General News

Well according to a Canadian newspaper about 1,200,000 Canadians have used online dating to try and meet their match. This works out to about 4% of the current population of Canada. Surprisingly 18% of these Canadians were either common law or married (cheaters!). 80% of the Canadians were single and I am not sure what the other 2% was (it wasn’t talked about). They also mention that as far as age is concerned, singles between 23 and 29 are the largest demographic. I was taken aback by this statistics since I had thought singles aged 50 plus was the largest growing age group in online dating.

Anyways, to find out more about this story you should read The Vancouver Courier here or if you are interested in other statistics you can read our online dating facts page.

Rumors on the internet speculated that IAC may have been interested in buying the United Kingdom based Cupid since over the past few years their sales have grown considerably. IAC also has been in a bit of a buying spree lately as in the past few years they have picked up the dating sites Date Hookup and OkCupid.

IAC (InterActiveCorp) who owns Match.com let it be known in a short statement that they are not interested in acquiring Cupid plc. I am not surprised by this since IAC’s dating division has never been interested in adult oriented dating sites. A number of Cupid’s most popular dating services like Flirt and Be Naughty are adult oriented.

It was just in March when we found out that POF removed who has viewed your profile for free members. Well I found out they have done it again and removed another feature from free members. I received an email about the reasons to upgrade my account and it listed features and abilities you can unlock. Members who have paid for the upgrade are the only ones who now can see when someone was last online. This is an important attribute that members use when deciding to contact someone. Who would contact a person who hasn't been on Plenty of Fish in the last 6 months? I know I wouldn’t since most likely the person will not respond back since they have either found someone or has moved on to another dating site.

While I don’t think Plenty of Fish will ever remove sending messages for free on their dating site, I am finding it much harder to call this dating site a free service. The features they have removed lately are really important cues online daters use to figure out if it is worth sending that message or not. It is almost a requirement now to pay for POF to make it useful. I don't begrudge Plenty of Fish for wanting to make a buck since dating sites are a business and businesses need to make money. I think the reason we are slowly seeing POF moving to a paid upgrade business model has to do with Apps. With the rise of smartphones it is harder for online services to make money by displaying ads (there is no room on the screen). Now when you combine this with the increase usage of users using dating apps over the last year to access their favorite dating site, profits for free dating sites are falling. Maybe this is just a sign of the times for all free online services and not just dating.

To find out more about this popular dating site you can read our POF.com review.

The review for David DeAngelo ebook called "Double Your Dating" can now be found in our Dating Books category. This ebook was so popular that the author updated his source material and released a second edition. Double Your Dating is not designed as a quick fix for someone’s dating problems. David DeAngelo approaches are designed for single men who is interested in self-improvement and are looking to empower not just their dating lives but other areas of their life. This ebook is ideal for beginners.

To find out more about this popular dating book for men you can read our new Double Your Dating review now.

Keeping things fresh after years together is a challenge for any couple. How do you keep the spark alive when you're more interested in catching some extra shuteye than spending quality time with your partner?

The answer may be Déjàmor, a new website designed to help couples reconnect through romantic and intimate experiences. The founders of Déjàmor researched books, conducted focus groups, and consulted with therapists, coaches, and sexologists to develop a comprehensive strategy to bring couples closer together.

Each month, Déjàmor delivers a package to subscribers with two boxes inside: one for "his eyes only" and one for "her eyes only." The boxes contain a sensual adventure guide and goodies to enhance the experience that Déjàmor promises are "always sexy and never sleazy."

What exactly is inside the mystery boxes? "Recipes for a happy, fulfilled, and sensual life," says Déjàmor, "complete with ingredients [that] are meant to surprise and delight you and your partner." The exact contents are meant to be a surprise, but the site's testimonials hint at what might be in store for you.

One customer received a package containing rose petals, "arousing" bubble bath, a vial with a blank note, and an illustrated booklet. The booklet laid out a plan for an at-home sensual spa retreat to spoil his wife. Another customer received a sash of lace, blank cards, and list of suggested notes to leave for her lucky husband.

Once they have the ingredients for a special night, it's up to the couples to make it happen. "We thought instead of telling people what to do, it would be delivering a recipe of what to do, plus the ingredients for that recipe," CEO Rodrigo Fuentes told Mashable. "The box arrives every month. Each partner in the relationship knows they are going to receive some fun surprise from their lover."

Déjàmor's monthly packages are completely customizable. New subscribers are asked a series of questions, including their sex, their partner's sex, how long they've been together. All answers are kept confidential and are used to create a personalized Déjàmor experience.

"We are all about rebuilding the bridges of communication, intimacy and romance," Fuentes says. "Once our advisors approve of experiences we go into sources and illustrations to get the experience ready. We ensure our experiences will hit home with people."

With so many people now turning to online dating services to find love, it seems only natural that couples will now use the Internet to keep that love alive.

eHarmony's matching system is one of the most famous in the world. It's an intricate scheme that turns cupid's work into scientific and mathematical formulas by coordinating streams of data to match users with the greatest chance of romantic compatibility. And if that technological genius isn't enough to impress you on its own, it's also turned eHarmony into a very profitable business.

Nearly 33 million users across 150 countries have turned to eHarmony to find love. It's the site's unique approach to matching that draws them in, a system that's so good it's been patented by the company.

It all starts with 200-question questionnaire that's required upon sign up. New members answer questions on everything from their characteristics, to their habits, to their values. When the questionnaire is complete, the responses are run through the site's patented algorithm and turned into match suggestions.

It may not sound particularly romantic, but with 542 people married every day in the US after meeting on the site, eHarmony is clearly doing something right.

"We are different than anybody else," eHarmony managing director Jason Chuck told ZDNet. "We have this huge computational challenge over traditional photo-browsing dating sites. Just that matching system alone puts a lot of pressure on the whole system." Chuck estimates that eHarmony has "terabytes of data" stored in an internal data warehouse in the States.

Beyond the questionnaire, eHarmony also mines data from its users' activity. User behavior like number of photos posted and number of words used in the personal description is used to predict a user's success on the site.

"From that data," Chuck explains, "you can tell who is more introverted, who is likely to be an initiator, and we can also see if we give people matches at certain times of the day, they would be more likely to make communication with their matches."

Even more tools are added on top of that to form a matching process that is almost completely automated. eHarmony can generate matches for a user in just minutes, though it may take longer for some individuals.

eHarmony's matching team - made up largely of technology engineers and data analytics experts - has built an algorithm so precise that it varies from country to country. The algorithm is regularly updated based on eHarmony's user behavior and new relationship research from educational institutions to create one of the most complete matching systems on the Web.

To find out more about this dating service, please go ahead and read our eHarmony.com review.