General News

Match.com has done a number of smart moves lately to keep members using their dating site. On Tuesday, Match.com launched a free application on the Apple App Store for the iPhone and the iTouch. Members now can use most of the features available on the website, on their iPhone. This includes, viewing and editing of your profile (including taking a picture), viewing other members profiles and, sending and receiving messages. New to Match.com as well is the built-in location-based technology available through the iPhone and iTouch. This is an opt-in feature that gives members the ability to see other members near their current location on a graphic map. This feature uses the iPhone's built in GPS and the iTouch's wireless internet connection IP address location.

Note: Unfortunately the source to the video and/or image which once was displayed here has since been removed by the authors for an unknown reason.

Match.com has another service which is similar to the iPhone App called MatchMobile. It was launched in 2007 and is designed to allow members to access Match.com with most cell phones. This product uses a mobile web interface and has similar features as the Match iPhone Application, except without the location based technology. Match.com also charges $4.99 for 6 months use of MatchMobile. Since the iPhone App is free, I wonder if MatchMobile will soon be offered for free as well?

Over the last year a few dating sites have created location based dating and they must be cringing now with the news that Match.com has stepped up to the plate relatively early to offer this type of service.

Check out the press release for more information and read our Match.com review for an overview of this dating site.

Starting tomorrow, Thursday, March 26 and until Sunday, March 29, 2009, eHarmony is planning a Free Communication Weekend. This means trial members of eHarmony will not only be able to review their matches for free but communicate with them as well. The Guided Communication process is included in the free weekend but FastTrack communication is not. The major difference between the two types is, FastTrack allows email communication right away, while Guided Communication has four stages of questions and answers before you can communicate with directly with email.

This is Free Communication Weekend number 16 for eHarmony. Usually these free weekends go from Friday to Monday but, eHarmony has switched things up a bit and has this free weekend starting Thursday and ending Sunday. They also usually do free communication weekends only on holidays, so the news of this one came as a bit of surprise.

Read our eHarmony review for more information on this matchmaking dating site. Remember, eHarmony is very popular because of their detailed profile and automated matching system. If you are looking for a dating site that allows you to search for your own matches, then eHarmony may not be the service for you.

I finally finished the review of DownToEarth.com, a free dating site from the owners of Match.com. It is their answer to POF and OkCupid. DownToEarth.com is a new dating site (launched January 2009) that already has well over 100,000 members. It looks nice, it is easy to use and is well laid out. I was just surprised at the lacklustre searching and matching features offered. I hope they update this part of the site soon.

On a side note, I was going through Dating Sites Reviews a few days ago using the new Internet Explorer 8 browser to see what compatibility problems I had (there were a few which are now fixed!) and I notice DownToEarth.com needs to do the same. IE 8 doesn't render the DownToEarth.com homepage properly and the main graphic of the girl gets repeated (it does work correctly in compatibility mode). This needs to be fixed quickly as it is very noticeable and any potential new user seeing it, will probably just surf away from the dating site.

Check out our complete DownToEarth.com review here. If you have used this free dating service, why not add your own review as well (see our review to find out how).

Greg Waldorf has been with e-Harmony since it launched in 2000. He was one of the founding investors. By 2006 he was named e-Harmony's CEO. In the 3 years that Greg has become CEO, e-Harmony went from being a U.S. based company to offering services in Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom (with more countries on the horizon). The interview at Electronic Retailer Magazine asks Greg several questions about himself and e-Harmony, these include:

• What was e-Harmony's past and future marketing plans.
• What type of modifications has happened with the compatibility test over the years?
• What makes e-Harmony stand out from all the other dating services?
• Have social networking sites hurt business?
• How has the dating site evolved with the technology over the last 9 years?
• What is e-Harmony doing different to weather the global recession?

A few interesting facts were also mentioned (quoted from article):

• e-Harmony's first known success couple was married on May 17, 2001.
• The oldest woman to find a spouse on e-Harmony is 85 years old, married November 13, 2007.
• The youngest woman to find a spouse on e-Harmony is 22 years old, married May 26, 2007.

Check out the February cover story on ElectronicRetailerMag.com for the complete interview and read our e-Harmony review for more information on this popular dating site.

Back in September 2008 AOL Personals partnered with eHarmony, giving AOL users two choices for online dating. AOL users could choose Match.com for a more general online dating experience or eHarmony for a more in-depth personality matching approach.

Earlier this month People Media announced a partnership with AOL. This niche online dating service provider will give AOL Personals six additional dating communities which focus on African Americans, Catholics, Christians , Jews, Single Parents, and Seniors. One of People Media's sites serving African Americans is called BlackPeopleMeet.com.

I didn't realize People Media had grown this much in the last few years to attract a partner like American Online. With this in mind, we have started a review for BlackPeopleMeet.com.

Here is the full press release about the American Online and People Media partnership.

Usually Perfectmatch gets all the sweet media deals in movies and TV's when it comes to online dating sites (Dancing with the Stars, Must Love Dogs, etc..).

According to the unofficial eHarmony Blog, eHarmony will be the company who is the main sponsor of the The Newlywed Game TV show which is set to premiere April 6, 2009 on the Game Show Network. It is hosted by Carnie Wilson (her father was in the famous group, the Beach Boys). There are 40 episodes in the series and with the new retooled show, comes a twist. The winning couple of each episode will have a bonus round at the end of the show were they go up against a Goldwed couple. This is a couple that has appeared in a previous episode of the show that ran off and on through the 1960's up to the 1990s.

For more information on this popular dating site, read our review of eHarmony.