Milestones

eHarmony never wanted to open Compatible Partners but as specified in the terms of a settlement in November 2008, they must open a dating site for gay people by the end of this month. We have been told that the site will work like eHarmony's current site which involves a long profile questionnaire to help in the matching process. At eHarmony you do not search for other singles. All matches are given to you by the dating site. As far as we know there have been no plans to update eHarmony's matching algorithm to take into account the differences in a gay relationship for Compatible Partners.

It will be interesting to see how popular the new dating site will get. It has gotten a lot of media attention but delivering a product for this type of niche never was a goal for eHarmony. I don't see why a gay single would want to join?

When Compatible Partners goes live, we do plan on doing a review, so stay tune.

Update: Check our our new review of Compatible Partners.

Thanks to the Online Dating Insider for the news.

Christian Cafe just had its 10th Birthday. The founder of this dating site, Sam Moorcroft, certainly has seen a lot of changes in the industry since 1999. Back then the site was optimized for viewing in 800x600 resolution and using Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 (IE is up to 7 now). Quicktime 4 was mentioned along with the site recommending "Works Best for 56k Modems And Above". There even is a spot for AOL and WebTV users to click (Ahhh, how I miss all those AOL CDs I use to get in the mail!).

Find out more about Christian Cafe by reading our review.

I've been sick lately (and still am) so I have some catching up to do on news posting.

On December 23, 2008 FriendFinder Networks filed for a $460 million IPO. My first thought was it is an interesting time to file with the downturn of the economy. Adult FriendFinder is the major revenue generator of the FriendFinder Networks and with the latest posts about dating sites doing better in these market conditions, maybe the recession is not as much a concern. Still, there are less people out there with money to invest.

The other big issue is the proceeds of this will be used for the most part to pay off debt. Most investors tend not to like this type of scenario. I'm not sure where this debt came from. FriendFinder Networks was bought last December (see Story) by Penthouse for $500 million. I assume at this point, the FriendFinder accounting books where in a positive territory. I can't see Penthouse buying them for so much money if FriendFinder had a huge debt. This new debt must of come from Penthouse.

Match.com UK celebrated 2 milestones in London yesterday. Since 2001 more than 1 Billion emails and 1 Billion winks have been sent through the Match.com dating site. During this celebration Match.com launched match100, a new consumer panel.

The responsibility of this group is to consult on new services and provide a valuable on-the-ground view of the search for love in 21st century Britain.

The match100 is made up of a diverse group of old and current Match.com members from all over Britain. The groups first job will be to create an Insiders Guide to Online Dating based on their own experiences. Find the new match100 media center here.

Related Story: eHarmony has Issued more than 1 Billion Matches

For the full story visit Marketing Week and for further information on Match.com UK dating site read our detailed review.

Since 2000 eHarmony has produced more than 1 Billion automated matches for its members. With eHarmony's detailed profiles and strict criteria for matching singles, combined with their large membership base, this is a huge success for them.

To see how this fact was established using eHarmony's match ID, visit the Unofficial eHarmony Blog. For more information about this popular online dating service read our eHarmony Review.

Lavalife's latest dating service called LavalifePRIME for mature singles celebrated its first anniversary last week. Lavalife calls this site "one of the world's first social dating sites", since it is a combination of online dating and social networking features (which dating site isn't these days). This free site is geared towards singles 45 years or older and has gathered more than 40,000 members since it opened May 2007.

LavalifePRIME includes forums where members can discuss almost any topic. You can post unlimited photos, send messages, chat with other members in groups or message one on one. Since this site is free there are a fair number of ads displayed on most pages you visit. LavalifePRIME is still in beta and I have to wonder if they plan on keeping the site free (will they make enough with the online ads to cover costs) or once they have enough members will it become a paid service? This site does compete with Lavalife itself so, I wouldn't be surprised if it does become paid eventually, especially since income from paid advertising isn't as profitable as it use to be.

Related Stories: Lavalife Looking for Older Singles