Online Dating

What wins out on online dating sites: job status or social status?

Where are all the sensitive men hiding?

Those are the questions answered by two new dating studies, conducted by Lovestruck.com and Chemistry.com.

Lovestruck.com's new profile verification service, called "Lovestruck Verified," has revealed a significant difference between genders in what matters to members when authenticating their dating profile. Lovestruck Verified helps combat online dating fraud by cross-checking users' profiles against the 'Big 3' social IDs: LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

Lovestruck found a clear preference between genders for which types of verification were used. Male members are 36% more likely than women to verify their profiles, including their job titles, via their their LinkedIn accounts. Women, on the other hand, are 39% more likely than men to cross-check their photos, age, and relationship status against their Facebook accounts. Twitter is the least popular of the three options and shows no difference between the sexes. What does all that mean? It seems that men are more interested in verifying their job status, while women prefer to authenticate their social status.

In other online dating research, Chemistry.com ranked America's Top Ten Cities to Find a Sensitive Man in January, hoping to help single gals find a special someone around Valentine's Day. They found that the highest concentrations of sensitive men are located along the east coast, from Florida to New York, with three popular vacation destinations taking the top three spots: Pompano Beach in Florida, Roanoke in Virginia, and West Hollywood in California. Ann Arbor, Michigan, known for being a college sports town, ranked as the least likely place to find a sensitive man.

Dr. Helen Fisher, Chief Scientific Advisor to Chemistry.com, weighed in on the findings: Sensitive men, known as Builders, are traditional. They deeply value loyalty, duty, respectability and proper moral conduct. They want to do the "right" thing. Builders go way out of their way to keep their social relationships running smoothly. So they watch, listen, and gauge what they need to do to help others and they do it naturally. It's these chivalrous qualities that make a sensitive man."

Rounding out the top ten are:

1. Nashville, Tennessee
2. Buffalo, New York
3. Sarasota, Florida
4. Greenville, South Carolina
5. Wilmington, North Carolina
6. Indianapolis, Indiana
7. Staten Island, New York

For more information on one of the dating sites mentioned in this article, please read our review of Chemistry.com

I notice several comments this week about users not liking the fact that Plenty Of Fish has now made the dating feature "Viewed Me" for paid users only. I had thought this was done a while ago but after some further research it looks like only the ability to see when someone had looked at your profile was removed. You could still see who had viewed you, not just when.

Well earlier this week it looks like you now cannot see who has viewed your profile anymore on POF.com, if you are a free member. You will now have to pay for this privilege.

For more information on this popular dating site, you can read our POF.com review.

eHarmony let us know that they are offering free communication this weekend in the United States and Canada. This promotions starts in the morning at 12:01am on Friday March 16th and ends in the evening of Monday March 19th at 11:59pm.

For singles interested in trying our eHarmony, this 4 day event is a great way to do it for free and with no credit card required. To start all you need to do is sign in and create a free profile on eHarmony. Once you are finished with creating the profile and taking the in-depth questionnaire, you will then receive your first set of matches. After you have reviewed your matches you can then start the guided communication process and contact your preferred matches. Features not included during free communication events are photos, Secure Call or Skip to Email.

This will be eHarmony's 38th free communication event (by our count) with the last one happening around Valentine's Day (see Story).

To find further information about this online dating site, you can read our eHarmony.com review.

Lt. Peter Burks was a troop leader in the 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment. He was also the recipient of the Bronze Star, a medal awarded for acts of merit. More recently, Peter appeared as the poster boy for an online dating site, with the headline "Military Men Searching For Love."

That wouldn't be making headlines, were it not for the fact that Peter passed away on November 14, 2007, when a bomb blew up his vehicle as he was returning to base after a mission in Baghdad.

In December, a friend of Peter Burks was surfing PlentyOfFish.com when he spotted the ad. He clicked on it and was directed to True.com, then reported the incident to Burks' parents. His parents are now suing both sites for using their son's photo without their permission, for benefiting financially from its use, and for misleading the public.

His father, Alan Burks, said the photo was taken just days before his son was killed, at only 26 years old, in late 2007. It now appears on the website of the Burks family's Unsung Hero Fund, which celebrates the life of their son by providing supplies to troops in war zones. "I felt horrified, disgusted. It upset me," said Alan of the photo. The assumption that Peter was using online dating sites to meet women "couldn't be more wrong," Alan continued, as Peter was happily engaged at the time of his death.

Plenty Of Fish has responded to the scandal through spokesman Paul Bloudoff, who claims that the company had no advertisements online in the U.S. in December. Hundreds of thousands of third parties advertise via his company's site every month, he noted, making it impossible for Plenty Of Fish to control the ads or be aware of their content. The ad has now been blocked from the company's network, though Bloudoff believes the suit should not have been filed. "We dealt with this matter a month ago," he said in an email.

True.com president Ruben Buell has shown a little more sympathy for the Burks. "I certainly feel for his family," he said, adding that he hasn't seen the lawsuit but "will be researching this diligently."

The suit was filed last month in state district court in Dallas, TX, seeking a jury trial for compensatory and punitive damages. Alan Burks plans to donate any money awarded in the suit to military charities. "For me, this is making sure that the honor and legacy of Peter is protected," he said.

Online dating once seemed like a brave new world, the final frontier, a place meant only for singles who were brave enough to go where no daters had gone before.

But now online dating has gone mainstream. In fact, it's practically passe at this point. By the time love-seeking grandmothers are getting involved, it's clear that online dating has fully shed its stigma and become a regular part of people's love lives.

It's time for a few new innovations that bring technology and dating together. Jezebel recently had a look at some of those innovations in (the brilliantly titled)"Five New Tech Tools to Complicate Your Love Life." Here's what writer Anna North had to say:

WotWentWrong:

We've covered this site already (you can find the post here). The real question here, North writes, is "How often do you really want to know WotWentWrong?" The site may provide some genuinely useful feedback, but it's far more likely that the majority of responses will be flippant, unconstructive, or just plain mean. It sounds like a recipe for disaster if you ask me.

Nerve Dating:

Nerve Dating came about as a reaction against dating sites that place the emphasis on compatibility algorithms rather than starting conversations. Its social media-like qualities make it feel like an updated take on the online dating site, and conversation is definitely a better predictor of compatibility than mathematical formulas, but a man (or woman) cannot survive on that alone. Less superficial information about a potential date may be needed to really judge whether or not they're a match for you.

The Mural:

The Mural is a Facebook app that calls itself "a wonderful virtual expression of peace, love and happiness." That sounds pretty cheesy if you ask me, but North was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. She found the idea of a visual representation of love left for friends and loved ones "cool and potentially revealing," but wasn't too keen on the fact that the app requires access to your Facebook account. I have to agree with her on that one.

Tingle:

Tingle is a mobile app that allows users to message and voice chat with each other without revealing their names or phone numbers. There's also a location feature so you can meet up with any nearby users who sound interesting, and a feature that supposedly helps screen out the weirdos you don't want contacting you. If the screening system actually works, it's a nifty innovation that more dating services may want to consider adopting.

Moonit

If you're into astrology, Moonit is the app for you. Moonit "helps you determine your compatibility with new friends and dating prospects via the most advanced astrology algorithm ever developed." The pro? You never have to ask "What's your sign?" again. The con? Astrology and algorithms are both meaningless.

Spark Networks fourth quarter and full year end results were released on March 1st. For the last quarter revenue was $12.9 million and for the entire 2011 year it was $48.5 million. The net loss for the reported quarter was $1.1 million which gave the year 2011 a total net loss of $1.6 million. As a whole revenue was up 19 percent when compared to 2010 and up 27 percent when quarter 4 in 2011 is compared to quarter 4 in 2010. This is in large part thanks to the Other Affinity Networks which saw revenue increase by 78 percent throughout the year.

Subscribers also grew 21 percent for the year and 32 percent in quarter 4 (when compared to the same quarter in 2010). Average paying subscribers for the entire company for quarter 4 2011 was 212,850. For the year the number of average paying subscriber was 196,850.

Spark Networks 2 big sites are JDate (which is part of the Jewish Networks) and Christian Mingle (which is part of the Other Affinity Networks). Subscriber and revenue remand flat for the Jewish Networks. Revenue for quarter 4 was $6.9 million with 87,101 subscribers. The Other Affinity Networks saw revenue of $5.9 million and 123,139 average paying subscribers for quarter 4, 2011. When compared to last year's quarter revenue increased by 114 percent and subscribers increased by 89 percent.

For the full 2011 Q4 release visit the Spark Networks News Room.

Related Story: Spark Networks Third Quarter 2011 Financials