eHarmony here in the United States will be having a free communication weekend (FCW) starting this Friday May 28th, 2010 and ending in the late evening of Monday May 31st, 2010. As the name suggests, free communication weekends allow free members of eHarmony not only to create a profile and review matches, but to use the guided communication process to communicate with other members. This guided process allows matches to ask and answer questions so they can get to know each other better. In the fourth step, once you become more familiar with you match you can then go ahead and write your first mail message. eHarmony has found this communication approach greatly increases the chances of a successful long term relationship. Fasttracking the communication process to mail and profile photos are not included in this promotion for free members.

This FCW is happening on the Memorial Day holiday weekend so you can expect eHarmony to be the place online for singles who are serious about finding a long term relationship, to be.

This will be the 25th eHarmony free communication weekend with the last event occurring late in March (see Story). eHarmony waiting almost 2 months before having this free communication weekend.

Check out our review of eHarmony for more information on this popular matchmaking service.

Singles interested in the United Kingdom Free Communication Weekend, read this eHarmony News Story.

Singles interested in the Canada Free Communication Event which is 10 days long, read this eHarmony News Story.

I knew change was a foot on Yahoo! Personals.

I was visiting the site this morning and all was normal and then just a couple of hours ago we were sent official word that Match.com is now the exclusive online dating site for Yahoo in North America. We had hints of this possibility back in May of 2009 when the CEO of IAC (owners of Match.com), Barry Diller mentioned that they were in talks with Yahoo about acquiring their personals service. Yahoo and Match are also no strangers to partnerships. The dating sites for Yahoo UK, Germany, Taiwan are all partnerships with Match.com in Europe. Granted the Match.com European Operations were bought by Meetic last year but these partnership deals were in place long before the sale. It also looks like the partnership with eHarmony that Yahoo Australia had is over with Match.com taking the helm.

For current members of Yahoo! Personals, you will be experiencing a transition period. You have 3 options to choose from:

We would like to welcome Kelly as a new contributor here at DatingSitesReviews.com. Kelly is an online dating expert and a former speed-dating host. She will be adding her unique perspective to our daily blog and offering not only advice but tips on relationships as well.

To see the articles that we have already published from Kelly you can view them here.

To find out more about our new writer, you can visit her Bio page. For those of you who have any questions or topic suggestions for Kelly's next article you can contact her through email with this page.

Tom

Chemistry is offering a free communication weekend starting this Friday, April 30, 2010 and ending Sunday, May 2nd, 2010. This 72 hour event allows all free members of Chemistry to not only create a profile and be matched with other singles for free, but members will be able to communicate with all members for no cost. Plus, no credit card is required!

If a dating service which matches you on your personality is of interest to you then you have no better weekend to try Chemistry out than now. These free weekends have become quite popular for them with online daters. This is because Chemistry.com's detailed personality test combined with their guided communication and dating process (called 1-2-3 Meet) is a sure-fire way to meet singles looking for a long term relationship and/or marriage.

The last Chemistry.com free weekend for communication happening in March (see Story). This new promotion marks the 7th time Chemistry has offered a free weekend for members. For further details about this online matchmaking service, please read our review of Chemistry.

Match.com launched April 21, 1995, this was 15 years ago exactly last Wednesday. They were owned by Electric Classifieds and a membership cost $9.95 per month. In a little over a year they had 100,000 registrations. In 1997 CUC International Inc. acquires Match.com and by the next year a monthly membership rose to $12.95. By 1999 memberships was $16.95 a month and Match.com purchased one of their competitors, the One & Only Network.

In 2000 Match.com had 156,945 paying subscribers and by 2001 they had partnered with AOL and MSN. A membership price at this point was $24.95 a month. In 2002 Match.com was then available in 40 countries thanks to in part by acquiring the international dating site Soulmates.com. In 2003 Match.com entered the cell phone dating market by launching MatchMobile. 2005 was a big year for Match.com when they launched the MindFindBind program. This program was created in part by the famous TV talk show host and relationship expert Dr. Phil. During this year Chemistry.com was launched as well.

In 2009 Match.com sold their European operations to Meetic and buys People Media from American Capital Ltd.. People Media run several niche dating services with the most popular ones being for Seniors, Black Americans and Christians. During this year Match.com also launches Dating Applications on the iPhone, Palm Pre and Palm Pixi cell phones.

In 2010 Match.com releases Dating Apps for the Blackberry and Android mobile phones. Match.com also acquires Singlesnet.com. At this point a monthly membership at Match.com costs $34.99.

The top picture on the right is what Match.com looked like in 2000 (thanks to the WayBackMachine). The bottom right photo is a snapshot of what Match.com looked like in 2009.

For a more detailed timeline visit Fox Business or read our own recorded history of Match.com. To find more information on this dating site, read out review of Match.com.

We have a new regular contributor here at Dating Sites Reviews. Ardie is a published writer with over 7 years experience in online dating. You can look forward to her dishing out advice on what does, and does not work with online dating and relationships. You can also expect an honest opinion from Ardie, in her writing about dating sites and the ins and outs of dating in general. Plus, she met "the guy of her dreams" through a dating site, so she knows what she is talking about! 😉

We have published a few of her articles already, which you can find available here.

To find out more about, Ardie, visit her Bio page and if you have any questions or topic suggestions for her next article you can contact her through email with this page.

Tom