Match

Match.com and Premier Match helped assemble 8 single women for Good Morning America. They were asked for their opinions on dating in a recession and what they do, and do not look for in a man.

These woman consider one or more of the following factors important about a man:

• The type of job he has and if he is employed.
• If he has ambition and is a leader. He also must be supportive (not necessarily financially).
• If the man pays for the first date, especially if he initiated the date.
• Chivalry.
• Enjoys life and work.

Match.com actually found in a recent survey they did that 71% of members would still date a person if they had lost their job. Over 2,700 male and female members participated in this survey. The Match.com survey did not consider gender so it is not clear if more men than woman would do this. With the Good Morning America panel of single woman, it seemed with almost all of them, being on a date with a unemployed man was not an option.

In terms of first dates, most of the woman were looking for something not formal. Going out for drinks was mentioned several times, with dinner as an option if the early part of the evening had gone well. Being creative on a first date was also a good thing. Out of the 8 woman, 7 expected the man to pay for the first date.

For the full Good Morning America video clip and to find out more on what these thirty and forty something woman are looking for in a man, visit ABC News. For more information on Match.com, read our review of the dating site.

People Media was recently purchased by Match.com's parent company IAC (see Story) which prompted me to look for further information about this company. They were founded in 2002 and now have almost 4 million unique visitors with 550 million page views per month, when you combine all of their dating sites traffic together. As a comparison, Match.com had roughly 5.5 million unique visitors last month. ComScore lists 6 of People Media's dating sites in their top 50 dating site list. BlackPeopleMeet is People Media's largest online service which averages over 167 thousand visitors a day and just shy of 1 million unique visitors in a month. 44 percent of BlackPeopleMeet members are male and 56% are female. This is pretty close to the average of People Media's top 10 dating sites gender ratio of 47 percent Male and 53 percent female.

People Media also currently has existing partnerships with the Steve Harvey Morning Show and AOL Personals, to power a number of their dating communities.

To find out more information, including traffic stats broken down by individual dating site, read the People Media 2009 Advertising Kit.

Here is another story that has been in the hopper for a while.

Back in November 2008, Match.com updated the interface of their dating site and for the Profile Editor (see Story). The editor has an easier flow than the previous one with more Web 2.0 features. This means less reloading of the page in the web browser as some of the content is streamed when needed. An example of this is the auto filling of certain profile questions, that are based on your previous answers. My only small complaint so far is the list of sections to the left . When you click on the About Me section (as seen in the image on the right), the sub sections like Appearance and Interests appear. These clickable sub sections of the profile are in smaller lettering. To identify these as sub sections they need to be shifted or indented to the right like a tree structure. With the way it looks now, something doesn't look right.

Last month Match.com updated their profile process with new questions, and answers to existing questions. If you are a returning member and have an existing but old profile, look for the new icons that identify New Questions and Updated Questions while editing your profile. They icons appear when you hover your mouse cursor over the questions. New questions can be found in the sub sections under the About Me Profile section. The Get to Know Me sub section is almost completely new with the Lifestyle and Interests sub sections receiving a few new questions as well. Some of the new question also contain pictures. While having pictures as part of the profile questions is not ground breaking by any means, it does help breath a bit of life into the profile creation process.

The other thing which I notice when I was online at Match.com is they are advertising the fact that adding a picture to your profile will attract 15 times more attention than a similar profile without a photo. Most dating sites say your chances of contact is 10 times greater. I wonder what the real answer is?

For more information on this dating site, read our review of Match.com.

Consumer reviews on the internet for products and services usually receive more negative posts than positive, since most people satisfied with a product or service tend to be using it rather than writing reviews. It is probably the same for reviews of employers. I found a website called Glass Door which allows visitors to review their current and past employers. The website currently has over 26 thousand companies listed, with most of them being publicly traded. The site is new and is in beta so most companies do not have a lot of reviews yet.

A reviewer can list their job title, the Pros and Cons of the employer and Advice to Senior Management. They also rate the company on 8 different attributes (which is then averaged to a 5 bar rating) and also select if they approve or disapprove of the company CEO.

There are not a lot of employer reviews for dating site companies but, here are a few I found reviews for:

We talked briefly about matchTalk before in 2007 (see Story). I thought it was time for a closer look since I have seen a number of image ads lately on Match.com promoting the add-on service. The main idea behind matchTalk is to allow members to talk to each other on their own phones while keeping both phone numbers confidential. The service I believe is still powered by a well know VOIP and social messaging company called Jangl. Almost any phone can be used, including cell phones.

matchTalk works by generating a unique phone number for every member who signs up. Once you find a Match.com member who you like, you can request to add them to your matchTalk phonebook by a link on their profile. If they agree, you then can perform a matchTalk connection. You initiate the call to the person you are interested in from your matchTalk phonebook. Match.com acts like a dispatcher and then calls the person. An automated voice will then ask the person if they would like to receive the call from you. If the answer is yes, the call is then connected with you and your phone will ring. Once you answer, you both can talk knowing your real phone number is safe. If the person decides not to take your call or if the phone is not answered, you will be notified and you can try later.

Once a matchTalk member, you can contact any Match.com subscriber who agrees to your request. Someone who is not a matchTalk member can only receive calls and not initiate a mtachTalk connection. For the service to work you will need Caller ID (used only by matchTalk) and you will need to verify your phone number. The cost of the service is $4.99 for 3 months.

For more information on this dating site, read our review of Match.com.

A Fox News broadcast called Kelly's Court (clip below) looks at the case which we talked about earlier this month regarding Sean McGinn suing Match.com for what he alleges is deceptive practices. His beef with Match is mainly about them not informing members who has paid, and who has not (see Story).

Sean is the man pictured in the still of the video below and in his Match.com profile he describes himself as having a cuddly but toned bod, is down to earth, and can pull off the dishevelled bed head look. Apparently he also mentioned in emails his favorite movie is Cocktail, starring Tom Cruise. Kelly's Court must of got some inside information and/or received full access to the court documents as this information hasn't been reported anywhere else. Plus, an extensive search of Match.com didn't produce Sean's profile. I am assuming Match.com has removed it.

Note: Unfortunately the source to the video and/or image which once was displayed here has since been removed by the authors for an unknown reason.

The panel of legal experts took Match.com's side in the suit and stated Sean couldn't have suffered anguish, emotional distress and anxiety due to a dating site. Especially, when you compare it to other cases where people have suffered. They did say that some of Match.com's business practices could be argued as deceptive but as far as this case is concerned, not enough for Sean to win his lawsuit based on what he suffered. The final hole in Sean's case was, in the end he did find a girlfriend on Match.com.

The legal experts did tend to joke around a lot at Sean's expense. They may have been legal experts but they certainly did not know too much about dating sites in general. As far as dating profiles go his didn't sound bad. I would like to hear how the Kelly's Court panel of experts would describe themselves (seriously) in a dating profile.