General News

From a CNN article about Matchmakers thriving in the current economy I learned that there is a Matchmaker Institute which was established in 2003. Described as the go to place for everything matchmaking, the website is designed for the Matchmaker business professional. It is a place you can go to become a Matchmaker or to improve your Matchmaking business. They offer training and certification as well as a Matchmakers Network, the industry trade association. Among other things they also offer business software, Home Study Kits (that can run thousands of dollars), and the Matchmakers Multiple Listing Service (MMLS) to help in your business as well.

The Matchmaker Network does have a Code of Ethics which looks good on the surface but it is unknown to us what happens to a Matchmakers Certification if he or she has one or more infractions. A code of ethics is useless if not enforced.

According to the institute there are about 1,500 independent matchmakers who operate in the United States, I was unable to find how many actually belong. The Matchmaker Network is a good idea as long as they are ridged with their rules and are not in it just to make money. It would be beneficial if something similar was setup for online dating sites, with a similar set of code of ethics. We all know dating sites are all over the map when it comes to how they treat their members.

For more information visit the Matchmaking Institute. If you are looking to hire a personal Matchmaker, visit our Matchmaking Services category.

Last Friday on PlentyOfFish.com the Instant Messenger was disabled. Since then POF claims a 10% increase in traffic from the UK and over 15% from Australia. There is no mention on if the visitor traffic increased for the US or Canada. With the traffic increase Markus (CEO of POF) has decided to completely remove the feature. He also mentions that he should of realized there was a reason why a number of the other major dating sites don't use Instant Messengers on their websites.

I'm not sure why Markus attributes POF having more visitors to him removing IM from POF. There was no news story surrounding this (until now) so why would this increase visitors to his site (since no one knew about it)? It probably increased page views of visitors since members now have to use the mail center more instead of the instant messenger. I think it might be a mistake on his part since he freely admits that hundreds of thousands of users used it every day. While Plenty Of Fish's instant messenger may not have been as smooth experience as Microsoft's, it was still definitely useable. Maybe he should of disable IM on a user's account by default and require an action by them to enable it? This way users who don't use IM would never be bothered by it.

POF logo also has been updated. It has a cleaner look and the tag line of the site has changed. It use to say 100% Free Online Dating. Now it says Free Online Dating. Which is true, since POF just recently started to offer a paid membership that has a few additional perks (see Story).

Read our PlentyOfFish.com review for more information on this popular dating site.

We just got a coupon code for PerfectMatch.com which is good until April 30, 2009. It is a little hard to remember, but if you type in

Coupon Code: 8G37A564

into the coupon code box when you upgrade your membership, you will receive the following special offer: 3 months on Perfectmatch for only $26.65 per month (Regular $36.95). This also includes a free book titled "Finding your Perfect Match".

This book is by relationship expert, Dr. Pepper Schwartz, and is valued at $14.95. Dr. Pepper Schwartz has written 15 other published books and many articles for such publications as the New York Times and Lifetime Magazine. She has appeared on such shows as Oprah, Good Morning America, Dr. Phil and CNN as a relationship specialist. For more details on what the book itself is about, visit Amazon.

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

eHarmony has gotten into legal trouble again. Lynda Kelly and Miranda Soegi of California have initiated a federal class action lawsuit which claims that eHarmony does not have a scientifically proven system for matching members. Lynda and Miranda believe eHarmony have been misrepresenting the services they provide. They feel they did not receive the service they had paid for.

eHarmony have kept their matching algorithm a closely guarded secret while other sites like Chemistry (see Story) may slowly begin allowing us a peek inside. eHarmony has patents on their matching system so their multi-million dollar investment should be protected if they ever wanted to release more information about it ( U.S. Pat. No. 6,735,568 and 7,454,357). Check out the comments here for more of a discussion on eHarmony's matching system, including some comments from matching experts like Helen Fisher.

I don't think this lawsuit will get to far. eHarmony has been sued before so I am sure their Terms and Conditions have been made air tight by their legal experts. With dating sites that have a scientific matching system, I think what members get confused and angry about is, how loosely the matching algorithm gets applied. I have a feeling that the longer you are on the dating service, some of these sites (to enable to send you more matches) may lower the requirements for a match. Another thing members have to realize is the matches you do receive on these type of dating sites are from both free and paying members. Usually paying members can reply to you, free members cannot.

Misrepresentation is a problem on the internet in general. How many websites are you on in a day that claim to be the biggest or most popular? You will also find a lot of sites that claim to be free, while in fact they are not.

For more information on the story here is a copy of the legal complaint in pdf format.

An Associated Press article pointed me to a new eHarmony spoof ad done by the folks at FunnyOrDie (which was co-founded by the former SNL comedian, Will Ferrell). In this new video, Lindsay Lohan makes fun of herself and eHarmony by pretending to talk about her dating profile. She brings up everything from her late night partying to her DUI arrests.

This video is the latest in a series, which spoof the now famous eHarmony TV commercials which interviews couples who found love on the dating service. Saturday Night Live and MadTV even have done parodies.

For a more serious look at this online dating service, read our eHarmony review.

On April 6th, 2009 the Game Show Network debuted the new version of The Newlywed Game. As mentioned in a previous story we did, this show is sponsored by eHarmony. One critic called the show a "30-minute-long infomercial for eHarmony with a game show scattered here and there." The show doesn't stray far from the original concept but I found it lacked the wit of previous hosts like Bob Eubanks from the 60s.

Carnie Wilson is an interesting choice as the new host for the show. She taped the first set of 40 shows over 11 days when she was 5 1/2 months pregnant (due June 2009). This is also here first stint at hosting a game show. If you don't remember who Carnie is, she is the daughter of Brian Wilson, the lead singer of the Beach Boys. She also had a successful singing group called Wilson Phillips in the early 90s. Since then she also had a TV talk show.

For a review of The Newlywed Game TV show read TV Squad.

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