General News

Game Pro Australia had an interesting article which talks about gaming habits and relationships. According to them, 80 percent of women have complained about the amount of time their boyfriend uses the internet or plays video games. 20 percent have actually dumped someone for this reason. The most likely culprit to cause an argument was Infinity Wards Call of Duty games.

In comparison, 72 percent of men said they thought their girlfriend spent too much time online. 6 percent of men saw this as a reason to break up.

I recently reviewed Match.com's new feature "My Match" (see Story) and I found a few more new profile features and tweaks which I decided to write about in this article.

When most dating sites add new profile attributes members are lucky to see an email about it or a mention on the homepage. This results in these fields only being filled out by new members which makes them relatively useless for searching until there are more new active members than old (this can take months). On Match.com, when I logged in, I was greeted by a popup screen informing me of a new profile field, front and center. This not only got my attention but they made it easy to update by including the actual field in the message for me to modify. It was simple for me to do and it didn't result in me searching through a number of profile pages until I found the new field. If people have to search for something half will not, and half will quit in frustration if they don't find it in the first minute or so.

I also see on the profile page that Match.com now allows you to filter out profiles completely that do not have a photo. You also now have to completely finish your profile (and have it approved) before others can view it online. It seems Match.com has stopped allowing just a basic profile (minimum fields completed) from showing up in search results. This is a wise move by them as only someone who is either not serious about online dating, or is just "Checking it Out", creates a profile in the least number of steps. These types of profiles do not help members who are actively looking for a match and in the end just frustrate them if they come up in their search results. The other thing Match.com implemented is, not allowing members to view other members' profiles until their own profile has been completed.

Match.com continues to improve their service and even though these new tweaks seem small, they do help give members a higher quality online dating experience. For more information on this dating service, please read our review of Match.com

Two of the top New York matchmakers shared some of their secrets recently. Siggy Flicker, the head matchmaker for Model Quality Introductions, and Lisa Clampitt, the president of VIP Life, both have over a decade of matchmaking experience each in the New York tri-state area. Most of their clients are millionaires and range in age from their early 30s to late 50s. Some of their clients more popular professions include doctors, lawyers, CEOs, finance professionals and real estate developers.

Some of the questions NBC New York ask the matchmakers include, "What are their millionaire clients looking for?". Their answers pretty much is, "The Whole Package". Their clients want a woman who is fun, attractive, classy and intelligent. They need a sense of style and brains. Someone who is angry or jaded is not even considered. Other questions asked include, "Tips on dating about how to keep a millionaire." and "Who their female clients are and what are their chances?".

Both matchmaking agencies are free for women who meet a certain criteria. With men, VIP Life fees start at $12,500 and Model Quality Introductions fees start at $20,000 per year.

For the full list of questions and answers, read NBC New York. To find out about personal matchmakers, check out our Matchmaking Services category.

Our new review for the free dating site Mingle2 is up now.

When I was creating a membership on the site for the purpose of doing a review, at the end of the process Mingle 2 asked an interesting question. They asked me if I wanted to automatically register for free on FriendFinder without filling out additional information. All I had to do was just click YES and FriendFinder would email me the log in information.

I thought this was an interesting way for a mostly free dating site to make some extra money (because the 2 sites shared profile information), but I was a little surprised. I had not even reached the dating service homepage yet and I was already prompted about another matchmaking service. This cannot really instill confidence in Mingle2 for new members. I wonder how many people actually click yes.

To find out more about this dating site, check out our new Mingle2 review.

Hmm, I never realized that Cupid Media was an Australian based company. Anyways, they are one Australia's biggest dating companies with 33 niche websites that specialize in everything from singles who value religion, to physical appearance. Cupid Media currently has about 15 million profiles from more than 50 different countries. They receive about 15,000 to 20,000 new members a day with the past 18 months being their largest growth period at about 3 million users.

One of Cupid Media's more popular dating sites is called Muslima.com, a dating site for people interested in dating a Muslim. Other popular dating sites they run that get decent traffic numbers include AsianEuro.com and JapanCupid.com.

Find out more at the Sydney Morning Herald. For further details on a Cupid Media dating service, read our review of Muslima.com.

"My Match" is a suite of tools in which Match.com recently launched to help complement their existing search capabilities. This personalized matching channel is accessible from the tool menu at the top of most Match.com pages (may be called "Matches").

Here is the list of Matching Tools:

• Daily 5 - Daily introductions to people based on how likely you are to strike up a conversation together.
• Mutual Match - Daily introductions to a handful of people based on your stated preferences and their stated preferences.
• Singled Out - Introductions we only make when we believe there is an especially high likelihood that you will hit it off with the person.
• Like At First Sight - Introductions to people who we think you'll find immediately appealing based on your responses to a fun online quiz regarding first impressions.

We have seen the other features before this but, "Like At First Sight" is new and currently in Beta. "Like at First Sight" matches are based on a quiz you take. The quiz consists of 15 questions where you have to pick the best choice from 15 different answers (most questions). The difference here is all questions are answered by picking from images. For example the first question asks "Of these celebrities, I think she is most attractive:", from here you are presented with 15 different pictures of actors or actresses (depending on the gender you are interested in). The only questions which followed a different format was the one where you had to pick the voice which was most attractive to you. Other questions from the quiz include:

• The SHAPE of this face most resembles my dream woman:
• I find this hairstyle most attractive.
• Which of these figures always turns your head?

The" Like At First Sight" quiz definitely is designed to figure out what your ideal man or woman looks like. Once you complete the quiz you are then presented with a number of matches. I am curious to know how Match.com figures out some of the matches since questions about hair styles and the shape of your face are not included in ones profile. I wonder if Match.com has software to analyze profile pictures to produce these answers.

For more on the story, read the press release and to get further details on this dating service, read our review of Match.com.