General News

Friends Reunited won’t be available to message, post and keep in touch anymore. The once-popular social site, founded in 2000, was left in the dust by rivals such as MySpace and later, to a larger extent, Facebook.

Friends Reunited has a turbulent history. At one point a tech darling after quickly gaining three million subscribers in 2003, it was sold to ITV in 2005 for 125 million pounds, or about $208 million US. At its peak, 23 million users were on Friends Reunited.

But what the company didn’t intend was that employers would begin to use the service to check on potential and current employees, gauging what they said on social media as opposed to how they conducted themselves at work. It led to businesses using the site as a way to spy on employees, gathering information such as whether an employee was looking for another job, what they were saying about co-workers, or what interviewees and potential employees were saying online that could be potentially harmful.

At one stage, according to UK newspaper The Telegraph, Friends Reunited was blamed for a spike in the divorce rate on the grounds it encouraged classroom sweethearts to rekindle romances.

Instead of a positive, uplifting social experience where people felt secure to engage and share, the company found its platform being used as a way to spy on people for bad behavior. Naturally, users over time stopped posting and using the service. Membership dropped, especially when Facebook entered the picture a couple of years later. While Facebook continued to gain users, Friends Reunited found itself floundering.

The company was sold yet again in 2009 to DC Thompson for only 25 million pounds, and had only a fraction of its user base still active on the site. In 2012, the company decided to do a reboot and rebrand itself “Memory Box,” hoping to take on Facebook’s rapid growth. Memory Box did not succeed.

In 2014, DC Thompson offered the platform back to the original founder of Friends Reunited Steve Pankhurst, who thought he could restart the fledgling website. But in an announcement made on self-publishing platform Medium, Pankhurst announced its closure in January.

He wrote on Medium: "The first part of our plan was to put Friends Reunited back to make it more like the original site  --  that is, listing your schools and memories of your school days." However, this didn't really happen.

Pankhurst is now working on a new social media site called Liife, which allows you to upload photos and mark and share them with friends to identify significant “moments,” like trips, awards ceremonies or graduations. He said the new site would in no way replace Friends Reunited.

The related service Friends Reunited Dating still appears to be in operation and is not affected by the closing of the social service Friends Reunited. For more information on dating site please read our review of Friends Reunited Dating.

Online dating is big business after the holidays. In fact, user activity remains consistently high until Valentine’s Day, according to reports from online dating veteran websites like Match.

But it’s also a huge time for dating apps, especially Tinder – who had its biggest growth day in its history. On Sunday January 3rd, Tinder execs revealed that the app experienced the most downloads and the most growth of active users in a single day - ever. (Coincidentally, most online dating sites report that their biggest, busiest day of the year is the Sunday after New Year’s, when people are faced with the end of holiday revelry and the return to work.)

Needless to say, Tinder must have seen this spike coming and decided to take advantage with a new feature, which came in the form of a push notification. The notification alerted users when there was 2x to 3x higher rate of matches in their local area. It said:

Wow! Tinder is on fire in your area! Chances of a match are 3X higher right now (flame emoji)

The push notification was an interesting choice for Tinder execs to make, since the app prides itself specifically on not sending unwanted messages to its users, keeping the interaction as seamless as possible.

Tinder CEO Sean Rad looks at the feature as a win-win for users. “When there is a spike in engagement on the platform, we want to let users know so that they can take advantage of that moment,” Rad told news website TechCrunch.

The match rate is the number of swipes it takes to get to a match. When there is more engagement, the likelihood of matching with someone goes up. In a way, it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you tell someone that the match rate is 2-3 times higher, then likely they will keep swiping (engaging) until they get a match.

“The most fascinating thing about this type of notification is that, by notifying users when those peak moments are happening, it increases the overall success rate for our users,” Rad told news website Tech Crunch. “It has a compounding effect and produces even more activity.”

The match alert is the latest in a series of moves Tinder has made to overcome its hook-up reputation and concentrate on more long-term matches. The company has also been sharing stories and photos of happy couples who met on Tinder, including a tweet from a couple on their wedding day, hoping to show proof that the app is helpful for finding long-term love.

Tinder faces competition from new services like Bumble, which lets the women call the shots first, and Coffee Meets Bagel, which provides one match a day to make sure people aren’t just mindlessly swiping. For more on this dating app, please read our review of Tinder.

Admit it: you're no stranger to taking selfies. In 2015, it's inevitable that you've at least tried it (even if you deleted it immediately afterwards in embarrassment).

But what if your selfie could do something useful? That's the premise behind dating app Blume, which hopes to solve one of the biggest problems in the dating industry: the uncertainty about who’s actually behind the profiles you're into.

Con artists lurk in the darkest corners of online dating. And even if you manage to avoid the seriously scammy profiles, there's a good chance you'll have a run in with someone who just doesn't match their photos. It's practically a rite of passage for online daters.

On Blume, photographic self-portraits save the day. Users connect via profiles, but match via freshly taken selfies. Deceptive profiles are more easily weeded out, and catfish may be more discouraged from joining in the first place. Add it all up, and you have an app that creates a safe and trusted environment in which users can feel certain about each other's true identites.

Blume users begin with a main screen that shows people nearby. If two people 'Like' each other, they connect. When a connection is made, both parties must send a selfie to each other. The photo lasts seven seconds after it's opened before disappearing forever and, in another shoutout to Snapchat, text can be placed over the picture as an icebreaker.

If you're not in selfie mode when a match is made (because let's face it, you're probably searching while you're languishing in bed with a head-pounding hangover), you can reuse a single selfie up to five times.

If you take a screenshot on Blume, you will automatically be banned for 2 hours for a first offense. Further screenshots result in a 7-day ban, a 30-day ban and, after 4 illicit screenshots, a permanent ban from the app. Blume is serious about keeping conversations, selfies and other user content private.

When a mutual match is made, any text laid over the top of the selfies is automatically transferred into a chat session and full profiles are revealed. Once in the chat, you can swipe left to send further selfies.

If uncertainty about who is behind a profile is the top problem for online daters, the second could be difficulty establishing real emotional connections when you meet through a screen. Blume also hopes selfies will help with the latter by making online dating a more intimate experience.

"We really wanted to solve these problems and make online dating a lot more personal, fun and safe at the same time,” co-founder and CEO Daniel Delouya told Bustle.

eHarmony is having a 7 day free trial here in the United States and Canada. It starts Wednesday January 13th, 2016 and runs to the end of day on Tuesday January 19th, 2016.

What the eHarmony free trial gives you is the ability to communicate via email with all of your matches for no charge. To access the 7 day trial all you need to do is create a free membership account if you already don't have one. Once completed you can then take the eHarmony questionnaire which takes the average person between 30 to 40 minutes to complete. The questionnaire is a very important step and I would recommend taking your time answering the questions as truthfully as possible since your answers is what eHarmony's matchmaking algorithm uses to determine your matches. The algorithm is very complex and eHarmony has invested millions of dollars over the years in research to make sure it will produce matches that lead to long-term relationships. Most of the questions are multiple choice based so it is easy to skim through it and answer all the questions quickly but then, you would be decreases your chances of finding that special someone.

These free trials eHarmony has (about once a month) are an ideal time to try out this dating service to see if it is the right fit for you. If you are looking for a meaningful relationship which is not just a hookup then eHarmony is a good dating site for you to try out. The trial is available on all of the platforms including the website and dating apps (Android and iPhone). Please note the free trial does not include viewing photos and skipping the guided communication process and going straight to email.

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

2015 was the biggest year yet for online dating. Ten years ago, digital dating was still viewed with skepticism. Today, a majority of Americans believe it's a good way to meet people and 5% of Americans in committed relationships say they met their significant other online.

Now that singles have fallen head over heels for online dating, services have exploded. From the basics like Match and eHarmony, to youth-centric options like OkCupid and Tinder, to hyper-specific sites for bacon lovers and beard aficionados, there's something for everyone. So which dating services are a cut above the rest?

Bustle teamed up with Google to reveal the top-searched dating apps and sites in 2015. The list is surprisingly diverse:

1. Plenty Of Fish: Plenty of Fish sounds like a throwback to an earlier era of online dating, but the site is alive and well as we start 2016. Its inexpensive options draw 50,000 new members every day and even hooked The Match Group, which acquired POF in July 2015. See our full review of Plenty of Fish.
2. Tinder: It's no surprise that Tinder nearly took the top spot. The time-killing app made “swipe” an important part of everyone's vocabulary and totally changed the dating game. See our full review of Tinder.
3. Match: Match.com has been connecting singles since the primitive days of online dating and is still a prime choice. Over the years, the site has perfected its matching technique and remained a favorite for daters all around the world. See our full review of Match.
4. OkCupid: OkCupid revolutionized the online dating industry as an entirely free service. Today paid options have popped up, but OkCupid remains largely free to use and scores highly for its excellent compatibility algorithm. See our full review of OkCupid.
5. eHarmony: Though it began as a dating service strictly for Christians, eHarmony has expanded its service to welcome a wider variety of singles. The site has built a reputation as a go-to service for serious relationships. See our full review of eHarmony.
6. Zoosk: Zoosk quietly continued its quest for world domination in 2015. With service available in 80 countries, 25 different languages, and on your computer, phone, tablet, and Facebook, Zoosk is practically inescapable. See our full review of Zoosk.
7. Bumble: Bumble got a lot of press last year for its “Feminist Tinder” approach to online dating. The app takes the infamous swiping set-up, but attempts to lower the creep factor by putting female members in charge.
8. Hinge: Scared of meeting strangers online? Hinge solves the problem by using Facebook to connect users with mutual friends. Members can breathe easy knowing that their dates have been vetted by someone they trust. See our full review of Hinge.
9. Grouper: It's impossible to take all the awkwardness out of a first date, but Grouper helps lessen it by adding friends to the mix. The app connects groups of friends to take the pressure off.
10. Farmers Only: Yes, believe it or not, the uber-niche Farmers Only made the cut. Although perhaps it's just from people searching Google to find out if it's actually real.

Looking to get the year started on a more romantic note? Now’s the perfect time to join online dating sites. According to Match.com and other notable online dating sites and apps, the biggest surge of new member signups happen between January 1^st and Valentine’s Day.

So, you have a lot of time to see who’s out there and try a new app.

This year, eHarmony reported a 21% increase in mobile registrations since the holidays began, and dating app Zoosk also expected a 20% jump in users the first two weeks of January. Grindr, a dating app for gay men, typically experiences a 30-50% increase in users over the holidays, and Match expects an increase of 60% in new members before Valentine’s Day. Most dating apps agree that this is the busiest time of year for them.

The desire to sign up for an online dating site now may be for personal reasons. Most people have spent the holidays together with family members, creating a sense of warmth and togetherness that some singles feel might be missing from their lives. For those who spent the holidays alone, this time of year can feel particularly isolating, which can provide inspiration for expanding social networks and dating. There’s also the plethora of Instagram photos of happy couples taking vacations together, not to mention the announcement of engagement or baby news over social media, which can also create the desire for more people to want to meet someone special. And what about New Year’s resolutions to date and meet more people?

It seems there’s something about this time of year that motivates people to try online dating – but perhaps it’s less about emotion and more about having the time off for the holidays. People have the opportunity to look at their personal lives and see what they could be doing when they have free time.

According to news website MarketWatch, there’s evidence that people tend to join online dating sites when they have time off work and want to look forward to something personal. So it makes sense that the biggest online dating membership surge the Sunday after New Year’s Eve, when most people are still enjoying the holiday break but know that work is about to start up again.

Interestingly, this theory holds true outside of the winter holidays. Some dating sites, including Zoosk, also saw a surge in new members during the U.S. government shutdown in 2013, when many people’s jobs were affected and they were prevented from going to work.

Regardless, this is the best time of year to join a dating website or download a dating app. More people are online now than ever, which means more opportunities. For more information on the popular dating services mentioned you can read our Match.com review and our eHarmony review.

Happy dating in 2016!