General News

I notice the other day that eHarmony has now hidden their traffic statistics over at Quantcast. This is what you see now:

On eHarmony's Quantcast profile page you still get to see the US demographics and how many unique visitors they had last month but, the daily traffic and trends graphs are not available to the general public anymore. eHarmony first became Quantified by Quantcast last summer (see Story). A website being Quantified means that Quantcast directly measured the traffic data. It is not based on estimates as other sites may be on Quantcast and other traffic measuring services like Alexa, Comscore and Compete.

Over the last year eHarmony has become a much more open dating service, they have started several blogs and answered customer complaints in their forums. I hope that the fact, eHarmony has hid their daily traffic statistics, it is not a sign that they may have decided to reverse this trend.

For more on this matchmaking service, read our eHarmony review.

Here is the results from a poll that 1,000 Zoosk members took about Virtual Gifts. This information is probably similar for members of other dating sites.

• Only 15 percent of members have ever sent virtual gifts.
• 76 percent stated they were more likely to respond to a potential match who sent them a virtual gift.
• 71 percent send virtual gifts which reflect their personality.
• Traditional virtual digital gifts (flowers, chocolates) make up 37 percent of all gifts sent. Gifts that show off a person's wild side (martini, etc...) make up 27 percent. 23 percent of all gifts are warm and fuzzy (teddy bear, etc...). Finally, 13 percent of virtual gifts are seasonal.

To find out more information about this online dating service you can read our review of Zoosk

It seems like we have had an influx of dating TV shows lately. Let's see what America has been watching.

There is the The Newlywed Game which we have blogged a bit about. It is sponsored by the popular dating site eHarmony (see Story). While not a dating show, it does deal with relationships.

One of the more popular dating shows and the number one TV show on Monday nights is, The Bachelorette. It just had the season finale last week where Jillian Harris finally picked her man, Ed Swiderski.

Dating in the Dark is a new show by ABC which has become popular. For each episode, 6 singles spend time in a house where they meet and talk with each other in the dark. No one in the house has any idea on what the other persons physical attributes are. At the end of the show the contestants must pick their match and then each person is unveiled. It is the ultimate experiment in, does looks really matter?

Another new dating show that just started on the Fox Network is called More to Love. It is from the creator of The Bachelor. More to Love works very similar to The Bachelor except, the "real world" guy, gets to pick from a group of women who come in "all shapes and sizes".

Here is a list (in no particular order) by EW.com of more new and old Dating/Relationship shows:

• Change of Heart
• A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila
• Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire
• Temptation Island
• Flavor of Love
• The Littlest Groom
• Playing It Straight
• Blind Date: Uncensored
• Mr. Personality
• Married By America
• Rock of Love
• Joe Millionaire

It's Just Lunch has recently expanded and opened a physical location in the St. Cloud area. Over the last 3 years at the Minneapolis headquarters, the director, had noticed an increasing number of singles from the St. Cloud using their matchmaking services. Since It's Just Lunch requires an in-person interview it was decided back in April that a additional location which was closer to these clients was required in Waite Park.

The Minneapolis headquarters has 10 employees. When someone becomes a client of It's Just Lunch, there is a personal hour long interview which you talk more about yourself and what you want in a match. Matches are then hand selected and the staff coordinates the dates between the two clients. After each date, the client provides feedback which is then used to help further narrow a match for them. Memberships can be put on hold anytime if a couple want to explore a relationship further.

To find out what this matchmaking service is all about, read our detailed review of It's Just Lunch.

According to researchers, internet dating services are used more by a certain type of person which fits a particular psychological profile. In a 2009 survey of 3,345 US citizens, researchers found the following results:

More likely to use Internet Dating

• People who are more sociable.
• Singles with high self-esteem and who put some value in romantic relationships.
• Men and women with low self-esteem and who consider romantic relationships NOT to be an important part of their life.

Less Likely to use Internet Dating

• People who are more introverted.
• Singles with low self-esteem and who put some value in romantic relationships.

The average age of the participant of the survey was 48 and all were between the ages of 19 and 89. 47.5 percent were men and 52.5 percent were woman.

For the full story and more details on the results of the survey, read PsychCentral.

Are you someone who signed up to ChristianCafe and are still not sure if they are the right online dating site for you? To help you decide, check out their member testimonials. They are listed by year and month, and go as far back as 2002. Each testimonial contains a message from the happy couple along with a few photos (usually from the wedding).

If you haven't become a member yet of this dating site, read our review of ChristianCafe for more information and to find out how to receive a 10 day free trial that gives you complete access to the service (communication included). No credit card is required for the free trial.