General News

There have been a few articles lately regarding who owns all the user profile information and communications that people do on social networks and online dating sites. It really came to the forefront in the news when Facebook updated their Terms of Use a few weeks ago that readdressed the ownership issue. Basically Facebook wanted almost complete control of all user generated content.

irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sub-license) to (a) use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute (through multiple tiers), ...

Many Facebook users complained about these new terms and with all the media attention it was getting, Facebook has rewritten their Terms Of Use and has posted a draft copy. They are even allowing users to comment and vote on the new proposed Principles and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities For Users. This is a surprising move that should make many Facebook users happy.

In the online dating world, dating sites have Terms of Service that can vary wildly. Some are similar to Facebook's old terms and some to the new terms of use. The one thing with dating sites you may wonder about is how long do they keep all this information for and what they do with it. With most of the popular dating sites they have strict privacy policies about who may see what information. As far as with how long the information is kept, it is all over the map. Dating sites like eHarmony doesn't delete your information from their database. With eHarmony's 200 plus questionnaire, this is a good thing as if you ever need to return to the site, your information will still be available to you when you reactivate your account. The flip side of this for example, is Plenty Of Fish. If your account is inactive for 6 months to a year then your account will be deleted. Not a big deal if you are a returning user as it only takes less than 5 minutes to fill out any required information for the profile.

For more information on the Facebook new terms of use, read PC World. To better understand the life of your online dating profile on many of the popular dating sites, read ComputerWorld.

Our newest dating category for reviews of free dating sites has been online for a few weeks now and I've just put the finishing touches on the new Plenty Of Fish review which is now available for you to read.

Next up will be the okcupid review which I hope to complete by this coming weekend.

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.