the ability to rate their dates according to looks, humor, ambition, and even sexual prowess. They could also add pre-made hashtags for more detailed examples describing a man, like #OneWomanMan, #WillActSilly or #EpicLaugh.