General News

IAC which owns Match.com, Chemistry, Meetic and People Media acquired OKCupid.com in February of 2011 for $50 million (see Story). The CEO and co-founder of OkCupid, Sam Yagan continued to run OKCupid after the acquisition. Last week IAC announced management changes. It looks like the IAC board liked how Sam continued to operate OKCupid since they have now put him in charge of IAC’s Match segment. This comprises all of IAC's online dating and related operations, internationally and domestically.

Other changes included making Mandy Ginsberg CEO of their core dating site, Match.com and moving Josh Meyers from People Media to focus on creating new businesses at IAC.

You can find out more about the changes at IAC by reading the press release. To find out more about IAC’s core dating site you can check out our Match.com review.

If first-date nerves make you come across as a totally different person than you'd like, then maybe it's time to try something different. Instead of making awkward small-talk and trying not to trip over yourself, would having a couple of friends around put you more at ease?

New York-based social site Grouper seems to think so. Now they've expanded their service to other cities, and have expanded their friendship-finding capabilities to the dating arena.

It works like this: when you go the the Grouper website, it links you back to your Facebook page to pull information about you - what your interests are, your photos, etc. (Don't worry, your Facebook friends won't find out you joined - that information is kept private unless you want to share.) At this point, you choose two friends to be your wingmen (or wingwomen). Then you are asked some basic questions, to rate on a silding scale. For example, would you rather go to a dive bar or a fancy club or some place between those two? Would you rather talk about "Jersey Shore" or philosophy or something in the middle?

Then comes the interesting part: Grouper uses its technology to match you, but you have to wait a couple of weeks because they also say their staff personally oversees matches as well. And they do the heavy-lifting to coordinate the meeting between all six of you. They throw out a few dates and times, pick a central location to meet, and voila - the group date is set. (I like that Grouper tells you where to meet because it takes the pressure off of planning the first date.)

Michael Waxman, the site's founder, claims Grouper is more effective because "when you're with your friends, you're going to behave more comfortably and naturally. There aren't any labels or expectations."

Group dates are an interesting concept. In my experience, it's an indication that one or both parties want to keep things casual, with no expectations. It's less about dating and more about hanging out, no strings attached. But for people who are new to dating, haven't done it in a while, or just get too nervous to act comfortably one-on-one with a date, this provides an interesting alternative, and one that could work out very well. (Besides, your friends could vouch for you, too.)

If you've been looking for something different, or if you want to work up to trying online dating, this might be a good way to begin. After all, your friends are there to help you, even with your love life.

Sometimes it feels like you've set impossible standards for your dates to reach. Your date has to have the right job, live in the right location, enjoy the right hobbies, have the right physical features...no one could live up to all that, could they?

If anyone can, it's probably this guy: Superman. In fact, not only can he do that, he can do it while saving the world and looking smashing in spandex. Talk about going above and beyond the call of dating duty...

Wondering if you're compatible with the Man of Steel? Match.com has you covered.

DC Comics and Match named Superman the most kissable superhero, after a poll put him in the top spot. 72.6% of Match's single ladies said Superman is the superhero they'd most like to lock lips with, ideally while flying through the air. How romantic!

Match.com also had a surprise in store: in honor of Superman's budding relationship with Wonder Woman in the comics, both superheroes received their very own Match.com profiles!

Are they actually as dateable as they seem on the surface?

After a thorough review, I'm going to have to say...no.

Superman looks hot in tights, but not so hot on paper. He says he has "a pretty sweet man cave." Sure, the Fortress of Solitude is great...but why such a bro, Superman? I expected someone from another planet to be much more cultured! He also explains his exercise habits like this: "I don't really need to exercise. I also eat and eat and never gain a pound! Ha ha! Hate me yet?" Yeah, I kind of do. And I definitely didn't expect Superman to be into emoticons.

Wonder Woman doesn't fare much better. Her idea of a great date is "fight[ing] our way through a hoard of harpies over the Elysian Fields." I think I'll have to pass on that one. And it's misspelled, which every online dater knows is a major no-no. (It's horde, Wonder Woman!) She also says she's into cats, romance novels about vampires, and being treated like a princess...which sounds awfully high maintenance for my tastes.

So I guess they're not perfect for me, but Dr. Helen Fisher says they're perfect for each other. They are "a very high testosterone male and a very high estrogen female," and they have "many cultural and biological traits that will fuel their romance."

See what else she had to say about their romantic potential here, and read the profiles here.

Would you date Superman or Wonder Woman?

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

In August ChristianMingle.com announced the creation of an Advisory Board for the years 2012 and 2013. It is a 6 member panel that is made up of 3 Pastors, a Church director, a Clinical Psychologist, and the author of the book “Seeker Small Groups” who is also the key evangelism leader at a community Church.

The goals of this Advisory Board is to offer guidance and to help create a deeper connection between the Christian community and Christian Mingle. These goals will be met by the board offering input on the content provided by Christian Mingle as well as the features available and any products offered. They will also be part of any strategic initiatives that Spark Networks has for the dating service.

With this Christian Advisory Board in place Spark Networks hopes to continue to grow the 7 million strong member base that Christian Mingle offers. In the last 12 months alone Christian Mingle has grown by more than 2 million members. To find out more about this dating site you can read our review of Christian Mingle.

It used to be that your best friend was your favorite wingman. Now, your favorite wingman is your smartphone. It might even be your new best friend.

For years, the online dating industry has been dominated by profile-based dating sites like Match and eHarmony. There's no denying that their success has been monumental, but they are not without flaws: most of your time on a traditional dating site is spent on "administrative" duties, rather than actual dating.

First you spend hours agonizing over your profile. Then you spend countless more hours browsing, reading, and filtering profiles. Then you spend - you guessed it - even more hours crafting and responding to messages, screening strangers over the phone, email, and instant messages, and finally setting up dates with the few who pass your extensive tests.

That's safe, but it isn't exactly fun or spontaneous...and "fun" and "spontaneity" are what we really love about dating, right?

Smartphones are bringing the fun and spontaneity back to dating with location-based mobile dating apps. Grindr, the popular gay-meet-up app, was the first service to take advantage of the constant Internet access and GPS functionality provided by smartphones.

"Grindr solves a very big problem in the lives of gay men," explains Grindr chief executive Joel Simkhai. "How do I find other gay men?" The answer is simple: sign up for the app, then be given access to the location and profiles of all available men within a certain radius.

Grindr was a smashing success in almost every country in the world. 1.1 million members user Grindr daily in 192 countries...which means that only four countries don't have at least one person on Grindr.

Following the explosion of Grindr, the same team released Blendr, a similar (though not quite as successful) app for straight singles. OkCupid also jumped on the location-based bandwagon with an app called OkCupid Local, perfect for its younger, tech savvy users. Older sites like Match and eHarmony have gone mobile, but have yet to embrace location-based dating.

It's not all fun and games and sexy singles for users of these apps - there are safety and privacy concerns, and worries that only people looking for quick hookups will use them - but on the whole they are successful in bringing the spontaneity back to dating.

And don't forget what your smartphone was originally intended for: storing and calling the numbers of potential dates. Scribbling your digits on a booze-soaked cocktail napkin or handing out stuffy business cards were never very smooth moves.

Contrary to popular opinion, chivalry is still important when it comes to dating. At least it is according to a recent survey by Coffee Meets Bagel, an online dating site that uses Facebook as a tool for matching people.

Coffee Meets Bagel surveyed 557 users of the service about their dating habits, and some surprising statistics were shared. There isn't as much equality in the dating scene as we'd like to think, even though it's 2012.

According to the study, 66% of men said that they would pay on the first date, contrary to the popular belief that chivalry is on its way out. In addition, 65% of women said they'd offer to split the bill but secretly hoped he'd pay. How's that for synchronicity?

Some other surprising statistics:

• Spontaneity is in! 84% of men and 57% of women said they'd meet a date on the same day if they didn't have other plans.

• Women don't want to initiate. One in five women said they would never send the first text, and one out of three claimed that they'd never follow up with their guys first after a date, even if it was good. (Ladies, I think it's time to step it up a notch and send a text instead of playing the waiting game.)

• Men are more eager to initiate a meet-up. Fifty-one percent say they'd initiate a meet up after only exchanging a few text messages, whereas only 29% of women would do the same. Twenty-two percent of women said they'd never initiate a meet up first - it's up to the man to start.

• If a date is late, men and women are both equally patient. The vast majority of men and women would wait anywhere from fifteen to thirty minutes. Good news for those of you who are perpetually stuck in traffic.

I think it's great that guys are still willing to step up to the plate on a first date and offer to pay. There's something attractive about a man who takes care of things - women still like to feel pursued (and apparently men still like the chase).

But I do think women could be a little more proactive when it comes to their love lives. We all have mobile phones and it's easy and painless to send a text. So why not take a little more initiative with your dates? If you had a good time, send him a text and ask if he wants to meet again. If you're interested in a man, don't wait for all those back and forth emails and phone calls when you could cut to the chase and ask to meet up.

Happy dating!