General News

If you were lucky enough to be in Canada mid-month, you might have shimmied off to attend one of the first-ever Flitter events - an online/offline approach to dating that integrates Twitter and a mixer event.

Just prior to Valentine's Day, residents of Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Vancouver who were single and looking came together at on of these Flitter events, created by Justin Parfitt. He's the CEO and founder of Canadian-based dating service Fastlife and was intrigued with the possibility of mixing technology and real-life interaction with groups of people. The events were initially introduced through Fastlife to the Australian singles community and are now off and running in Canada.

If you happened to be a single, Canadian Twitter user and were open to something new, this might have been just the thing for a lonely digital heart!

Event participants signed each tweet for the evening with the term "flitterme," which then generated a search stream that was displayed on a large screen in the room. Everyone was given a name tag number on the way in and people could choose to either sign their tweets with their number or remain anonymous.

Events organized over Twitter that lead to in-person interaction are nothing new. "Tweetups" are hosting in many cities across the United States, bringing together people who digitally know one another and adding the "real life" factor into the equation. It seems that this is yet another niche when it comes to the online dating scene, allowing single Twitter fans to flirt, learn and explore in an accepting setting with a group of other singles who enjoy the same technology they do. Common interests are a well-known key to successful relationships - perhaps Twitter is the common ground of the future? Grab your Blackberry or iPhone and find out! Nothing makes you smile like a little online flirting.

You can read the original article published by Reuters here.

The Catalyst Group released a 48 page document (see below) which outlines the experiences of 16 online daters of which 8 used Match.com and 8 used eHarmony. As stated in the report, the intention of the document "is to highlight broad themes and provide insights as to how these sites are used".

Note: Unfortunately the source to the video and/or image which once was displayed here has since been removed by the authors for an unknown reason.

I found the report itself to be more of a comparison of how Match.com and eHarmony work. The bulk of the report tackles how each dating site handles the online dating process. They broke it up into 3 phases, which are Identifying Matches, Reviewing Profiles, and Communication. The authors did include some information about what the users did and did not like for each site but there was no real comparison as to which site approach which phase better, and why (or how they could improve).

eHarmony nor Match.com participated in any way with the study. After reading it through thoroughly, I found it is an excellent source of information for those of you who wish to know how Match.com and eHarmony work and how their approaches to online dating differ. As mentioned in the limitations, the study sample is very small and may not represent the views of the overall population. But, what were the researchers' conclusions? Near the beginning of the Match.com and eHarmony Usability Study of Online Dating they list some general perceptions. The researches were told by the participants of the study that online dating sites come up short on their claims about matching. Most users had little confidence in the technology and the process behind the matchmaking. Despite all this, people use dating sites because they do offer a pool of potential matches for them to access when the more traditional ways of finding a date (bars, family, friends, etc...) do not work.

In the end the researchers concluded that eHarmony was preferred by singles who needed/wanted to be led every step of the way in the online dating process. This was especially helpful for those singles that lack self confidence in communicating with their matches. On the other hand, Match.com was seen as a "good compromise between the restrictions of eHarmony and the wild west of free sites".

For more on the story, read the WSJ Blogs. To find out more about these 2 dating sites you could also read our eHarmony review and Match.com review.

If you missed installment one of this article series on OKCupid’s report on age-based dating practices, click here to read OKCupids Asks: Why Aren’t Men Into Older Women?

According to OKCupid, men are pretty much missing the boat when it comes to the women available in the dating pool. Why? Because they skew their age preferences toward women significantly younger and pay little attention to those even marginally older. Men would do much better, they say, at meeting their goals for a healthy, happy relationship if they didn’t rule out the “older woman.” OKCupid used a sample set of 100,000 female users in their study and narrowed down the case for older women into three key areas: sexuality, attitude and looks.

It’s incredible what OKCupid’s user data revealed about sexual preferences for the female population. The original post has a really cool “heat map” that shows, by sliding a slider from age 18 to 40, how female users’ sexual preferences change with age. The younger lean towards preferring sex once per week, while that preference distinctly changes as you approach and move beyond women in their 30s. (Guys – take note. No more complaints about lacking an active sex life if you’re ruling out women who may be a bit older than you!)

Older women also have healthier perspectives on sexual issues like contraception and STD testing according to the post, with older women feeling more strongly about protected sex and frequent STD testing. In a nutshell, younger females seem to want less frequent sex, do it unprotected and are less interested in regular STD testing. (Guys?)

The overall attitude of the older woman is better adjusted as well, according to OKCupid. Their member profile data indicated that women in their 40s have significantly high levels of self-confidence, are happier with their lives overall and feel that the best days of their lives are ahead of them. Now that’s a refreshing outlook, isn’t it? If you’re worried about getting marched to the altar, however, fear no more. 96% of women in their 40s are content being in a relationship that may not end in marriage, but only 62% of 18-year-old women can say the same.

The final area of comparison: looks. OKCupid cites a misconception that women become less attractive as they get older. They also rule-out those who are in long-term relationships or already married and may tend to pay less attention to their appearances. They concluded: women are equally as attractive, regardless of age. Want a real shocker? Check out the fabulous photos of actual OKCupid users at the end of the article. We think you’ll have a hard time guessing who’s the “older woman!”

Bottom line for the guys: maybe you want to take another look at your age preferences in your online dating profile. If you’re willing to pass up a great sex life with an attractive woman with a killer sense of self-confidence, well – your loss! But they’re out there and waiting – all you have to do is click. For more information on the dating site, check out our review of OkCupid.

Perfectmatch.com recently started offering a new membership plan which is a step higher than their Premium membership, called Platinum. What is the difference?

• Preferred Search Results - Your profile will appear higher in the search results than other members.
• Highlighted Featured Platinum Profile on your profile and in search results.
• Members with approved profiles can initiate communication with you and respond to your emails.

I have been after dating sites for a while now to allow free members to communicate with paid members and I am glad to see Perfectmatch.com has come around. On a per month basis the Platinum membership is actually cheaper than the Premium membership (around $33). What Perfectmatch.com did is offer Premium memberships for 1, 2, and 3 month terms. Platinum memberships are only available for 4 and 6 month terms.

If this membership name sounds familiar to you, Match.com also has a Platinum membership (see Story).

To find out more about this dating site, read our review of Perfectmatch.com.

There is a few rumors going around that Match.com may be acquiring another dating site. As far as I can tell, Dave over at Online Dating Post got the scoop first. No word yet on what dating site it is though. TechCrunch seems to think it may be Singlesnet.com.

I have no idea myself. Dave said we would all be surprised so I can't think it will be Yahoo Personals since a rumor of that possible acquisition was going around last year (see [story: Match-com-in-Talks-Buy-Yahoo-Personals Story]). Match.com (IAC) most recent acquisition was People Media in July, 2009 (see Story).

I received an email from Perfectmatch.com advertising a free search and communication weekend starting Friday, February 19th, 2010 to Monday, February 22nd, 2010. Looking on the dating sites homepage though, there is no mention of this promotion. This is a little strange but, I did log into Perfectmatch with my old account and was greeted with a banner advertising the free weekend on the member's homepage. I was also able to communicate with members.

So it looks like that this promotion is only available to existing members. Too bad new members couldn't have a go at it. eHarmony was the first dating site to offer this type of free weekend promotion a couple of years ago and just last year Chemistry followed suit. This is the first time I have heard of PerfectMatch doing this.

If you are interested in this dating site, you can read our Perfectmatch.com review for more information.