Profiles

I found a press release that announces the partnership of DatingHeadshots and Honesty Online to be a little over the top. In the first sentence they compare Justin Timberlake being sexy to the two dating companies new partnership. 😲

What the two companies are now offering is a complete Verification Package. On the photo side you get a professional photographer and a photo shoot. Government ID is checked to ensure the person who ordered the photos is the one at the photo shoot. Afterwards the person can then complete the Honesty Online verification process. This process uses information from your past to verify the person's identity by asking you multiple choice questions. A more thorough background, job and education check can also be completed at an additional cost.

This is an ideal merger of these two services, having your photos and background information being verified together. Plus, with the photos you get recent professional shots that helps give a strong first impression. Unfortunately I went to both sites and could not find any additional information on this partnership or service. I have a feeling it may be more money than people are willing to spend. It is also unclear on the Honesty Online website which dating sites use their services. I know they have a Facebook application but, it does me no good to get a verification package if I can't show myself as being verified on my favorite dating site.

Here is another story that has been in the hopper for a while.

Back in November 2008, Match.com updated the interface of their dating site and for the Profile Editor (see Story). The editor has an easier flow than the previous one with more Web 2.0 features. This means less reloading of the page in the web browser as some of the content is streamed when needed. An example of this is the auto filling of certain profile questions, that are based on your previous answers. My only small complaint so far is the list of sections to the left . When you click on the About Me section (as seen in the image on the right), the sub sections like Appearance and Interests appear. These clickable sub sections of the profile are in smaller lettering. To identify these as sub sections they need to be shifted or indented to the right like a tree structure. With the way it looks now, something doesn't look right.

Last month Match.com updated their profile process with new questions, and answers to existing questions. If you are a returning member and have an existing but old profile, look for the new icons that identify New Questions and Updated Questions while editing your profile. They icons appear when you hover your mouse cursor over the questions. New questions can be found in the sub sections under the About Me Profile section. The Get to Know Me sub section is almost completely new with the Lifestyle and Interests sub sections receiving a few new questions as well. Some of the new question also contain pictures. While having pictures as part of the profile questions is not ground breaking by any means, it does help breath a bit of life into the profile creation process.

The other thing which I notice when I was online at Match.com is they are advertising the fact that adding a picture to your profile will attract 15 times more attention than a similar profile without a photo. Most dating sites say your chances of contact is 10 times greater. I wonder what the real answer is?

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

On March 31, 2009 Perfectmatch announced the release of their Love and Money Assessment. It is used to quickly assess your financial habits and values, and help you to determine the ideal economic "profile" of your Perfect Match. With the first major economic recession since online dating has became popular, singles on dating sites now have been wanting to know more about how their matches deal with money. This includes things like spending money on luxuries vs. necessities; how much money is appropriate to save, etc. These types of questions certainly are not romantic but in the current financial climate, it is what a number of singles think about.

“Duane Dahl, CEO of Perfectmatch.com, said that more users of the site today are asking questions to his relationship experts about their mate's finances. Those questions are coming up now at the same point as ones about desire to have kids and talking about past relationships ... What the recession has done is reinforced the importance of finance and money and the effect on a relationship

I wasn't sure at first why Logitech released a press release about online dating called Sex, Lies and Internet Dates for St. Valentines Day since they are mostly a hardware manufacture. According to the release, Logitech commissioned the European study to "establish how much difference a video call with a prospective date would make". Ok, I guess this study makes a little more sense now since Logitech is one of the world's largest supplier of web video cameras.

What did Logitech's report reveal? First, that 58 percent of Europeans have been victims of online dating dishonesty. This breaks down by country:

• Italians at 72 percent
• Germans with 58 percent
• French and British at 55 percent
• Dutch at 48 percent

The number one thing singles lied about was attractiveness. Now this is a subject attribute so I'm not sure how accurate it is. Plus it is not mentioned if singles told Logitech that they lied or if people have said they have been lied too. In second place about things singles lied about in their dating profile was weight. One of the things lease lied about was the lack of hair someone may have had.

For the complete press release visit Response Source.

As with other countries, online dating and social networking has become popular in Japan. What is different in Japan is people still have a fixation with anonymity. As example, on average, the Japanese much rather upload video and pictures of their pets to YouTube, than media where they are the star. YouTube even:

has tried to convince the Japanese to loosen up, running events in Tokyo in which girls in miniskirts roam the streets with giant picture frames and video cameras, soliciting pedestrians to frame themselves and record a clip for the site.

In the end this campaign didn't work and, YouTube has since switch to promoting of uploading images of pets.

Match.com has been operating in Japan since 2004. They have added a number of different features to tailor the dating experience so it will suit their Japanese members (see story). These features include identity certification, income verification and blood type. Match.com's Japan president, Katsu Kuwano has stated:

When we did research on Japanese consumers, we found that the No. 1 reason for not using online dating is that they don't know if people are real or not.

Most of Match.com's advertising in Japan is geared towards Japanese women with marriage in mind. Match.com has timed the larger campaigns during national holidays. Still, only about 40% of woman who pay for a membership on Match.com post a picture of themselves. Just like in North America, men in Japan are much less likely to initiate communication with these profiles without pictures. Match.com feels their best bet for generating more members is to be identified with the konkatsu movement in which singles actively seek out marriage, instead of relying on their parents to find a partner.

For the full story visit the The Sydney Morning Herald.

To find out more about Match.com, please read our review.

Young people (and some older ones as well) need to remember that whatever you post on the internet will then be available forever. It doesn't matter if it is a text message, a picture or a video, it most likely will be replicated on other websites. Sites like YouTube, MySpace and Facebook are extremely popular and some postings on these sites have ended up haunting people. More and more, employers, police and institutions are using these sites to see how people they are interested in, are behaving. A few court cases have even used pictures from these social networking sites as evidence in criminal court. You of course also have to watch out for your camera happy friends who like to post pictures on the internet. You may not have posted it but sites like Facebook still let you link pictures of people with their member accounts.

Just remember posting a picture of yourself doing something funny may seem like a great idea now but, will it still be funny in 5 or 10 years when you are trying to get hired for an important job?

For more insight on your privacy and internet posting, plus examples of legal cases where pictures from the internet are used, check out Canada.com.