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I am sad to say it looks like Avalanche LCC has gone out of business. Date.com is one of their premier dating services which we last visited on October 6th and was confirmed still up and operating on October 7th, 2016 by the Internet Archive. It seems a week or so later when the dating site was again visited an error was reported indicating the dating service was down. When you visit Date.com now your browser will receive an "Error 522 Connection timed out" from CloudFlare. In fact all of Avalanche's websites including Matchmaker, Amor, and Gay Dating are now unreachable, including Avalanche's own corporate website. I sent a few emails out to see what was going on this week and they bounced back undelivered. With all of this evidence and with over a week of their web sites being down I think it safe to assume that unfortunately Avalanche and the dating services they own have gone out of business.

Avalanche ran over 20 dating services which we had reviews up for 4 of the more popular ones. This includes some of the oldest ones on the internet like Date.com which was started in 1997 and MatchMaker, which could be the oldest computer dating service since it was first started as a bulletin board system in 1986 (and in 1996 became a website). Other dating services we reviewed included Amor and GayDating.com.

In this every changing landscape of online dating, dating apps like Tinder now rule the single's love life. If you don't keep your business current and in the media it is hard to survive for long online. We wish those who worked at Avalanche all the best in their new endeavors.

Just when you get comfortable with the Internet again, a new story about a hacking disaster makes headlines. This time, a hacker on a dark web forum called “Hell” claims to have sold the email addresses and plaintext passwords of over 27 million users of dating site Mate1.com.

Last year, Hell made headlines when a hacker posted the personal details and sexual preferences of almost 4 million users of the hookup site Adult Friend Finder. The data dump was discovered months after the hack actually happened, forcing Adult Friend Finder to fess up about the breach.

Motherboard obtained a small sample of the stolen email addresses and passwords. Out of 500 addresses, 498 were linked to accounts on Mate1.com. According to its website, Mate1 has over 36.5 million users.

“Their server was compromised and the MySQL database was dumped,” the anonymous hacker told Motherboard. “I had shell/command access to their server.” The hacker claims to have obtained 40 million accounts initially, then whittled that number down by weeding out the bot logins. “They all had a common password pattern,” they said.

The database of poached user info was offered for 20 bitcoin on Hell (around $8,700) although it’s not clear if that was the actual selling price.

How did it happen? Motherboard found that Mate1 was shockingly open to such an attack. A reporter for the site clicked “forgotten password” on the login page and was sent a full, plaintext password via email. Mate1 made no attempt to conceal the password in any way.

The threat here isn't just that users’ dating accounts may now be compromised. A second danger comes from the fact that victims may have used the same passwords across multiple websites, potentially leaving accounts on Gmail, Amazon - anything, really - now open to attack. Anyone who purchased the database could test their newly-acquired passwords on more valuable accounts, and given the high number of credentials the hacker claims to have obtained, there’s a real chance that a significant number will indeed compromise accounts on other websites.  

The first step, if you have an account with Mate1.com, is to change your password there. You’ll also want to update any accounts that share the same password and check to make sure they haven’t been tampered with.  

This hack won’t make news the way the Ashley Madison hack did (catch up here, here, and here if you missed that story), but it serves as yet another reminder that digital security is a subject to be taken seriously.

For more information on this dating service you can read our full review of Mate1.

Lulu, a dating app designed to help women rate and share information about the men they date, has become part of online dating giant Badoo.

Lulu has had an interesting history. Founded in 2011 by Alexandra Chong, the app was originally created to help women have a safer online dating experience by encouraging them to communicate with other women over the app about the men they dated. Users were given the ability to rate their dates according to looks, humor, ambition, and even sexual prowess. They could also add pre-made hashtags for more detailed examples describing a man, like #OneWomanMan, #WillActSilly or #EpicLaugh.

Are You Interested (AYI), the first online dating service to utilize Facebook connections in its matchmaking process by pairing friends of friends in the same social media circles, has announced that it has rebranded its AYI app and website.

The new service is called FirstMet, which parent company Snap Interactive says “reflects the company’s vision for making it easier for single adults to meet new people in a friendly, low-pressure environment.” At first glance, the design of FirstMet is similar, and the app still uses Facebook as a connection tool. However, the experience is specifically designed for mobile users, as opposed to AYI’s online service.

AYI launched in 2007, and has since gained about 30 million users worldwide. While the app attracted a nice user base, rivals like Tinder and the traditional dating sites like Match still cornered the market for attracting new and more active users.

Recipient
Senior People Meet

Senior People Meet is the recipient of the 2015 Editor's Top Pick - Senior Award. This popular dating service by People Media is designed to match singles 55 years and older. It can be accessed via the website at SeniorPeopleMeet.com or via your phone through the dating app available at iTunes and Google Play.

It takes about 2 minutes to create a basic free membership account on Senior People Meet. From there you are allowed to search and view member profiles and photos, and send flirts. You also get access to Today's Matches which gives you 5 matches every day that meet your criteria and location. After viewing the profiles of these matches you can answer Yes, No or Maybe if you agree that they could be a possible match. If you both agree that you are a possible match then communication can start.

After creating a free account it is recommended that you upload a photo since only member's with photos appear in the search results. You should also update your profile as it will only be about 15% completed after registration with only the basic information entered. Under your profile you will also find Message Ideas that you can select which one's you would want singles to ask you. These are present to members who wish to message you and are are great way to break the ice.

When you find some matches you like and you wish to chat live with them or send a message, you will need to pay for a subscription which can cost under $2 a week.

Senior People Meet takes your privacy and safety seriously. Under My Account you can setup features to control who sees your profile, block users, and change your online status.

Read our review of Senior People Meet for more information about this dating service or visit Senior People Meet directly.

This Year's Runner Up for this award is: OurTime.com

The once popular dating site PerfectMatch.com has closed down. When you visit the service you are shown a goodbye message. The message states that the dating site has closed down and any remaining time on your subscription that is left will be refunded in full on to your original form of payment.

From around 2005 to 2010 Perfect Match was a popular choice for singles interested in online dating. The site was featured in a number of popular movies like Must Love Dogs and appear on talk TV shows like Dr. Phil and Live with Regis and Kelly. PerfectMatch used the Duet Total Compatibility System which was created in part by the relationship expert Dr. Schwartz. This dating service emphasized long-term relationships and had a detailed profile and complex matching algorithm.

Unfortunately Perfect Match didn't stay current with technology and let their product go stale. As far as I know there never was a mobile app released ever on the iPhone or Android phones. In 2011 PerfectMatch was acquired by FriendFinder which didn't help the dating service at all and it continued to slowly slide into obscurity.