General News

I was reading The Paradigm Shift and notice some comments about members not being able to access PlentyOfFish.com. I just tried it myself and it looks to be true. Plenty Of Fish appears to have gone down at least an hour ago, around 4pm eastern standard time. The internet browser returns a HTTP 400 error, which seems to suggest that the actual web server is experiencing problems. The last time that we know of when Plenty of Fish went down was mid July 2008, when there was a fire which knocked out power to the building where their servers are housed.

Update #1: As of 8:00pm EST all seems back to normal. PlentyOfFish.com is now back online.

Update #2: March 1, 2009 - I notice this morning that PlentyOfFish.com is still online but is really slow. You also may get server out of memory errors when you attempt to login or perform searches.

Update #3: March 1, 2009 - As of noon, things seem to be back to normal again.

Update #4: August 9, 2010 - For those of you reading this post about POF being offline today, for more information and updates read: Plenty of Fish is Down - August 9, 2010

For more information on this dating site, read our Plenty Of Fish review.

Thanks to the Online Dating Insider for the news.

Christian Cafe just had its 10th Birthday. The founder of this dating site, Sam Moorcroft, certainly has seen a lot of changes in the industry since 1999. Back then the site was optimized for viewing in 800x600 resolution and using Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 (IE is up to 7 now). Quicktime 4 was mentioned along with the site recommending "Works Best for 56k Modems And Above". There even is a spot for AOL and WebTV users to click (Ahhh, how I miss all those AOL CDs I use to get in the mail!).

Find out more about Christian Cafe by reading our review.

I have to admit I didn't notice the change.

Back in 2007 eHarmony decided to stop using the TV commercial format that they have been using successfully for the previous 5 years. You know, the one where several couples are used to talk about dating and eHarmony in the same commercial. Greg Waldorf, the CEO of eHarmony though it was too superficial and decided to focus just on one couple per ad. This way the one couple could go more in-depth about what makes eHarmony a great dating site. The other ad format was very successful for eHarmony, but Greg wanted to see if the new formula would create even greater success. By March 2008 the new format commercials were created and the Canadian market was used as an initial test. The commercials were well received and instead of the new commercials airing in June 2008 for the US, it was pushed up one month, to May.

From the commercials I have seen, for the most part the new ads are still pretty similar to the old ads. You still have the white background and the same type of music. The couple speak like they are answering questions from an off camera person and in this way they provide information for the viewing audience. This is very similar to how the old commercials worked. The only thing different is when the camera switches shots, it just focuses on the same couple again to rely more information, instead of a different couple like the old commercials.

Read the full story at The Wall Street Journal. For more information on this popular dating service, read our eHarmony review.

We have had a few articles recently (see Story) about how online dating sites have seen a spike in memberships as the economy slips. The opposite trend seems to be true for divorces, when compared to the economy. Couples who are struggling with their relationships tend to stay together more and longer when the economy is down. Worries about money and finding someone to pay half the rent or mortgage are the primary reasons.

A economics professor at San Diego State University had an interesting point of view regarding marriage. Shoshana Grossbard noted that probably a greater percentage of online daters now, are not looking for marriage. For the most part, most people do not want the expense of getting married in times when money is tight. As example, In the first few years of the Great Depression, the number of marriages dropped 20 percent from 1929 to 1932.

Read Sign On San Diego for more of the story.

Back in June, 2008 we reported that the Arizona Attorney General filed a lawsuit against Great Expectations. Yesterday, Attorney General Terry Goddard announced that a $500,000 settlement was reached.

Great Expectations must pay $250,000 in restitution to eligible consumers who were victimized by the company's deceptive practises. The remaining $250,000 will be paid to the state for consumer fraud prevention.

Terms of the settlement also require Great Expectations to correct its alleged deceptive business practises. According to the lawsuit these included:

• Misrepresenting to consumers the overall number of Great Expectations' participating members.
• Misrepresenting to consumers that it had conducted a criminal background check on all of its members.
• Using membership agreements that illegally extended initial memberships beyond one year.
• Unlawfully obtaining consumers' credit information as soon as they arrived at the Great Expectations office.
• Using high-pressure sales tactics during one-on-one, hours-long presentations to consumers.

On February 19th, Match.com announced that Greg Blatt had been named Chief Executive Officer of Match.com. His previous job title was InterActiveCorp’s Executive Vice President and General Counsel. As the new CEO, Mr. Blatt:

... will have primary responsibility for the strategic and operational leadership of IAC’s personals businesses, which includes the global operations for its flagship brand, Match.com, as well as Chemistry.com and DowntoEarth.com.

Greg Blatt will be taking over for Thomas Enraght-Moony who has held the CEO position since April 2007. Thomas first started working at Match.com in 2004 which was the same year Greg started at IAC in senior management.

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