General News

Early in March Great Hill Partners offered to take Spark Networks private by buying all of the shares they did not own for $3.10 per share (see Story). Great Hill currently owns about 25 percent of the stock so the deal would have cost them about $64 million. Spark Networks said they would consider the offer, much to the dismay of a number of share holders.

Yesterday, a Spark Networks special committee on the offer unanimously rejected the proposal from Great Hill Equity Partners. No reason was given about why they rejected the offer but they did say that they will continue to consider other alternatives.

For more on the story, read the Spark Networks press release.

TangoWire is an online dating community which has over 3,700 different websites that caters to about 70 different special interest groups (Gay, Senior, Military, etc...). TangoWire recently announced that they have added Virtual Dating to its network of dating sites. What is virtual dating? Virtual dating at TangoWire allows members to get to know each other better by listening to music, playing games and interacting though 3D avatars on "virtual" dates. This new feature goes beyond communicating by email or instant messaging since it is in a real-time interactive environment. Virtual Dates are seen as a precursor to a real world date which allows you to get to know the other person better in a fun and safe environment.

This Thursday TangoWire members will be encouraged to try out Virtual Dating for free. For more on this story, read the press release.

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

Yesterday the United Kingdom dating company EasyDate announced that it has acquired Allegran's online dating services from Associated Northcliffe Digital. This will add another 5 dating sites to EasyDate's network to a total of 12 and give them over 3 million additional members (most from the UK) to a total of 9 million. The Allegran dating website portfolio includes GirlsdateForFree.com, Loopylove.com, Quickflirt.com, DatingForParents.com and MatureDating.co.uk.

EasyDate started their international expansion in 2009 and plan to continue this year by exploring other English speaking markets like India, mainland Europe and Brazil.

There are wedding crashers, party crashers and now date crashers.

You may be wondering, what is a date crasher? A date crasher according to MSNBC is someone who joins a specialty dating site who doesn't fit the within the personal criteria of the site. A specialty (or niche) dating site is a dating service which usually caters to specific type of single. Someone who is looking for a partner that must meet a criteria like, belonging to a certain religion, or have a particular cultural background. Now days there are niche dating sites for almost anyone, from dating sites for people with pets, to dating sites for farmers.

While a date crasher may feel there is nothing wrong in joining a dating site not specifically designed for him or her, a lot of members on these niche sites would disagree. They joined the dating site to meet like minded singles who share the same passions in life. Not someone who doesn't have a problem dating someone completely different from them.

So my advice to all you date crashers, stick to the general purpose dating sites like Match.com. You may have good intentions when you join a dating site about someone else's niche, but in the end you probably will not find the matches you are looking for.

The GameCrush Public Beta didn't last long (started March 23rd, 2010). According to their new homepage the service has temporarily shut down to upgrade the hardware used to support the service. GameCrush saw high demand when as many as 10,000 people visited the site in 5 minutes. This influx of traffic brought their servers to a crawl making the dating service unusable.

GameCrush offers online dating with a small twist. Like other dating sites you setup your dating profile and then you can search for singles. Once you find a few matches, you can communicate with them via email or live chatting with text or video if they are online. What GameCrush does differently is they also offer games for would be daters to play (called PlayDates). These games (like pool) also offer video chatting to make the experience more personal and to help break the ice during conversation. This is a great idea and may be finally what takes video dating into the main stream.

I was also surprised to learn that GameCrush will also offer the service for the Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE network and for games like Call of Duty, Halo 3 and Gears of War. They also promise it on other platforms like the Playstation 3 and World of Warcraft. I am not sure on how they plan to implement this service on the gaming consoles but I would think, you would need a seperate laptop or something.

Not much on pricing has been released yet about GameCrush. All we know is games with GameCrush PlayDates start at $6.60 for ten minutes of play.

For more on the story, read Canoe.

HurryDate is one of the few speed dating services we have reviewed and liked. JDate is a dating site which is our number one recommendation for men and women looking to meet other Jewish singles. Both sites are owned by Spark Networks and in a smart move they have partnered them together to offer Jewish Speed Dating events.

JDate's online magazine called JMag recently had an article about a JDate member attending a Speed Dating event in New York City. This article offers a good review from a real speed dater of what a speed dating event is all about and what one should think about before going on a speed dating adventure.

If you are already a JDate member, you can receive a 25% discount on any HurryDate Speed Dating event if they signup through the JDate website. Visit the "Community" tab and then "JDate Offline" for more details on Speed dating events in your area as well as other events like JDate sponsored trips and special events hosted by JDate members.

For more information on these dating services, read our [staticpage: review of JDate.com] and our [staticpage: review of HurryDate].