Online Dating

The New Jersey Assembly Committee has passed the next measure that would require dating services to tell residents of New Jersey whether criminal background checks are done.

Most singles dating online are honest but it's that 1% everyone worries about. Background checks don't tell the whole story and probably give online daters a false sense of security. A fair number of states have considered a bill similar to this but, one state has yet to pass it. The biggest problem with these type of checks is that most singles who have a criminal background would just give a false name to circumvent this type of security measure. A dating site would have to confirm that a member is actually who he or she says he or she is before an actual background check can be done. Confirming ones identity for websites is a whole other problem.

More information about this bill is located at the NewsCenter 16 website.

TechCrunch have posted a rumor from what they call a reliable source that the FriendFinder Network of sites has been acquired for $1 Billion. In an update to this rumor the buyer is reported to be Penthouse Media Group. The FriendFinder Network of dating sites includes AdultFriendFInder, Passion, Senior FriendFinder and over 15 other different types of dating services. The article further reports that rumored revenues for the Network is over $300 million a year which makes this acquisition worth about 3 years of revenue.

Is this a good deal for Penthouse? Could be, the FriendFinder dating sites have always done well financially and they don't seem to be slowing down. At a cost of 3 years worth of revenue seems a little on the low end to me but most likely there is more too this deal than we know about (if it actually is true!).

Seattlepi.com did a piece on a facial recognition from ActiveSymbols called Eyealike. This technology is able to gather the properties of a face from a picture. Such facial traits would include hair color, location and spacing of eyes, and skin tone. Company President Greg Heuss hopes this technology would be used for online dating to allow singles to search for a match by just a picture alone. He also sees applications in homeland security and video copyright protection.

While I find this type of technology neat I feel its use is very limited in online dating. It's much easier and faster to get the member to fill out the physical attributes of his or her profile than to try and get them to upload a photo that meet the necessary requirements for the software to be able to gather the information. This technology works best when the photo is something like a passport photo, which is fine for the software but usually is not very flattering for someone trying to find a date.

Try out a beta version of Eyealike and find your Dream Date or Celeb Match.

Spark Networks just released their third quarter financial results. Spark Networks owns AmericanSingles.com (there flagship dating service), Date.ca (for Canadians), JDate.com (Jewish Dating) and a fair number other specific niche oriented dating services. With most of their dating services membership numbers holding steady, JDate.com saw an increase in paid members by 3% for a total of 74,078. This shows well for the service in this increasingly more competitive niche market. Overall Spark Networks have a healthy bottom line and will continue to be one of the driving forces in internet dating.

For more information on the dating services which Spark Networks owns, see our reviews of AmericanSingles.com, JDate.com, and Date.ca.

According to this article and a few others on the internet, Charlie Sheen and girlfriend Brooke Mueller have gotten engaged this week. The couple met over a year ago on the popular Sugar Daddy dating site MillionaireMatch.com. This is an online dating service where wealthy singles can join who are looking for younger unattached people to enjoy there wealthy lifestyle with.

2 years ago a trend started in China's big cities. More and more single Chinese men and woman started to join dating sites. According to CCTV international, there are now an estimated 8 million or more registered members with over 70 percent having a bachelors degree. The reason for this huge jump is the busy lives of the white collar workers and the easy access they have to dating sites through the internet. White collar Chinese workers are now too busy to meet new people the traditional way.

To read more information on this Asian trend check out this article at CCTV International. For information on 2 popular Asian dating services read our Asia FriendFinder or Asian Singles Connection.