General News

The concept of purchasing virtual goods may not have been around for long, but it has now become one of the fast-growing types of business online. According to the Inside Virtual Goods report, the overall market for virtual goods in the US is on its way to hitting $2.9 billion in 2012 - that's up from $2.2 billion this year and $1.6 billion in 2010.

The virtual goods industry first exploded on Facebook with the popularity of games like FarmVille and CityVille, in which users purchase currency that can be used within the game. Facebook also added a virtual gifts feature that allowed users to buy and send gifts to one another.

Dating sites quickly picked up on the success of the virtual goods game. Plenty of Fish offers "Goldfish Credits" for purchase in packages of 100, 215, or 500. With Goldfish Credits, users can send gifts to other members or find out if someone has opened their messages. Gifts are publically posted on the recipient's profile for 3 three weeks before disappearing. Each Plenty of Fish member also receives 2 virtual roses when they join the site. Roses are sent when composing a message, but each rose may only be used once during a 30 day period. Because they are a rare commodity on the site, roses are considered an especially strong indicator of a user's interest.

HOT or NOT was also an early adopter of virtual goods. The site offered virtual roses ranging from $2 to $10 that could be sent to prospective dates. Though more expensive, the $10 roses became the most popular option because they sent the strongest signals to the recipient. HOT or NOT also found that the recipients of virtual gifts were four times more likely to respond to the sender than users who did not receive a gift.

To date, Zoosk is one of the biggest virtual goods success stories. Zoosk Coins are a virtual currency used to purchase a range of features on the site. According to the site's FAQ, Coins can be used to "purchase Gifts, arrange for a Special Delivery, receive a Delivery Confirmation for your email messages, and Boost your profile." Gifts are cute graphics, like flowers and pets, that can be sent to other members. Special Delivery alerts a message recipient with a pop-up when they have received a message from a user who has purchased the feature. Delivery Confirmation notifies the buyer when their messages have been read, and Boost is a feature that puts the purchaser at the top of someone's search results or in a special place on the homepage of other interested users.

Virtual goods seem poised to become more popular than ever on dating and social networking sites. It looks like your holiday shopping list just got a little bit longer.

For more on this story you can read TechCrunch. For information on the dating sites mentioned in this article you can read our POF.com review and our Zoosk.com review.

You know you've made it when the New York Times writes a feature about you.

As anyone who has followed my writing knows, I love nothing more than dating studies. I don't know what it is about them, but I'm incapable of ignoring a new study, survey, or experiment about love, romance, relationships, sex, dating, and everything in between. Maybe it's the idea of trying to quantify something that seems so unquantifiable, of explaining something that seems impossible to explain. Maybe it makes me feel like I'm putting my psychology degree to good use. Or maybe I'm just a sucker for a colorful infographic.

Whatever it is, the New York Times has caught the bug too. "There are millions of Americans seeking love on the Internet," begins a Times article called Love, Lies and What They Learned. "Little do they know that teams of scientists are eagerly watching them trying to find it." Studies of online dating habits have covered just about everything, from what triggers attraction to the role that politics plays in choosing a potential mate. The explosion of online dating sites has opened up a brave new world for researchers trying to understand the mechanics of love and connection, and they've made some very interesting discoveries:

• Do people lie on dating sites? Absolutely. According to a study led by Catalina L. Toma, an assistant professor in the department of communication arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, about 81% of daters misrepresent themselves online, but usually only by telling lies of the little and white variety. "Daters lie to meet the expectations of what they think their audience is," Toma explained, but their lies can't be too grand because they will eventually meet their date in person.

• Despite the variety available online, most people "stick to their own kind" when it comes to dating sites. "We are nowhere near the post-racial age," said Gerald A. Mendelsohn, a professor in the psychology department at the University of California, Berkeley. His study found that even daters who stated that they were willing to date outside of their ethnicity didn't actually do it. Instead, he found that "white more than black, women more than men, and old more than young prefer a same-race partner."

• Politics are on almost everyone's mind as we approach the 2012 elections, but not on the minds of online daters. Rose McDermott, a professor of political science at Brown University, found that few singles are willing to express a political preference online for fear of attracting fewer dates. "I was personally really shocked," she said. "People were much more likely to say 'I'm fat' than 'I'm a conservative.'"

Are online dating studies the way of the scientific future? Yes, says Andrew T. Fiore, a former visiting assistant professor at Michigan State University. "Online dating provides an ecologically valid or true-to-life context for examining the risks, uncertainties and rewards of initiating real relationships with real people at an unprecedented scale," he told the Times. "As more and more of life happens online, it's less and less the case that online is a vacuum. It is life."

Tired of stressing out about what to wear on dates?

Match.com has a solution for the pre-date fashion freakout, and it's so big that all it needs are initials: DVF.

That's right - just last month Match.com teamed up with top designer Diane Von Furstenberg to help women hone their first-date style. The team hosted three styling events over the course of the month, offering Match members the unique opportunity to receive expert advice on dressing for dating success. The events were held at DVF retail stores in New York City, Dallas, and Miami, and focused on style suggestions for three common first-date scenarios: cappuccinos, cocktails and dinner.

"Dating is really all about confidence," Diane von Furstenberg told Match. "It is about dressing in a way that makes you feel comfortable and beautiful." Although the results of her teamwork with Match are not yet released, the dating site did offer this helpful tidbit: the tie between dating and scent is a strong one, so make sure that whatever you personal style is, it includes a pleasing and memorable fragrance.

In a survey of 10,000 Match.com members, more than 76% of respondents reported that they had been attracted to someone because of their scent. On top of that, over 56% of participants said that they can still identify a flame's fragrance. Scent is one of the most powerful first impressions that a person makes. It's also the sense that is mostly strongly tied to memory, which means that it's the most powerful lasting impression you'll leave, as well.

Have you ever had a moment in which the smell of something instantly recalls an event or a person? Maybe the smell of the ocean reminds you of going to the beach with your family as a child, or the smell of Old Spice reminds you of your first boyfriend. A smell has the power to bring on a flood of memories, influence your moods, and affect your performance at tasks. The olfactory bulb, the area of the brain that controls the sense of smell, is part of the limbic system, which is also closely associated with memory. It's also known as the "emotional brain" because of its strong ties to your feelings. These associations are the reason that scent can generate memories and powerful responses almost instantly.

70% of Match users understand exactly how important finding a signature scent is - they say they make it a point to wear a certain fragrance when they prepare to meet a date. Just make sure it's the right scent - Jersey Shore star Snooki tested out a fragrance based on pickles, but had to scrap it after th extremely stinky results!

For more information on this dating service, please read our Match.com review.

Ever wondered how technological innovations like text messaging and social networking affects modern dating? So did the team at Lab42, who surveyed 500 social network users over the age of 18 in hopes of gaining a little insight into the intersection of love and technology.

We took at look at the infographic created from their data (see it here) and covered a few of their findings in Part I, so let's move on. After gathering some basic information on relationships in the 21st century, the Lab42 team turned their attention to social media, email, dating sites, and text messaging. This is what they found:

• Have you ever broken up via text message, email, or Facebook?: 67% No, 33% Yes

• Would you ever break up via text message, email, or Facebook?: 60% No, 40% Yes

• Have you ever signed up for an online dating site?: 77% No, 23% Yes

Then came the burning question that many avid Facebookers have agonized over: How long do you wait to change your relationships status? At the start of a new relationship, 38% said they update their status immediately. 24% wait until after they've notified their friends, and another 24% hold off on updating until they see that their SO has changed theirs. After a breakup, participants were quicker to announce their new single status to the world: 52% responded that they change their status immediately, compared to 19% who tell their friends first and 9% who wait for their ex's status update.

Although technology may seem impersonal, many technophiles are still doing their best to keep the human touch in their relationships. 42% of survey respondents said they they are most likely to ask someone out on a first date in person. Other popular options were Facebook (24%), the phone (16%), text message (11%), and email (5%).

It also turns out that stalking someone online isn't the most popular way to get to know someone: 29% answered that they research new love interests on social networks and another 26% admitted to Googling them, but the majority (57%) favor being upfront about their interest by Facebook friending potential dates. Facebook was also a popular way to communicate with SOs: 64% answered "Yes" when asked if they post romantic messages on their sweetie's wall.

The top three most common communication tools for tech-savvy daters are mobile phones (76%), text messages (65%), and Facebook messages (45%). That left email (34%) and Facebook chat (34%) in the 4th and 5th places, while instant messaging (21%) brought up the rear.

Lastly, Lab42 asked respondents currently in relationships about the average number of text messages they send their partners per day:

• 0 messages: 19%

• 1-5 messages: 26%

• 6-10 messages: 17%

• 11+ messages: 38%

It doesn't take a psychic to see Carpal Tunnel in their futures!

As of November 2011, Badoo had:

• 130,000,000+ current users
• Members in 180 countries
• 127,503 new users per day
• 1,411,665 photos and videos uploaded daily

Add all that together and what do you get? The biggest online dating success story of 2011.

Badoo is taking the world by storm according to TechCrunch. It's a truly global, multi-lingual phenomenon, with location-based social networking functionality that is bringing people together to chat and flirt all around the world. In fact, if Badoo was just a site for social networking, it would be the 4th largest in the world. But Badoo is so much more.

Knowing that each user's needs are different, Badoo takes on different roles in different countries. In the UK, it's primarily used for casual dating. In the Czech Republic, it's a marriage site. In Indonesia, it's a safe space for burqa-clad women to explore self-expression. The site has been used for everything from making friends to throwing parties. Thanks to that ability to be so many different things to so many different people, Badoo now brings in $100 million per year in revenue.

Their success story began in 2006 when, rather than seeing Facebook as competition, Badoo set out to fill a gap that Facebook had left in the market: helping strangers connect. Badoo then offered all of it's core functionality for free, giving users a full experience without the big price tag that comes along with many traditional dating sites. For those who want even more out of the site, paid subscriptions are available that unlock special features like the ability to see who has viewed your profile. A system of micropayments is also in place to help users improve their search rankings and become more visible.

Jessica Powell, Chief Marketing Officer of Badoo, believes that the site's success stems from its flexibility. Unlike sites that are specifically designed for dating, Badoo creates a space in which users can connect in any way they want. It's more like real life, she says, when "meeting new people" can be anything from being introduced to a friend of a friend, to saying "hi" to a stranger at a bar, to flirting, to going on a date. Badoo reflects the offline world because people want to meet real people, not pages of meaningless data.

The site's strategy of "real world meets cyberspace" seems to be working - Powell says that 50% of the conversations on Badoo now lead to an offline meetup, and at the rate Badoo is going, that number is only going to increase.

For even more information about this dating service you can read our Badoo.com review.

If the lightening-fast speeds of email and text messaging aren't fast enough for you, there's a new way to meet your match: mobile dating. According to AreYouInterested.com and SNAP Interactive, 61% of Are You Interested members are now more likely to hook up on a mobile dating app than on an online dating site. Is it possible that online dating, once hailed as the way of the future, is already becoming a thing of the past?

4 out of 5 of the 50,000 singles surveyed said they now prefer mobile dating to online alternatives. While I don't think that online dating will be going anywhere anytime soon, it's impossible to ignore the meteoric rise of mobile dating. These days it seems like everyone is glued to their smartphones, so it's hard to beat the accessibility of dating apps and the promise of instant dates they offer.

AreYouInterested.com found that the top 10 cities for mobile dating in America are: