Dating Services

With all the press lately for Chemistry, they have decided to up their 7 day free trial offer to 14 days. New members now have a full 2 weeks to try out Chemistry with all of the features a paid member receives. This new promotion gives members enough time to see if this matchmaking site offers the service they are looking for. Remember, Chemistry has an in depth profile and matching system designed in part by Dr. Helen Fisher, a leading Biological Anthropologist. This is a dating service primarily designed for singles looking for long-term connections.

For the 14 day free trial visit Chemistry.com now and to find out more information about this dating site, read our Chemistry review which includes user reviews as well.

<p>The New York Times has an article about the recession and how it has affected online dating. Nothing much new is mentioned in the article that hasn't been mentioned before in others except with a couple of exceptions.</p>

<p>We knew that PerfectMatch.com has seen a large spike in members in Q4 of 2008 but we only knew it was around 47 percent which was about half way through quarter 4 (see Story). According to the New York Times article, Perfect Match saw a 51 percent increase in members in quarter 4, when compared to the same quarter of 2007. Perfect Match growth continued into January 2009, but not quite as high at 30 percent. PerfectMatch.com CEO, Duane Dahl also noted that they experienced a similar trend in the rise of memberships for their dating site during the last economic downturn in 2001, after the internet economic bubble burst.</p>

<p>To read the complete story visit the New York Times. Registration may be required to read the article. For more information on PerfectMatch.com, read our online dating review.</p>

Here are two interesting points from an article called "Dates with destiny", which is hosted on easyJet Inflight.

• Match.com launched their United Kingdom dating site in 2001, interesting enough Marc Simoncini, the founder of Meetic (which is set to purchase Match.com's European Operations) was also launched in 2001.
• In 2004 as online dating became more popular, Match.com became the first dating site to run TV commercials.

For more information on Match.com's British dating site, read our review.

On Wednesday Avalanche (the owners of Date.com, Matchmaker.com, and Amor) announced that they will be offering virtual gifts for sale on their dating sites. Just in time for Valentine's Day, members of these dating communities can send a $1 virtual gift to help make an impression with a potential date. To send a virtual gift:

Members purchase tokens that can be converted immediately, or at a later date, into Virtual Gifts. Online gifts, which range in price and start at $1, run the gamut from romantic to flirty. Everything from roses, hearts, Cupids and boxes of chocolates to martini glasses, food, stuffed animals, and even a shiny red sports car are available for purchase. Specialty items and limited edition items will be introduced in future updates of the feature.

Branded Virtual Gifts will also be available to advertisers that are looking for innovative ways to market products to online daters. Singles do not have to be paying subscribers of the sites to purchase, send or to receive Virtual Gifts. Virtual Gifts can be purchased using all major credit cards as well as via PayPal.

Virtual Gifts are currently very popular on social networking sites. The industry is estimated to be worth $1.5 billion in 2008.

Time did a piece called Advice for the New Dating Game were they look at dating advice and who has been offering it. Some of the examples include online dating sites, psychologists, TV talk show hosts and stand-up comedians (they forgot dating blogs!). Chemistry.com was briefly mentioned in this article in regards to Dr. Helen Fisher, a biological anthropologist. She is Chemistry's chief scientific advisor and helped develop the profile questionnaire and matching system for the dating site.

I also notice a piece in the March issue of the Discover magazine called The Ascent of Darwin. In the first paragraph Dr. Helen Fisher is called a Darwinian matchmaker because of her research into the science of romantic attraction. Discover further reveals that she bases her ideas on the principles of evolutionary psychology, which is a field that is inspired by some of Charles Darwin's insights.

Look here for the full Time article and for more information on the above online dating site, read our Chemistry review.

I got an email from someone tonight complaining about how Be2.com makes you jump through hoops to cancel a membership. Apparently you need to request cancellation of their services via fax. And the fax must contain the following information:

• full name
• address
• email-address
• username
• date of purchase of Premium Membership
• total sum
• reason for cancellation