Industry

Researchers at the University of Arkansas took a look at several claims of the more popular online dating sites. Psychology professor Jeffrey Lohr and Aimee King and Deena Austin-Oden (psychology graduates) found that the claims are more self serving than anything else. They wrote an article about this topic called Browsing for Love in All the Wrong Places which can be found in Skeptic magazine, volume 15 number 1. We found a review of this article at PhysOrg.

One example that the researchers used, as pointed out by PhysOrg, which made them skeptical of claims by dating sites is customer satisfaction testimonies. It is assumed by the researches that most dating sites only select satisfied customers reviews to display, rather than an average sample from all testimonies received. This is an obvious point and I am sure most people realize testimonials and reviews on a dating services own website are all preselected. In fact most companies in any industry would operate this way. It is how marketing works.

eHarmony, Perfectmatch.com, Chemistry and Match.com are all talked about in the review of the article at PhysOrg. The one example given about Match.com is their claim that they are responsible for twice as many marriages as any other site in the world. According to the review, Match.com:

We have discussed DNA dating before in previous stories which we mainly took a look at the dating site Scientific Match and how the actually process of DNA matching works. The Times Online has a detailed article called DNA dating: has science unlocked the secret of a perfect match? which expands on this and looks at other DNA based dating site like GenePartner.

GenePartner was started by Dr. Tamara Brown, a Croatian geneticist based in Zurich in the fall of 2008. For 5 years (2003-2007) she did research at the Swiss Institute for Behavioural Genetics were:

She believes she has found the attraction formula — based on patterns in the HLA genes — and turned it into a computer program, an algorithm that she is keeping to herself.

They currently charge $99 USD for a genetic match and at this moment have about 500 clients who come from the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom. When asked about her research and studies into DNA and matchmaking, Brown says she has no plans to publish it for scientific review until she has built up her clientele. She doesn't want to give her competitors any advantages. GenePartner also recently created a Facebook Application (just search for GenePartner on Facebook) to help boost member numbers. The App allows users to find out how biologically compatible you are and it also allows you to get tested directly through your facebook profile. Currently the GenePartner Facebook application has only 52 monthly active users.

One interesting topic which was brought up dealt with the protection of your DNA information when processed by a private genetics company. Since DNA testing is unregulated, some people fear this information could be sold to other companies. You wouldn't want your Insurance company to have your DNA results to find out what genetic problems you have. If they did, you could be discriminated against and denied health insurance. To fight this alarming issue, countries like the United States and Germany have passed laws which make it illegal for employers and health insurers to demand DNA tests or even be allowed to use a customer's genetic information against them. New York and California have gone even a step further and have ruled that genetic tests can only be ordered by a medical doctor, since it is a medical test.

Read the 4 page article to find out more about GenePartner, how it works and the science behind DNA matchmaking at Times Online UK.

What is an online dating aggregator? It is a website that pulls profiles from multiple dating sites based on a search inputted by a user on the aggregator site. James Nord of Rubixx says it is similar to how a travel website like CheapFlights.com works by searching a number of airlines for the best flight. While in theory it sounds like a good idea, practically it has a way to go. One of the main problems is the lack of search criteria. Rubixx allows on their website to input your gender, the gender you are looking for, a age range and a US zip code. This really is not enough information to search on, especially based on the number of profiles that it shows you. You basically end up just looking at pictures. No additional information is present in the simplified profiles Rubixx displays to you in the search results, with the exception of what dating site the profile is found on. Once you find a profile you like, you click on the picture and you are redirected to the dating site where you can look at more details of the profile. Most of the dating sites require you to sign up with a free account before you can view more details. Currently Rubixx gathers profiles from the following dating sites, Match.com, Date.com, Matchmaker.com, AmericanSingles.com Cupid.com, uDate.com, Friendfinder.com and MillionaireMatch.com.

Another similar web portal to Rubixx is Copenda. Copenda calls themselves a Social People Search and Dating engine. With Copenda you can search the social networks hi5, MySpace, Friendster and the dating sites Match.com and PlentyofFish.com. The big news at Copenda is they will be adding Facebook to the search soon in June, 2009. Currently there are more than 200 million users on Facebook. Copenda has more features than Rubixx and in its own way, acts like a dating site. The reason I say this is because you can favorite profiles, add comments to them and even rate them. Comparing multiple profiles is allowed as well as viewing more than one profile photo. Searching at Compenda is more in-depth as well when compared to Rubixx. You can specify keywords, location distance as well as marital status, religion, body type, height range and ethnicity. The only thing missing really is the ability to communicate directly with the person.

For more on the story, read The Washington Post. You can find Rubixx here and Copenda here.

Facebook announced late last month their new Open Stream API to developers. What this means is, Facebook user information now can be shared with other websites and software. Don't worry, users will still have full control on who can see and use their information. Apparently permissions will work similar to how the current Facebook Application system works.

This is good news for dating sites. It means we will probably see in the coming months or year the ability to transfer over information from Facebook when we create a profile on a dating site. Not all dating sites will do this initially but I bet one or two of the popular ones will test it. Dating profile quality is important for a successful dating site and it does suffer when people join multiple dating services. Who wants to type in the same information over and over? When this happens, less information typically is included in the newer profiles by the single as they grow bored entering the same information again. I am sure online daters would much rather store their profile information and update it in one spot. Facebook has enough members (over 200 million global users) to make them a prime candidate to offer this type of service.

For more on this story, read the Facebook Developers Blog and check out the Online Dating Insider for further insight into how Open Stream may help the dating industry.

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.

eHarmony won Silver in the Customer Service category for the 2008 Gartner and 1to1 Customer Awards. Gold went to Overstock.com with Bronze being received by Cricket Communications. You ask, who is 1to1? Quoted from their website:

1to1.com is a personalized Web site developed by Peppers & Rogers Group to help people interested in CRM and one-to-one marketing find information and resources to create more loyal, profitable relationships with their customers by treating different customers differently. The site is built around the four-step IDIC methodology of Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, Ph.D. - identify your customers, differentiate them based on value and need, interact to learn more about what they need and then customize your products and services to meet their needs.

eHarmony is a client of 1to1 Media and it is nice to know they are taking an interest in customer service to help not only the company's bottom line but to improve the overall experience of members at eHarmony. Too often dating sites rely just on FAQs and Help sections built into the website. Paying customers need more than this. Emails and calls to customer support need to be tailored to the member. Dating Sites should be exceptionally good at this since they already have a lot of personal information about the member and hopefully they keep track of the members usage pattern of the dating service as well. Simply substituting a members name in a stock email doesn't work anymore, people are smarter than this.

See the complete winners and category list Winners here.

For more information on eHarmony, read our review.