General News

A British wedding website conducted a survey of 4,000 couples. On the survey the couples had to indicate the levels of happiness during the different stages of their marriage. From the results researchers pinpointed the happiest day at 2 years, 11 months and 8 days after the marriage. During this time, British couples had the most sex, best social life, vacations and romantic meals. This is also the time when the couples have the longest heart to heart conversations and when wives receive the most compliments.

Here are a few things that the researchers found which led to those happy marriages:

• Spend 24 minutes having a heart to heart a day.
• Allow for 75 minutes of alone time a day.
• Never go to bed with an argument unresolved.
• 5 cuddles a day and say "I Love You." at least once.
• Spend 3 nights a week curled up on the sofa together.
• 4 phone calls / emails / text messages a day.

Spark Networks decided to change the name of "BBW Personals Plus" to "More to Love" back in October of 2009 (see Story). It looks like the old name resonated more with visitors so Spark Networks has decided to change the name of the niche dating site for heavier singles back to BBWPersonalsPlus.com.

To find out more about this dating site and what it has to offer, read our review of BBW Personal Plus.

In 2005 Great Hill Partners bought about 25 percent stake in Spark Networks. Just recently we learned that the PE firm offered to take Spark Networks private and buy all the shares it does not own. This would cost them about $64 million USD. Spark Networks announced their intentions to evaluate the acquisition proposal.

Spark Networks stock in 2008 was worth about $131 million. Since then they have struggled and seen their value drop to about $84 million. Spark Networks flagship dating site AmericanSingles.com during this time saw a huge drop in membership numbers (it has since been renamed Spark.com). Other dating sites they own like JDate.com have remained strong though.

Great Hill Partners stated that if they took Spark Networks private, the company could then focus on long term growth without worrying about pleasing stock holders with short term profits.

For the full story read Gigaom.

7,152 members over 12 hours participated in a poll at Smooch.com which looked at infidelity. On average 35 percent of participants said they had been unfaithful to a partner at some point in their life. When you split the results by gender, men came out much worse at 41 percent while women were at 29 percent.

It was also found that as men age; there is an increased chance of them being unfaithful. Men aged 18-24 averaged 31 percent of who have cheated on their partners, while men over the age of 60 were at 44 percent. Men who are more educated also on average cheat more. Over half the participants, 54 percent, who have a masters degree have been unfaithful. Men with no formal education came in at 30 percent.

As matter fact, the more attractive a man is the more likely he will cheat:

• 47 percent of athletic men
• 65 percent of men with high salaries.
• 43 percent of men over 6 feet.

Drinkers are also more likely to cheat at 49 percent and surprisingly 85 percent of men with full beards admitted to being unfaithful to a partner at some point in their life.

For more on the story read Response Resource.

With OKCupid's recent media buzz over their statistic filled blog posts, it seems to have garnered them some more attention and not all of it is good. One college aged woman wrote about her experience on OKCupid and said:

Stupid, stupid Cupid. This addictive, pixelated piece of crap has robbed too much of my time; time spent reading incoherent, innuendo-ridden messages ...

She wrapped up her post by stating "Don't join OKCupid.com". Her main complaint seems to be that all the guys on the dating site just want to have sex.

Was she being fair to OKCupid? I don't think so. For one thing, I think her expectations were off, especially because of the signals she was sending out. For example, after joining OKCupid and creating a profile she states:

Then, we moved on to uploading pictures. These pictures had to be HOT. We’re talking steamy.

Just like at a club or bar if you dress hot and steamy you're going to attract a certain type of guy, online dating is no different. I'm not saying your profile photo shouldn't be attractive or even a little sexy; it's just if you dial it up too much you should realize the type of guys you are going to attract, the ones looking for a one night stand and not necessary a relationship.

To find out further details about this dating site, read our review of OKCupid.

I found a news item on the eHarmony blog that was interesting. Researchers at UC Berkeley teamed up with a dating site to find out how important the photo headshot is for a dating profile. For both genders, researchers found that a photo in a profile was necessary for a member to be deemed attractive. Researchers also found that participants of the study said that the actual content of the profile was then used to determine if the member in the profile was a possible match and deserved to be contacted. The photo is the hook, but it is the content in the profile and how the person portrayed themselves that is the deciding factor for communication.

Finally, once the two online daters met face to face, looks became the least important predictor of a long term relationship. The overall attraction and the "connection" were deemed most important.

Find out more on the eHarmony Blog. For further info about this matchmaking service, read our eHarmony review.