General News

In a not too surprising move IAC announced last Friday that it has acquired the free dating site DateHookup.com. No financial terms of the agreement have been disclosed. IAC already owns such popular dating sites as Match.com, Chemistry.com and OkCupid. Datehookup.com was founded by Dustin Weirich in 2002 and has grown over the years to become the 6th most visited dating site on the internet. Every month DateHookup.com receives over 1 million unique visitors.

Over the past few years IAC has acquired a number of dating sites. Here are their most recent purchases:

• 2011 – OkCupid for $50 million (see Story)
• 2010 – Singlesnet (see Story)
• 2009 – People Media for $80 million (see Story)

Every year since 2009 IAC has bought a dating site. If the pattern holds true I wonder who they plan to purchase in 2013? I heard rumors a while ago that they may be interested in Cupid PLC since they are performing well in the European market. I have my doubts it will happen though, since Cupid PLC does operate some adult oriented dating services.

For more on the story you can read the IAC press release. To find out more about the dating sites involved you can read our Match.com review and DateHookup.com review.

Markus Frind who is the founder of Plenty of Fish still has his own blog over at Wordpress.com but the actual dating site got a new blog in June it looks like. It is called "The POF Blog: Catch of the Day" and can be found here. There are only 2 posts at the moment and both are written by Shannon Smith. She is the Plentyoffish Media Inc. PR Coordinator.

Plenty of Fish has also grown some more and now has 66 employees. This is over 50 percent more employees than they had just 6 months ago. In January of this year they had 40 and back in 2009 the dating site had only 4.

For more on this story you can read the Online Personals Watch. To find out what this free dating site is all about you can read our Plenty of Fish review.

eHarmony here in the United States and Canada is having a free communication event this weekend which starts Friday August 31, 2012. It will run for 4 days and end at 11:59 pm on Monday September 3, 2012.

Free communication weekends are for both new and existing eHarmony members. If you do not have a membership yet all you need to do is signup for the service. No credit card is required. Once you have become a member and completed the personality profile eHarmony will pre-screen your matches and only send you the profiles of members that have the greatest chance of creating a long-term relationship with you. Once you have selected the matches you like you can then communicate with these matches for free all weekend. Free communication weekends do not include photos, Secure Call (a phone service), or Skip to Email (via the guided communication process).

The last free communication weekend at eHarmony happen in July on the Independence Day holiday (see Story). By our count this will be the 41st free communication event at eHarmony.com.

To find out more about this popular matchmaking service and how it compares with others, you can check out our eHarmony review.

If you have a policy of waiting a few days before calling someone to ask her out, you're probably missing out and don't even know it.

eHarmony conducted a survey of 2,012 of their members (in honor of the year) and the results are in - 71% of men and 73% of women claim that it's ridiculous to wait three days to return a phone call. So why drag it out? And that's not the only evidence they discovered showing that things have changed in the dating world over the last few years.

Some other interesting findings:

• Women aren't the only ones following The Rules and playing hard to get - 41% of men do the same thing. When you can't have something, doesn't it make you want it more?
• Pick up lines are okay - 44% of women admit to liking them, probably because it doesn't happen so often anymore (though maybe over text...)
• There are no more blind dates - almost half of men and women look up potential dates on Facebook prior to meeting for the first time. So be sure to keep track of what you post!
• Talking is still a good thing. Over 75% of men and women agree that having a real conversation is better than exchanging text messages. I know we're in a hurry most of the time, but this is your dating life, so you can make time for phone conversations and in-person meetings rather than getting to know someone via text.
• Being busy doesn't work in your favor. Eighty-nine percent of men and 77% of women would agree to a same-day date if they were available. Since it's so easy to meet other people quickly, you have to take opportunities while you have them. No more waiting three weeks as you email back and forth to go on a date - if you find a profile attractive, then reach out. Call and schedule a date for that night. There's no time like the present.

So maybe it's time to take more chances - approach that woman at the bar and try flirting, or call one of your online matches to meet you for a coffee tonight. Stop relying on text messages as your primary means of communication - when it comes to relationships, talking is still a good thing. (And put your phone down when you're actually on a date...)

Now is a good time to ignore all the traditional rules and do what feels right for you.

For more on the dating site which conducted this survey please read our eHarmony.com review.

I didn't realize that eHarmony UK offered a guaranteed refund during the first 7 days of your subscription. If you are not happy with the service all you need to do is call their Customer Care team before midnight of the 7th day of your subscription. Customer Care is open Monday to Saturday from 10:30 am to 7:30 pm (BST) during the week and then 9:00 am to 6:00 pm (BST) on Saturdays.

More dating sites need to offer this type of guarantee as it demonstrates that the company believes in the service they offer. Giving your customers a full week to try our your service risk free shows that eHarmony is serious about matchmaking and keeping their members happy with their online dating experience.

To find out more about this matchmaking service, please read our eHarmony.co.uk review.

The latest trend in online dating may be one that surprises you: offline dating. Yep, that's right...online dating is going retro.

Match.com announced The Stir, the newest addition to its list of services, on its blog in May 2012. Stir events update the classic "singles night" for 21st century daters, with happy hours, cooking classes, wine tastings, bowling nights, dance lessons, and other opportunities to socialize with eligible singles. The guest list for each event is customized using Match's group matching algorithms in terms of age, gender, and interests to facilitate maximum compatibility between guests.

Match's decision to take dating back to its roots seems to have started a trend. "Several sites are bringing people together the old-fashioned way, with singles parties where people can crowd together at bars while consuming alcohol and flirting," says an article in The New York Times. The hope is that offline events will help daters identify compatibility more quickly, instead of wasting weeks or months corresponding online with someone who turns out to be completely wrong when you meet in person.

I'll admit it: at first I was a little confused. Why would I bother joining a dating site if I was going to end up meeting someone in a bar or restaurant anyway? Isn't the point of online dating that the fancy matching algorithms do all the hard work for me? Isn't the whole allure of online dating sites that the science behind their matching systems is supposed to be more accurate than your ability to judge compatibility?

The answer apparently lays somewhere in between the two extremes. Emily Clapp, who spoke about her experience attending an event organized by OkCupid to the New York Times, says that the site acts as a filter, increasing the odds that the other attendees are also single, looking for love, and not too creepy. But, she also adds, "it's a little more random than regular online dating."

Ok, I guess I can see the appeal. And it seems a lot of other people can, too. Match claims to have held a few hundred Stir events every month since May in more than 50 cities. OkCupid has organized about 100 events in New York since July and has plans to expand the service to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and a few other cities in October. Mobile services, like MeetMoi and Grindr, are based on apps that broadcast users' locations for on-the-spot dates or hookups. MeetMoi has also been hosting get-togethers to bring groups of users to the same place at the same time.

Is this the beginning of the end for matching algorithms? Are we giving up on the idea that personality tests and data can accurately predict compatibility? It looks like online dating is in for some big changes in the next couple of years...

For more information on the dating services offering offline events please read our Match.com review and our OkCupid review.