Dating Services

The young men lifestyle portal, AskMen.com announced an alliance with Match.com this week. While not yet available on the Ask Men website, Match will offer readers access to their singles database through a quick search form. This will enable visitors to view profiles and pictures on AskMen.com before registering with the dating service Match.com.

Match.com has been partnering with a number of websites lately to help generate more members. This allows them to target markets with better results than traditional internet advertising. AskMen.com readers are typically young single men who are employed and, have no dependants. This is a perfect target market for Match. eHarmony is another popular dating service which also has been doing similar partnerships (their latest with AOL). eHarmony also has been taking this a step further by buying up some of the more popular independent wedding and dating websites.

Visit Marketing Week for the full story. For more information on Match.com, read our dating review.

eHarmony is planning another Free Communication Weekend this Friday October 31 to November 2. New eHarmony members will have complete access to the dating site, which includes reviewing of matches, photos, profiles and the ability to communicate with other members. The last Free Communication Weekend was Labour Day (see story).

Visit our eHarmony review for more information on this popular dating service.

A press release from PlentyOfFish.com takes a look at some of their membership numbers and how more women now seem to be looking for intimate encounters. Currently members on Plenty of Fish looking for long term relationships have a male to female ratio of 55:46. Women looking for a casual dating experience when compared to men is 5 to 1. While men still out number woman, the situation is much better than in 2004 were the male to female ratio was 10 to 1. The release also predicts within a decade the ratio of men to women looking for intimate encounters online will reach 1 to 1.

For more reviews on dating sites that offer casual dating, check our our Sexy Singles Dating Category.

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.

For the last number of years eHarmony has been playing up the fact that a large number of people get married everyday who originally met each other on their dating site (current published average is 118). JDate appears to be copying this market tactic. They are currently advertising:

Each day over 60 people tell us they found their soul mates on JDate.

Finding a soul mate is not the same thing as being married but it does lead people to believe it is something more than love. It makes it appear as if the relationship may be leading to marriage. 60 is a fairly large number for a dating site which serves a specific niche. I wonder if we will see other popular dating services following suit and start advertising similar facts.

See our JDate Review for more information on this Jewish matchmaking service.

Spark Networks sent out a press release a few days ago about a new website of theirs called Facelink. This site allows visitors to search for singles across 20 of Spark Networks dating websites. Some of these sites include AmericanSingles, JDate, BlackSingles.com and ChristianMingle. Facelink is currently in beta.

The tool is very simple and allows visitors to select what gender they are looking for, age range and a text box where you can enter in keywords which describe the most important attributes of your match. When you search, the site will then bring up any matching profiles with the profile handle, introduction and location. When you click on the profile name in the results, you are then taken to the full profile page on whatever dating site the profile resides on.

I realize Spark Networks is going with the KISS philosophy and Facelink works but, it could use improvements. The search results contain the location but, on the search page you must enter the location in the text keywords box. I think location needs to have its own text box with a radius selection (ie anyone within 15 miles of current location). I also think it is important to list what site the person is on in the search results. This is important as someone who has joined JDate (a Jewish dating site) most likely will not want to date someone practicing another religion. Keyword searching also seems to be limited to the introduction essay and location. Why not include all aspects of the profile. If someone likes watching Lost and mentioned this in Fun Facts, I doubt they would reiterate this point in their introduction. Someone using "Lost" as a keyword for searching may be missing out on a potential match.

I do think the site could use a name change. The name itself FaceLink, instantly brings up comparisons to Facebook, in which the site does not have a whole lot in common with. In the title, the link part works but, maybe they should of tried getting the DatingSiteLink domain or something similar. One thing I did have a laugh at was Spark Networks disclaimer at the bottom of the site.

THANKS TO THE GREAT STATE OF NEW JERSEY, THE GARDEN STATE, HOME OF THE TURNPIKE, GOING DOWN THE SHORE, MYTHICAL HOME TO TONY SOPRANO, AND THE ONLY PLACE WHERE PEOPLE GREET EACH OTHER WITH "REALLY, WHAT EXIT YOU FROM?," WE ARE TELLING YOU, SPARK NETWORKS LIMITED DOES NOT CONDUCT BACKGROUND CHECKS ON THE INDIVIDUALS WHOSE PROFILES CAN BE ACCESSED THROUGH THIS SITE. THE HOME OF THE BOSS HAS GOT YOUR BACK AND WE SUPPORT THEM 100%! NOW DON'T FUHGEDABOUTIT.

This is in reference to the new flawed Internet Dating Safety Act which requires dating sites to notify visitors from New Jersey if the dating site performs background checks or not.

Facelink gives Spark Networks a way to tie all of their dating sites together and allows visitors to search all the sites at once. It saves visitors from having to visit each one individually. Once out of beta they should promote Facelink on all of their dating sites instead of showing other ads.

Click here to visit Facelink.