FriendFinder Networks

I notice that Passion.com got a much needed homepage facelift recently (bottom left). The bottom right image is what the Passion.com homepage has looked like probably for the last 4 years or more (it has been a while). The white to pink gradient background of the new look in much better and it doesn't make the homepage feel as "busy" ascetic wise or as blocky. I also noticed that they have removed any mention of FriendFinder. I guess this is to make the service have a more distinct image and reputation. I think the new look with the softer appearance will work for them and attract more females, which is the hardest thing for most casual dating sites to do.

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

FriendFinder Networks Inc. made an offer on Thursday to buy Playboy Enterprises, Inc for $210 million. The founder of Playboy Magazine, Mr. Hefner, owns about 70 percent of Class A commons stock and 28 percent of Class B giving him complete voting control. The CEO of FriendFinder Networks, Marc Bell, stated that:

We look forward to Mr. Hefner and other key members of management being an integral part of the combined companies.

The problem with the offer is that last week Mr. Hefner made his own bid to take Playboy private at $185 million (or $5.50 a share). Playboy (PLA) is currently trading at around $5.65 on the New York Stock Exchange.

For more on the story read Stock Markets Review.

FriendFinder's Passion.com now offers a Gold and Silver membership guarantee. If you do not hook-up with someone in 3 months, you will get an additional 3 months for free.

Here are the rules for the guarantee as stated on the Passion.com dating site:

• Maintain a gold or silver account status for three months
• Log in at least once a month
• Send at least 3 emails a month
• Create at least one blog or group post each month

The rules seem pretty straight forward, since all they ask of the member is to actually use the site. If you have followed the rules and have had no success, then all you need to do to claim your 3 months is email Passion.com's customer service. This offer is valid once per customer. Please confirm the guarantee rules on Passion.com before you sign up to this dating service as they may have changed since the writing of this post.

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

The Editor's choice for the Top Pick - Sexy Award goes to Passion.com. This intimate encounters website community continues to be popular with the singles crowd, thanks in large part to how easy it is to meet and interact with new people. Members can email, instant message, text chat and webcam chat (as a group or one on one). There are special interest groups to join and blogs to read. With these features and tools, Passion.com makes it is easy to expand your network of friends and partners.

Passion.com is an international adult dating site which has many men and women actively meeting and communicating with each other. They now have over 33 million members with at least 100,000 members logged in at any one time. This interactive dating service even has a guarantee. If you do not meet up with someone in 3 months, your membership will be extended an additional 3 months for free.

Read our review of Passion.com for more information about this dating service or visit Passion.com directly.

This Year's Runner Up for this award is: Lavalife.

There is more bad news for FriendFinder Networks regarding their IPO (see Story). FriendFinder was suppose to start trading on the New York Stock Exchange this Thursday under the symbol FNN. They now plan to launch sometime the following week. The dip in the market last week is said to take partial blame as well as some last-minute questions from the Securities and Exchange Commission. These questions are not uncommon and can delay the process of launching a deal.

For more information, read the Wall Street Journal.

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.