OkCupid

I haven't been this excited for a comeback since the Spice Girls reunion. Here's hoping the relaunch of the OkTrends blog lasts longer than the relaunch of everybody's favorite 90s pop girl group.

The disappearance of OkTrends, the quirky but insightful blog of OkCupid, was always a mystery to me. It dominated the web while it was active, and is undoubtedly one of the greatest marketing ideas ever deployed, but for some inexplicable reason the blog fell dormant.

"From August 2010 to April 2011," says Digiday.com, "OkTrends posts averaged a staggering 32,500 Facebook likes and 4,222 tweets." With OkCupid co-founder Christian Rudder at the helm, the blog took off and introduced the site to millions of new potential users. But then, shortly after IAC purchased OkCupid in 2011, OkTrends disappeared and many felt that the purchase was to blame.

Rudder, however, firmly denies the suggestion. He cites a lack of time due to other responsibilities at OkCupid and a new book he's writing, called Dataclysm, that's due out in fall 2014. Rudder promises the book will be "a superset of all the stuff I did on OkTrends." Digiday adds that the book is described as "a witty, provocative, visually fascinating look at how 'big data' is transforming our understanding of race, politics, age, beauty, sex, humor, even history, and ushering in a new era in the study of human nature."

Ok, count me in. Sounds like an intriguing read. But what about that OkTrends blog, huh? Sometimes I prefer to digest my information digitally. Why not just hire another writer to cover while Rudder finishes his book?

"This is just going to sound very self-serving, but I just don't know if that's possible," he says. "I'm in the unique position of being a founder of the site. I just know it so incredibly well...I just don't know how you find someone out there that can do it."

A little narcissistic, maybe, but the man's probably right. It would be a disappointment for all of us if the blog came back and was only half as good as the original. Do it right, or don't do it at all.

The good news is, OkCupid is going the "do it right" route. Rudder plans to rekindle the blog in March, after he's submitted the manuscript for Dataclysm, and he promises it's going to be better than ever.

"I'm excited about starting it back up again," he teased in Digiday. "I'm definitely going to try and bring a new little twist."

In fact, it's so easy that I'm not sure it can be called hacking. It doesn't even have to be done intentionally - just one little oblivious click, and suddenly someone else is logged in under your username.

It works like this: when OkCupid sends you an email, any links included inside the email contain a unique identifier called a token. When you click the link, you are automatically logged into your OKCupid account without having to enter your password. The point is to make it as easy as possible to get into your account, but it also makes it worringly easy for someone else to do the same thing.

A writer at The Verge discovered the security hole after receiving a forwarded OkCupid email from a friend. After reading the funny message her friend had received from a prospective suitor, she clicked on the message to see the suitor in question.

"Suddenly," she writes, "I was in my friend's account, staring at all her read and unread messages. I could see her instant messages. I could edit her profile. Just because I had clicked on an email sent to her, OKCupid thought I was her."

Although your friends probably won't do anything unscrupulous if they land in that situation (you hope!), it might not be your friends who unexpectedly find themselves logged into your account. In another case, a woman blogged about an OKCupid user and included a link to his profile that she copied from her email. Unbeknownst to her, any reader who clicked on it would then be instantly logged in as her.

There may be a little karma involved here - because it doesn't seem very nice to publically blog about a user and include a link to their profile - but no one wants to give every stranger on the Internet access to their online dating profile. The token does expire eventually, but no one has yet determined how long it remains active.

Naturally, the OkCupid forums have exploded over this. In one discussion thread, a user writes "This totally defeats the purpose of having a password for the site. If anybody happens to be able to read my email, they are then able to see my full OkCupid account. Hello, what kind of account security is this?"

The thread has been active since 2009, so as incensed as OkCupid users may be, the site doesn't appear to be in a hurry to address the issue. Although "Login Instantly" is not a new feature, it is perhaps not the wisest choice for a social network, dating site, or other online destination that contains such personal information.

Think twice next time you're tempted to make fun of a fellow online dater by forwarding their hilarious message on to your friends. Stick to screencaps or - here's a really radical idea - just be nice and don't do it in the first place.

Heads up, OkCupid users: the game is about to change on everybody's favorite free dating site.

The most observant OkCupid users may have already noticed a new feature has quietly appeared on their profiles. Click on your username and a drop-down menu appears with a new option: Promote Me. For an extra $2 fee, users who want a little extra attention on the site can promote themselves to fellow OkCupidites.

The feature is so new that OkCupid hasn't even released a formal press release, but word on the street is the site plans to formalize and publicize the new addition in the next few weeks. The question is: How will the introduction of a paid promotion feature alter the otherwise very democratic experience on OkCupid?

OkCupid co-founder and president Christian Rudder promises that little will change. "The idea is that we're showing you to the same people we would over time, but in a very condensed way," he told BuzzFeed. "We still only show you to good matches (high match percentage, nearby) - not just randoms." In other words, promoted profiles will always be people you would have been matched with eventually, they're just coming sooner than they might have without the paid promotion.

So how does paid promotion work? What the $2 fee actually gets you is 10 minutes of enhanced visibility. For those 10 minutes, your promoted profile is pushed to the front of the crowd in all areas of the site, like QuickMatch and "People You Might Like." Promoted profiles are not marked in any way, making them indistinguishable from other profiles. In tests of the new feature, BuzzFeed says, OkCupid found that those 10 minutes of promoted time gave users 30 times more exposure than they would have otherwise received in the same amount of time.

The jury is out on whether OkCupid's new strategy will work. Some fear that paid promotions will clutter the site's pages with less attractive users whose profiles aren't getting any attention. Others say that the exact opposite will happen. Since attractive users find it easier to get dates, supporters say, they stand to gain the most from increased exposure and will find the feature most useful.

Whichever direction the new feature goes, Promote Me is pretty much guaranteed to be a popular addition to the site. Rudder told BuzzFeed that over 2,500 people paid to promote themselves in the first 24 hours after launch, and that was before most OkCupid members were even aware Promote Me existed.

Everything is moving more mobile these days, but mobile dating is still plagued by one big problem: it's hookup central.

Location-based dating is clearly designed to lead to a meeting, but with that comes a swarm of users who aren't looking for anything more than a quick fling. On a Web-based dating site, users are searching for a totally different experience, one based on meeting vetted, strictly filtered dates that they get to know on the site before arranging future plans to meet in person.

The challenge that now faces the dating industry is to blend the immediacy of mobile with the success of online dating. "There's no effective app for hetero hookups," says Sam Yagan, one of OkCupid's four founders, in an article on Forbes.com. "Grindr is very popular in the gay space for males. But there isn't really a Grindr for straight people."

Still, Yagan thinks there's a future for mobile dating. He thinks the next incarnation of mobile dating will mean using a variety of dating apps: "One may be a I-just-want-to-have-a-beer-with-somebody-new-tonight app. Or I-want-to-look-for-Mr.-Right. Or I-want-to-look-for-Mr.-Right-right-now."

Another possibility for the future of mobile is the social graph. Tinder, a bright new star on the mobile dating scene, is breaking new ground for social dating. Tinder users sign in using their Facebook accounts and indicate their interest in a potential date by swiping to the left or right of their screen. With the recently introduced Matchmaker feature, users can now make introductions between any of their Facebook friends, whether or not they're already using the app.

Sean Rad, co-founder and CEO of Tinder, argues that what's important isn't the future of online dating - it's the future of dating in general. As people - especially young people - become more accustomed to interfacing with the world through their phones, dating will need to evolve into a new experience.

Rad thinks the key will be to move in the opposite direction of online dating. Once upon a time online dating was hailed for offering access to a significantly wider pool of potential dates than traditional dating. But the downside to that, Rad explains, is that online daters also end up experiencing a great deal more rejection.

Rad sees the future of dating as something very different. A smaller pool may solve some of the problems, but the rest is up to you. "Science can only go so far," he says. "You are the best arbiter." Mobile has a place in that future, and perhaps that place is righting the wrongs that online dating has created.

In Hollywood, everyone wants to be on the A-List. It means invites to the best parties, schmoozing with the biggest celebrities, and being showered with the most expensive swag.

Much to my dismay, the OkCupid A-List doesn't involve quite as many sexy movie stars and free Chanel clothes. Instead, the OkC A-List offers:

• Ad-free browsing
• Extra photo albums
• A-List only forums
• Enhanced search features
• Username change
• Anonymous browsing plus the ability to see who viewed your profile
• Unlimited message storage
• Protection against scammers, trolls, and fake users
• Private photos attached to messages
• Increased visibility on the site

The service launched in 2009 to mixed reviews. For those with very specific needs, A-List membership comes with useful perks. But for the majority of OkCupid users, A-List membership comes with nothing but a question: "What's the point?" The features are far from essential, and some users feel that the additional elements detract from their online dating experience.

On the plus side, there are a few genuine advantages to using the A-List service. The site can become a more effective matching tool when you can specify a search radius lower than 25 miles. Anonymous browsing means you can check back on a profile to remind yourself who someone is without looking like a creepy stalker. The advanced search features can come in handy, as can the increased mail box size for those who are prolific writers. The most intriguing benefit of A-List membership is the ability to change that stupid username you chose before you realized there was no going back.

Other A-List features are a little odder. One feature allows an A-List member to send email to a user whose mailbox is completely full. Another gives feedback from A-List users priority over feedback from free users. A third allows for the creation of adult photo albums.

On the negative side of things, A-List services hardly provide any extra value and may come with unwanted baggage. Harsher users may assume that anyone who pays for A-List membership is creepy, desperate, or needy. That's a big price to pay for something that doesn't offer much in return.

In the long run, A-List seems to be a needless expense. Deleting messages from a full inbox is hardly a chore, is it? Why add features that make your online dating experience more complex instead of simpler? And with so few differences between A-List memberships and standard memberships, why pay for something that you could get for free?

For more on this dating site you can take a look at our review of OkCupid.

OkCupid has always been known for its cutting-edge approach to online dating. That edge became even more cutting earlier this month when The Coinbase Blog made an exciting announcement:

We're proud to announce you can now find true love with Bitcoin by using OKCupid! This is one more step forward for bringing Bitcoin to the masses - one date at a time.

That's right, OkCupid has just become the latest company to accept the controversial digital currency. The site's 4 million active members can now use Bitcoin to pay for "A-List" extra features, making OkCupid one of the largest sites to accept Bitcoin in the world. The real price will continue to be displayed officially in dollars on the site, and will be adjusted for Bitcoin users in real time to reflect the present exchange rate from Coinbase.

Coinbase is a Y Combinator startup that calls itself "the simplest way to buy, use, and accept Bitcoin." The platform to buy and sell the digital currency will keep a 1% transaction fee from all dealings with OkCupid.

OKCupid CEO Sam Yagan spoke to Ars Technica about the company's big news. "Our plan is to liquidate our holdings daily and turn them into US dollars," he said. "There's an open question as to how much liquidity there is. I think there's going to be a tremendous amount of volatility. One of the reasons why we want to be early in the mix is so we can learn."

OkCupid users had shown little interest in incorporating Bitcoins into their online dating experience - the number of requests for Bitcoin integration barely reached double digits - but Yagan is determined to keep OkCupid ahead of the pack.

"There's no question that these digital currencies are going to be the future," he said in a quote on Forbes.com. "Whether it's actually the form of Bitcoins or evolves into something else, we want to be out in front. We want to be the ones who have the experience. There's a lot to learn."

It is, without a doubt, a move in an interesting direction. There's certainly a degree of irony in an online dating site - where trust is a big factor and users are often concerned about scams - adopting an anonymous currency as a payment option. But it's a massive win for Bitcoin, which has already been enjoying a boost in mainstream attention and legitimacy.

OkCupid users: How do you feel about using a digital currency to pay for A-List subscriptions?