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On Wednesday Avalanche (the owners of Date.com, Matchmaker.com, and Amor) announced that they will be offering virtual gifts for sale on their dating sites. Just in time for Valentine's Day, members of these dating communities can send a $1 virtual gift to help make an impression with a potential date. To send a virtual gift:

Members purchase tokens that can be converted immediately, or at a later date, into Virtual Gifts. Online gifts, which range in price and start at $1, run the gamut from romantic to flirty. Everything from roses, hearts, Cupids and boxes of chocolates to martini glasses, food, stuffed animals, and even a shiny red sports car are available for purchase. Specialty items and limited edition items will be introduced in future updates of the feature.

Branded Virtual Gifts will also be available to advertisers that are looking for innovative ways to market products to online daters. Singles do not have to be paying subscribers of the sites to purchase, send or to receive Virtual Gifts. Virtual Gifts can be purchased using all major credit cards as well as via PayPal.

Virtual Gifts are currently very popular on social networking sites. The industry is estimated to be worth $1.5 billion in 2008.

In late January, True.con announced that they have added video chatting to their dating service with 26 different chat rooms.

At a given time, a member may find over 1,000 people chatting, flirting and having fun. The feature not only allows chatters to view up to 10 webcam broadcasts simultaneously, but also allows any two people into a private chat together.

True.com's new group video chat room allows members to enjoy a party like atmosphere since you can view and talk with up to 10 people at once, while the private one on one chat allows for subscribers to go on virtual dates. Online dates allows singles to see how they interact with each other in real time before they commit to taking their relationship off line.

For the full story read True.com's press release.

On January 29, 2009 Date.com become free for the estimated 15 million online dating users in India. This means any local Hindu single may use the service just like a paid member, allowing them to save their Rupee's for an actual date.

Date.com has been planning to expand into non-English speaking markets for a while now. It looks like they want to get a foot in the door in India by offering a free service, were online matrimonial sites are very popular. Date.com is currently available in 4 languages but by 2010 they plan on adding 15 more (see Story).

Read more about this free service for Indian singles at Date.com by reading this press release, or check out our Date.com review for more information on this popular online dating site.

Perfectmatch.com relationship expert, Dr. Pepper Schwartz, has been quoted several times in this month's Real Simple magazine which has an article called The Experts' Guide to a Strong Relationship. Real Simple gathered together a panel of experts to assess 13 rules of love. The panel consist of 9 experts who's occupations included authors, sex therapist, psychologists, and a dating site owner. Dr Schwartz addressed the following relationship wisdoms:

• Your Spouse shouldn't be your best friend.
• Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
• Having kids will bring you closer.
• There is such thing as love at first sight.
• Always keep them guessing
• Everyone experiences the seven-year itch.

Each rule of love or relationship wisdom is discussed briefly by 2 to 4 of the experts, with some of them disagreeing with each other. For the full story and the complete list of love rules check your news stand for the February, 2009 issue of Real Simple.

The first month of the New Year to Valentine's Day is the season where online dating is usually is at its busiest. The owners of Date.com and MatchMaker.com have a promotion which gives singles a 10 day free trial to try out their dating services (the original promotion was 7 days). The free trial acts just like a paid membership and gives you full email and instant messaging access. Just type in this coupon code when you sign up as a new member:

Newyears10

For more information on these 2 online dating sites, read our Date.com review and our MatchMaker.com review.

There is a promising future for mobile dating as predicted by Juniper Research. They claim the value of the chatroom market and mobile dating will grow to almost $1.4 billion by 2013. For the most part revenue will be generated by subscriptions but event-based charging (like paying a fee to contact someone or virtual gifts) and advertising will continue to become a larger part of the revenue stream.

... many companies which have migrated to this approach are seeing conversion rates amongst customers buying premium rate goods and services which generate revenues significantly in excess of those achieved under flat rate subscriptions.

By 2011 it is predicted less than 30 percent of mobile dating customers will be on a flat rate subscription model. China and Japan currently have the largest number of mobile dating customers.

There is no mention what the 2008 revenue is for this market. Currently from our reviewed online dating services, Match.com (called matchMobile), Date.com, Lavalife, DatingDirect and Shaadi.com all offer a mobile phone service along with their dating website. Other sites like MeetMoi also offer location based mobile dating based on the GPS in your phone (with lots of privacy options of course). With the rise of 3G and the large bandwidth it provides I expect to see the rise of video mobile dating as well.

For reviews on dating services that offer a mobile/cell phone dating service check out our new Mobile Dating Category.