Online Dating

I notice that Passion.com got a much needed homepage facelift recently (bottom left). The bottom right image is what the Passion.com homepage has looked like probably for the last 4 years or more (it has been a while). The white to pink gradient background of the new look in much better and it doesn't make the homepage feel as "busy" ascetic wise or as blocky. I also noticed that they have removed any mention of FriendFinder. I guess this is to make the service have a more distinct image and reputation. I think the new look with the softer appearance will work for them and attract more females, which is the hardest thing for most casual dating sites to do.

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

Spark Networks second quarter financial report was released last week (the quarter ended June 30). Overall revenue for this quarter was $10.3 million with a net income of $0.9 million. When these values are compared to quarter 2 last year, revenue is down by 8 percent and net income is down by 47 percent. Total costs this quarter is $8.6 million which is a decrease of 8 percent when compared to the same time last year of $9.3 million. As a whole the company had 160,239 subscribers. This is a decrease of 2 percent from Q2, 2009.

The Jewish Networks (mostly JDate) revenue for quarter 2 was $6.7 million. This is a decrease of 6 percent when compared to last year. On the upside average paying subscribers was 89,055 which is an 8 percent increase for JDate when compared to the same time in 2009.

The Other Affinity Networks (MingleMatch dating sites) saw revenue reach $2.8 million this quarter. This is down by 16 percent when compared to last year. The average paying subscriber did not fall as hard and was only down 2 percent to 64,083.

Lastly, the General Market Networks revenue is $298,000. This is 57 percent less revenue that they earned, when compared to the same quarter last year. Subscribers fared no better and fell 54 percent to 6,434.

For the full 2010 Q2 release visit Spark Networks News Room.

Related Story: Spark Networks First Quarter 2010 Financials

Among the multitude of online dating sites, there remains a slim margin of those catering to specific and perhaps unusual interests. Although they may sound a little strange, they’re a great place to find people with similar interests in a place free of judgment. Here are a few examples:

ScientificMatch.com: this online dating website requires a bit of DNA instead of a multiple choice compatibility test to find your matches. By analyzing your DNA and comparing it to other users, they determine your matches based on your genetic material. Among the benefits proposed by its creators, Scientific Match guarantees that you'll love the way your match smells, you will be sexually compatible, less likely to cheat, have better odds at conception, and that any potential offspring will have better immune systems due to the site's algorithmic dedication to genetic diversity. Sound interesting? It will only set you back about $2,000. Looking for something a little more affordable? Try GenePartner.com. They offer similar services for only $100.

DarwinDating.com: their tagline? "Online dating for beautiful people only!" They even have a list of dating rules excluding any type of non-beautiful traits or behaviors. Among them: no nerdy glasses, no mullets, no red hair and too many freckles, no out of date fashions, and no overuse of bright blue eye shadow. Sound shallow and limited? Perhaps, but it obviously has an audience. If you demand physical beauty from your date, this may be the place to go!

Gk2gk.com: Need a little intellectual stimulation in your date? Try Geek 2 Geek. Providing a refreshing contrast to the beautiful people dating site, Geek 2 Geek is a place for geeks and lovers of geeks to meet and date. Among the proposed reasons why one might want to date a geek, they write that geeks don't cheat, appreciate their mates, haven't formed bad relationship habits, have an imagination, and tend to be happy and successful in their chosen field.

PositiveSingles.com: this online date is specifically catered to people with STDs. I found this site particularly interesting because it allows people with STDs to be upfront and straight forward with each other without the fear of judgment.

Agematch.com: Looking for someone within a specific age group? This online dating site allows you to search by age. It is the self-proclaimed site for pairing older women with younger men or older men with younger women, excelling in age-gap dating.

For those of you waiting, eHarmony has finally released their free iPhone Dating App today (on the day the eHarmony turns 10 no less). The App also works on the iPod Touch and the new iPad as well. Our quick test found the App fast and responsive. eHarmony users on the iPhone (without using Safari) can now view new and existing matches, communicate with them through the guided process and mail, and modify your photos. Free eHarmony members can also subscribe through the App as well.

One question I have is, I wonder if they will open up communication on the iPhone App during eHarmony's free communication weekends? They probably will but I guess we will just have to wait and see. I expect the next free communication weekend to happen in 2 weeks.

To try out the new Dating App, visit iTunes and to find out more about this dating site, check out our eHarmony review.

OKCupid’s official blog, OKTrends, recently sent a powerful warning to its readers:

Don’t Be Ugly By Accident!

The eye-catching admonishment is the title of a post about the site’s latest study, an in-depth technical look at profile photos that forms the perfect follow-up to their previous report on the subject, “The 4 Big Myths of Profile Pictures” (check out our review of the article here). Instead of merely considering the content of the photos we post, writer Christian Rudder advises, we should also take practical matters like aperture, flash, and focus into account.

The article chronicles the results of a study that aggregated 11.4 million opinions on what makes a successful photo. The experiment was simple: subjects were shown two photographs of different people, chosen randomly from the 552,000 sample user pictures that were collected, and asked which person they would prefer to go on a date with. The information gathered was then compared with data about the photography itself, like the time of day and shutter speed at which the pictures were taken.

The most amusing claim, by far, is that iPhone users have more sex than users of other mobile devices. BlackBerry users came in second place, with Android aficionados bringing up the rear. No word on how much sex Windows Mobile users can expect during their lifetimes (or at least the lifetimes of their cell phones).

In less humorous news, OKCupid’s findings show that the best photos come from Panasonic Micro 4/3s cameras, while the worst come from the cameras on Motorola phones. The next best camera brands were Leica, Canon, Pentax, Nikon, Sony, and Olympus (in that order), while Kodak was judged to be almost as bad as the Motorola phone. Of the camera phones, Sidekick was considered the best, with Apple’s iPhone close behind. Somewhat surprisingly, Android, Nokia, BlackBerry, and Windows phones were all rated lower than phones of less popular brands.

The flash, according to the study, should always be avoided. Subjects consistently assigned a higher attractiveness rating to photos that did not use the flash. Based on their data, the experimenters determined that the flash adds about 7 years of age to the person in the photo (and, consequently, not using a flash can remove 7 years of age from a person’s appearance).

Other findings suggest that the best pictures have “a very shallow depth of field,” which means that the photo’s subject is sharply in focus while the background of the picture is blurry. The article goes on to give a very technical explanation for this effect, and some examples of it, so be sure to visit the source at the link provided below if you’re interested in photography.

The study’s final conclusion is that late night and late afternoon are the ideal times at which to take your profile photo. Rudder “irresponsibly theorize[s]” that this is because “photos taken in the former bracket tend to be more provocative,” while “those taken in the latter tend to be pleasantly lit.”

OKCupid’s findings are certainly attention-grabbing, but do they actually have any value? Tune in next time when we’ll take a look at what the data actually means, and where it might be leading you astray.

Read more about the study here.

With the recent downtime of PlentyofFish a number of members contacted me asking a few questions about the dating site. One of them was:

... can you tell me what happened to the POF Forums/Message Board?

To my surprise, it looked like at first glance that the forums have been removed from Plentyoffish.com. The forums were quite popular on the site with hundreds of posts being added every day. Looking deeper into the problem the person who asked me this question said he found that the forums still existed but the link to them had been removed from PlentyofFish a while ago. He then asked me why? My best educated guess is that the forums were too distracting to members. The owner of POF wanted people to use his dating site where ads are being displayed. The more ads viewed and clicked on by visitors the more money the website will make (this is how most websites and publications make money, including the one you are reading now). Since the forums don't display ads (and therefore do not make money) I figure that is why the link to them was removed. With no link, new members wouldn't find out about the forums and stay just on the dating site while still allowing the older members who knew about the forums to continue to use them.

For those of you looking for the PlentyofFish forums, you can still find them here or, if you like you could try posting in our own dating site advice forums.

While I was checking out the PlentyofFish forum issue I notice that there were a few new features. First off it looks like Upgraded Members (those of you who paid for the Serious Members Badge) now have their profiles displayed to local users at the top of their search results. Originally the upgraded membership was suppose to show your intent to the dating community that you are serious about dating (see Story), that is why it was called the Serious Member Profile Upgrade. As we thought though, this badge has slowly but surely morphed into a full membership upgrade that now even affects the search results. I am not saying this is a bad thing as we knew it would eventually happen, it was just funny how POF didn't originally want people to think they had a paid membership.

A few other new features I noticed included some search options. You can now search for users in a specified zip code who logged in at least once a day. The average user displayed by this search actually logs in 3 times a day to PlentyofFish. The other new search option is a "Will Respond" search. This is supposed to return users who will most likely respond to a message from you if you view their profile. The average user from this search last logged in about 20 hours ago and they are expected to be online again in the next 3 hours. Both of these search options are a great idea!

The last new item I found is a statistic. According to PlentyofFish, every day 1.4 million people use their dating site. In 2009, this number was 900 thousand.

For more details on this popular online dating site, please read our review of PlentyofFish.