General News

The Unofficial eHarmony Blog has dissected a few web pages over at eHarmony and they have figured out, to date that the dating site has had over 28.1 million user registrations (for all countries). By looking at the source of the registration process and in particular the JavaScript, you can find your user ID number. This number is incremented each time a user is registered. So, if you ever want to know exactly how many users have registered, follow these instructions to find your eHarmony User ID.

For more information about this dating site, read our eHarmony.com review.

Army Times took a look at a few online dating sites that cater strictly to singles serving in the Military. Out of the 3 sites mentioned Militarylovelinks.com seems to have the most traffic. It is also the first site I have come across that wanted me to download an ActiveX control called ReputationShield. Reputation Shield I believe is part of a product called Reputation Manager which is designed to prevent online fraud and abusive behavior. The software is created by a company called Iovation, with whom we have talked about before in previous posts. The actual ActiveX control I believe uses fingerprinting technology to uniquely identify a computer by what hardware and software is on it. This way once a spammer is discovered on Militarylovelinks.com, they can block them for good (or at least form using the specific computer again).

Though it says the software is required, you can actually bypass installing the Reputation Shield ActiveX control. Reputation Shield must be a new feature on the dating site as there is no mention anywhere on the site (including the members area) on what it does. They really should add some information because it is actually a major selling point that Military Love Links wants to prevent scammers from joining. As it is right now, with no information present about the control and the reluctance of people to install unknown application on the computer (and rightly so), I bet most people do not install it, thereby making the whole thing pointless. I applaud Militarylovelinks.com taking the initiative in fraud prevention but, implement it completely, not 50 percent.

Minyanville took a look at Spark Networks latest financials (see Story) and decided to do an article on it. Spark Networks as a whole is not doing very well but JDate has been holding its own in the recent downturn of the economy, even with the advertising budget lowered by $150 thousand. JDate is really the only viable online dating solution for someone who wants to date someone within their own Jewish faith. One thing they mentioned which might get JDate members attention is that apparently they may be considering lowering subscription fees which were last raised back in April 2007 (see Story) to bring in more members.

One thing the article talks about, which I disagree with, is that the subscription model for online dating is not viable any more due to free dating sites. While their example of a free site like Plenty Of Fish has seen increase visitors of 69 percent according to Compete.com (not 100% like the article suggests) most other free dating sites have been either losing visitors or just holding their own. With the recession over the 6 month mark, I think a lot of the popular paid dating sites are doing remarkable well by keeping roughly their current visitor levels, while sales in other industries plummet. Subscription based dating is not going anywhere, and these sites have their place in the dating industry, just like the free dating sites.

For the full article, read Minyanville (Note: I experienced problems viewing this page in IE 8). For more on the dating site, read our Jdate.com review.

The news story of a federal suit by a man claiming he was deceived by Match.com (see Story) is now making headlines on TV news shows. Good Morning America did a piece about a man named Barry who is thinking of being part of a proposed class action lawsuit against Match.com. After using Match.com Barry felt "undesirable and rejected" since he received few responses to his winks and emails. The original federal lawsuit filed by Sean McGuinn

... alleges Match.com perpetrates fraud by returning inactive or canceled members in search results of seemingly dateable people.

He believes he was actually sending e-mails to ghosts of Match.com's past.

Perfectmatch.com is the only dating site I know of that is having a Father's Day promotion for all the single Dads out there looking to get back into dating. For the rest of the month of June you can get 35% off the regular price of a 3 month membership at this dating service.

Father's Day Promotion: 3 Months for $26.65/month, expires June 30th 2009

For those of you who haven't heard of Perfectmatch.com, they are a popular dating site that is a cross between Match.com and eHarmony. They have the in-depth profile and matching system (called the Duet Compatibility System) like eHarmony but, they still allow members to search for other singles with robust searching tools like Match.com.

For more information on what makes this such a great dating site, read our Perfectmatch.com review.

Match.com is definitely serious about the mobile market. Yesterday Match.com announced the availability of a application for the new Palm Pre which can be found now on the Palm Pre App Catalog (U.S. only). Now Match.com members with this cell phone can online date on the go by communicating and searching for other members. They can even edit their profile and receive wink and email notifications. Palm Pre's location-based capabilities can also be used that allows a unique search feature. You can find other Match.com member's in your area (this is not enabled by default).

Match.com has been in the general mobile phone dating market for a few years now with a product called MatchMobile. It was recently revamped with a new updated interface and features. Last March, Match also announced their iPhone Application (see Story) which has near identical features as their application for the Palm Pre.

For more information on this dating site, read our Match.com review.