Dating Services

There is a Free Communication Weekend (FCW) coming up this holiday weekend. From Friday July 2nd, 2010 and right till the end of Monday, July 5th, 2010 eHarmony here in North America (United States and Canada) will be allowing all members to communicate for free. For Canada, July 1st is the country's birthday (Canada Day) and in the United States, July 4th is Independence Day. With 2 holiday weekends this FCW will sure be busy. Remember free members get to experience most features of a paid membership and all without needing a Credit Card. Features not included in this promotion are profile pictures and Fasttracking the guided communication process.

The last free event was held on Memorial Day Weekend about 5 weeks ago (see Story). This Free Communication Weekend will be eHarmony's 26th.

For more information on this popular dating site, read our eHarmony.com review.

It looks like members of PlentyofFish.com will have another way soon to access the dating site. In a few weeks (July, 2010) an iPhone Application will be released which will allow members to access the dating site directly on their iPhone, iTouch and iPad. No information has been released yet on what features will be available on the dating application but I assume profile editing, searching and sending messages will be possible. I am curious to see if location based dating will be included with this new application.

Since an iPhone POF Dating App will be here soon I wonder how far off an application for Android will be? Android mobile phones are now outselling the iPhone here in the States.

To find out about POF, you can read our review of PlentyofFish.com.

Spark Networks was featured on ABC News Nightline the other day talking about their online dating strategy of going after specific niches, like their popular dating service for Jewish singles called JDate. The Jewish community in North America has made this the number one dating site for this particular niche with over 750,000 active online daters. Another dating site of Spark Networks which they claim is growing fast is ChristianMingle.com. The video from Nightline actually shadows a couple who met recently on Christian Mingle going on their first date.

Spark Networks has over 32 niche dating sites which span the range of dating, for people of different religious faiths, to single military men and women overseas. Spark Networks also sponsors popular single events at Caribbean getaways and on Cruises. You also can't forget about their speed dating site, Hurry Date, which has become popular in and around New York City.

In the video, it was nice to see a bit behind the scenes at Spark Networks call center service. They receive on average 1,700 calls a day. Nightline also mentioned Spark Networks being a $45 million a year business which while very impressive isn't as impressive as back in 2006 where I believe they were making over $80 million.

Ultimately Spark Networks is taking the approach that smaller dating pools which are narrower and much more specific in focus are better for matching. Singles who join these dating services have a sense of community and much better chance at finding love.

To find out more on the popular dating sites from Spark Networks, read the following reviews:

• JDate.com review
• Christian Mingle review
• Spark.com review

Cupidtino, a new dating website for those who prefer their MacBooks to PCs, launched earlier this month and has already gained a following of more than 16,000 Apple lovers.

The dating site is exclusively for fans of Apple products. The site's founder Mel Sampat had the idea that people who were passionate about their electronics could also make for good romantic partners. Ironically, he is a former Microsoft employee.

The website introduction reads: "Diehard Mac & Apple fans often have a lot in common - personalities, creative professions, a similar sense of style and aesthetics, taste, and a love for technology. We believe these are enough fundamental reasons for two people to meet and fall in love, and so we created the first Mac-inspired dating site to help you find other Machearts around you."

With all the niche dating sites out there matching those with similar interests, including video game lovers and environmentalists, shouldn't those who are avid fans of Apple technology find other "Machearts" too?

In your Cupidtino profile, you can reveal to potential partners what your earliest Apple purchase was and list your favorite iPhone apps. If that's not love, what is?

There are some limitations with the site. You can only access the site through a Mac, iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, although you can only view photos on a Mac or iPad. If you try to login through a PC, it will lead you to a page that lets you know Cupidtino is off-limits to Windows users.

For more on this dating site for Apple fans you can visit Cupidtino directly.

Don't forget that today is Father's Day.

Did you know that single parents make up a large percentage of online daters? On Match.com, 39 percent of male subscribers are single Dads. These single dads are also 46 percent more likely to meet someone on Match.com when compared to the average male who does not have children. This advantage increases, the older the Dad is. Single Dad's who still have children living at home also have a slight higher success rate on Match.com

For you single Moms out there, single Dads are 56 percent more likely to email you than men without children. This is probably the main reason why single Dads have more success on dating sites. The best chance to meet a single Dad online at Match.com is early in the morning (from 6am to 9am). This is when they log into the dating site the most often to browse profiles and send messages.

44 percent of single Dads on Match.com are between the ages of 35 and 45 with 30 percent being 45 to 55 years old. 68 percent of Dads also wait at least 3 months before allowing their date to meet their children.

For more on the story, read "Up To Date" and for further details about this dating site, read our Match.com review.

If you are interested in a dating site just for single parents, check out our review of Single Parent Meet.

Back in February of 2009 Match.com sold its European Operations to Meetic. Well according to Informatica, a independent provider of data integration software, they completed the post-merger integration of Match.com in Europe with Meetic 40 percent faster than by using a home grown solution. It took only 4 months on the Informatica Platform.

The data, which required integration from Match.com in Texas (Orcale Databases) to Meetic in Paris, included millions of profiles from 15 countries. Photos from the profiles as well as all messages were migrated over as well. All this integration was done seamlessly and without interruption to any online services.

To find out about the dating site, you can read our Match.com UK review.