General News

eHarmony's Free Guided Communication Event begins at 12:01AM on Friday, January 28th 2011 and ends at 11:59PM on Monday, February 28th 2011 (US only). This is the first time ever that eHarmony.com is having a free communication event that is a whole month long. Best yet, it is happening at the busiest time of year for online dating sites, during the month of February and Valentine’s Day. This ensures that many singles will be taking advantage of this promotion.

During this event no credit card is required to create a profile, receive matches and to use the guided communication process. This communication process has 3 stages that help you and your match to get to know each other better. eHarmony Mail, viewing of members profile pictures and Fasttracking the communication process are not included in this promotion.

This free guided communication event will be eHarmony's 33rd with the last one occurring at the end of December (see Story).

Update #1: eHarmony.co.uk is also having a free communication event. It ends on February 15th, 2011.

For more information on this online matchmaking service, you can read our eHarmony review.

eHarmony's last press release contained information about milestones they achieved in 2010. Let's review them:

• eHarmony's latest Harris Interactive research was released showing that 542 Americans who met through eHarmony marry on average everyday (see Story)
• eHarmony ended the year 2010 with a record number of subscribers
• The launch of eHarmony in Brazil tripled revenue for the company in international markets
• eHarmony's Tokyo office open in 2010 with the expected launch of eHarmony Japan sometime in the first part of 2011
• eHarmony launched dating apps for the iPhone (iOS) and Android mobile phones and devices. Visitors from these devices now account for 20% of global site visits with more than 16,000 profiles viewed every hour

Congratulations on the big year eHarmony. For those of you who didn't know, 2010 also marked eHarmony's 10 year of being in business (see Story).

For more information about this dating site please check out our eHarmony.com review.

Do you appreciate it when men open the door for you? If so, you’re not alone. A recent “tongue-in-cheek” campaign by Dockers (yes, the pants-makers) found that chivalry is alive and kicking.

The Dockers campaign encouraged men to “wear the pants” in the relationship and challenged five major cities to a so-called “chivalry smackdown”. Cities included in the campaign were New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago, and San Francisco.

The campaign stunt included placing a young woman or elderly male in a high-traffic pedestrian area where they clearly struggled with toppling boxes, hoping passers-by would help. And in all cities, both men and women did….but some had far more helpful people than others.

As it turns out, the most chivalry is in the South. Atlanta came in first, with only 8 people on average passing by the struggling woman or man before someone stopped to help. San Francisco was second with 17 people passing by before someone stopped to help. Chicago was third with 20, Los Angeles fourth with 35, and New York came in last with 40 people passing before someone stopped to help.

Although this campaign was a publicity stunt for Dockers, it’s an interesting statistic. Many daters feel that chivalry is a thing of the past and that people are far from considerate, but the Dockers stunt proves that they’re wrong, at least in Atlanta and San Francisco! Los Angeles and New York men and women still have a lot to learn when it comes to chivalry…

Remember that whether or not you’re single, chivalry and consideration go a long way in making a good impression, so put your best foot forward.

This month OKCupid.com has updated their privacy controls for profiles and communication. Members can now specify the type of singles they do not want viewing their profile or communicating with them. These privacy controls work on a number of the profile attributes including your age and sexual orientation. For example, young women now can specify an age range of members they feel is appropriate to contact them. If they are not interested in older men, this feature will makes sure that these members cannot view and contact them.

For more on this story, take a look at The Washington Post. To find out further details about the dating site you can read our OKCupid.com review.

Gregory Waldorf has been CEO of eHarmony for almost 5 years and has worked for the company for over 11 years. On January 19th it was announced that he is stepping down from the position. While being CEO of eHarmony, Mr. Waldorf saw the company grow globally and have continued success in the online dating industry.

Mr. Waldorf will be replaced by Greg Steiner who is eHarmony's president and chief operating officer. This placement is just temporary until the Board of Directors can find a permanent replacement.

For more on this story you can read the press release. To find further information about this dating site please check out our review of eHarmony.

A recent federal lawsuit filed in by 5 men and women from New York, Tennessee, Washington, Florida, and Iowa alleges that more than half of the profiles on popular dating site Match.com are either inactive or fake, and claims that the site intentionally inflates its membership numbers in order to lure new subscribers.

According to the class action lawsuit, Match.com does not screen the site for "fake and fraudulent profiles posted by scammers and others," does not remove inactive profiles that remain on the site for "months and sometimes years" after members stop using the site, and does not accurately represent the number of active Match.com members. The complaint also alleges that Match.com encourages subscribers to renew their expired memberships by sending them messages of interest from profiles that are inactive or fake. The suit states that "Former employees revealed...that Match routinely and intentionally represents that there are significantly more active members on the website than there actually are," and "Another former Match employee revealed...that a huge percentage of the profiles were not real members but 'filler profiles.'" New York-based law firm Harwood Feffer LLP is suing the company for breach of contract, negligent misrepresentation, and breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.

The description of the case on the firm's Web site asserts that some of the deceptive tactics used by Match.com include:

1. Representing that it approves new profiles when, in reality, it fails to do so and allows numerous fake and fraudulent profiles to be created.
2. Failing to delete inactive profiles and falsely labeling such profiles "active."
3. Failing to take any reasonable steps towards protecting the site from the propagation of false and fraudulent profiles, and thereby subjecting subscribers to countless frauds and scams.
4. Sending "winks" and/or emails to former members indicating that someone is interested in them or that they have a "match." It is only after renewing their subscriptions that these members discover that they have been conned and that "the supposed profiles of interested people are no longer active and/or cannot be reached."

A Match.com spokeswoman issued a brief statement in response to the lawsuit, saying only that "The claims have no merit and Match will defend the lawsuit vigorously. Similar claims were dismissed by a federal judge in Dallas last fall." In 2005, Match.com was sued in California over allegations that employees were hired to create bogus profiles in order to entice members to continue their subscriptions, but the case was dropped. A similar case filed against the company in 2009 was also dropped.

This time, according to lead attorney Jeffrey Norton, things will be different. "We have a strong complaint based on strong investigations," he is quoted as saying in an article from The Dallas Morning News.

A copy of the complaint can be found here, on the Web site of Harwood Feffer LLP. If you believe you have been a victim of the alleged dishonest practices of Match.com, you can join the suit here.