by David Evans on February 8, 2010 in Software
BoonEx, a leader in the Community and Social Networking software market, has release Dolphin 7. Disclaimer: Boonex is an advertiser. Dolphin was developed on a modular system, and BoonEx claims it easy to install default modules, such as a 100% Ajax based forum, file sharing, instant and simple messengers, audio/video chat, mailbox, music and video players, video recorder, a user’s profile customizer and more, and further – to disable them or add other third party modules.
One thing I’ve always said about dating site or community software is that you’re basically buying an administration system. Serving up a profile is easy, it’s the pay-wall, user and communications management that’s complicated. Various forms of security and anti-fraud solutions can make up a large portion of a dating site codebase as well.
A lot of dating software in the past didn’t upgrade easily. Unless your developers were skillful and really knew the system well, the version of Dolphin you built you site on was the version it stayed. This is bad for two primary reasons, functionality and security. You can’t take advantage of new features and hackers can deface or take down your site. This is true for blogs as well, a Wordpress blog I host myself was recently hacked because I failed to install a single upgrade.
The ability to skin, or layer a specific design on Dolphin was a problem as well. If Dolphin is truly skinnable and modular, launching a site should require much less effort and expense. I’m going to throw a copy on a box and see how much the installation process and features have changed. Boonex Dolphin isn’t for everyone, but if you are looking for a customizable site-in-a-box, check out the Dolphin site and play around with the live demo. And don’t forget to let us know what you think.
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boonex
Just crossed the 3,000 post mark here.
I don’t know if it’s my new and improved profile and photos or the stacks of Benjamins I slipped to key Match, OKCupid and PlentyofFish executives while we were all in Miami, but my inboxes are filling up like crazy in the run-up to Valentines Day. I like to think it was the former. I kid, I kid.
2010 Internet Dating Conference Highlights.
Better Loving Through Chemistry: The New York Times write about dating sites trying to be the Netflix of love, a topic I’ve written about several times. Much of the article is about Chemistry.com. Surprised they didn’t mention PerfectMatch. And what’s with the shoddy research? If you want the real deal, the DiscoveryNews.com Wide Angle show looks at the intersection of love and technology.
Today’s email from Herway:
At HerWay, you get to relax while women come to you. Our research shows connections initiated by women are 10 times more likely to result in a real date. Don’t make her wait!
I’d like to see that research and anything that gives me back my time previously spent scouring dating sites is all good.
CatholicMatch is offering a Valentine’s discount: 60 percent off a 6-month subscription. The offer expires on Feb. 14 at midnight, which means you can watch Casablanca and Sleepless In Seattle before bucking up and logging in.
Once get married and the pink cloud evaporates, you might want to read Beyond Seduction: Loving Without Limits
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Relationship expert, Cecilia Alegria, better known as “La Doctora Amor” (Dr. Love), has a new book out,Secretos para encontrar pareja en internet / Secrets to Finding a Partner on the Internet (Spanish Edition)
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From the department of bad-timing: TLC invites you to spend Valentine’s Day learning all you need to know about finding true love and sustaining a healthy relationship with SEXTISTICS: YOUR LOVE LIFE. This one-hour special reveals all the startling answers and staggering statistics about love, sex, and romance that you’ve always wanted to know but were afraid to ask, such as: Is there a smoother path down the rocky road of love? Do details such as height, money, and even body hair really matter?
Amazon.com has announced the top 20 Most Romantic Cities in America, based on sales data across books, music, movie and sexual wellness categories! Taking out the top spot is Alexandria, VA; followed by Miami, FL and Cambridge, MA.
The PeteSearch blog has some neat visualization based on social network “social graph” research on Facebook. Read How to split up the US.
Truphone, the next generation global mobile operator, today announced its intention to help ‘spread the love’ this Valentine’s Day, with free calls to 30 countries worldwide – ensuring that loved ones need not just call to say ‘I love you’, but can talk, for free, until their hearts are content.
The Body Language Handbook: How to Read Everyone’s Hidden Thoughts and Intentions
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A new paper in Medical Hypotheses journal posits that carpal tunnel syndrome can be caused by sexual intercourse. Oh, great.
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It was good to run into Andrey at Dating Ad Network in Miami. I worked with him a few years ago when they were launching DAN. Andrey has a few good blog posts about his thoughts on iDate, interview with vindicia, and a bit about the evolution of online dating. Dating Ad Network Blog.
There is no more effective way to get a sense of someones tastes, preferences and personality than a five minute video chat. Only companies really doing anything with video are SpeedDate, which is getting north of 1.5 million visitors a month and the young kids are using Woome. I haven’t used SpeedDate in a while, it’s $30/month and crashed on me in the middle of a date and froze my browser. It happens, especially on my Mac with Flash, but $30 is still too expensive, especially if I want to try it out for an hour or so.
Today I checked out Chateoulette (Often NSFW). It’s a dumbed-down version of WooMe, just go to the website, turn on cam, and a random stranger is immediately looking right at you, doing just about anything, and I mean anything.
OPW has a post about Match launching an Andriod mobile application. There is another post about Skyecandy, which is videodating via Skype. This has been done 10 times over in the past and hasn’t gone anywhere. Maybe Skycandy has something new in store for us.
I wonder if/when mobile apps will support streaming video? As I’ve always said, an online speed-date with audio and video is the best way to figure out if you want to go on a first date with someone. Mobile apps should be able to implement video chats easily. At home, cams need to be built into a higher percentage of laptops for this to make a significant impact on the dating market. And then there is the issue with people’s behavior. Video tends to bring out the nasty in people.
OmniDate does an end run around this problem by using Flash-based avatars. It’s been around a few years now and I’m waiting to hear some positive results from companies using the service. There has been some research, but where’s the business-case ROI? Are people sticking around on dating sites longer, is there advertising baked into the experience (where the real money is for a startup), are better, more long-lasting relationships resulting from companies using the service?
My SpeedDate time just dinged, gotta go.
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speeddating,
video
by David Evans on February 5, 2010 in Finance
After a long-awaited public offering, FriendFinder has cancelled their IPO. According to TechCrunch, flat sales and lackluster investor are to blame. The high-profile network of dating and adult sites planned to use the IPO to pay off the staggering debt, currently $471 million.
This is a big setback for FriendFinder. What can they possibly do now? It’s easy to see them spinning off AdultFriendFinder, but that was big reason that Penthouse brought the network in the first place. I can only imagine the back-room drama thats going on right now. There is always much more to the story than what’s mentioned in the media. It’s really too bad for FriendFinder, it’s IPO would have brought some legitimacy to the whole sector and loosened up investor purse strings, along with the potential for an increase in M&A deals. I’ll continue to track the situation with updates as people close to the story get back to me.
Update: According to the LA Times, FriendFinder sold 15 million shares for $7 apiece, the IPO trackers said, citing bank sources.
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Finance,
ipofail
Not satisfied with European market domination, Match and Meetic have established a joint venture in Latin America.
Match.com and Meetic will each own 50 percent of the joint venture’s equity, and Match.com will control the new entity’s operations. Match.com will pay Meetic $3 million in cash at the closing, which is expected by March 15, 2010. Meetic’s participation in this new entity is subject to put-and-call rights that can be triggered beginning in the fourth year, when Match could purchase Meetic’s stake at fair market value. An additional payment of $1.5 million could be triggered at that time.
Greg Blatt, CEO, Match.com:
By combining ParPerfeito’s strength in the Brazilian market with Match.com’s presence in the rest of Latin America, we believe we’re best positioned to drive that expansion and create an asset of meaningful value. We’re confident from our work together in Europe that further partnering with Meetic will be a productive experience.
Another day, another big deal for Match and Meetic, who seem quite comfortable with each other given their expanding online dating empire. Match has been looking for partners for a long time, and Meetic and People Media seem to fit the bill quite nicely. Muy bueno.
And what pray tell are eHarmony and Yahoo up to? Eharmony’s international expansion is nowhere near as advanced as Match/Meetic and Yahoo appears to be stagnant, if not faltering.
Something tells me we’ll be hearing more about Match in Asia as well. They have a couple of properties there but we haven’t heard a peep about them in a long time.
More at Boston.com.
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Finance
Geek Squad is looking to help 6 long distance couples this Valentine’s Day. The Agents will be hosting a dinner for LA-NYC based couples at BLT Steak on Friday February 12th. Although the couples will be thousands of miles apart, they will have the dinner via Skype. Additionally, each couple will receive a netbook and $150 worth of Geek Squad service, to help them stay connected past Valentine’s Day. For additional information, check out the post about the contest here.
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Scott Valdez from Virtual Dating Assistants was featured on CNN yesterday. The story mentioned that Nielsen says there was a 21% increase in people using dating sites in 2009.
Match.com UK, which is now part of Meetic, has launched MatchAffinity which is not to be confused with Match UK or dating.uk.msn.com which is powered by Match. Markus quotes:
MatchAffinity helps people to find their partner through some more scientific means. Each user takes a simple psychometric style test (takes about 10 minutes) and will then be matched with other members on the site based on a percentage compatibility ratio. In order to then communicate with the member, users will need to subscribe to the full service, we find that curiosity usually gets the better of them!
Reader Fernando says It is actually MeeticAffinity rebranded and intended for the UK market, which was formerly known as Ulteem.
Here’s the VisualDNA quiz on MSN/Match in the UK.
Chegg is the leading textbook rental company in the US. They recently raised $137 million dollars, and are changing the textbook rental game. Interesting factoid, former Match PR head Tina Couch works at Chegg, and previous Match CEO Jim Safka was the CEO of Chegg, at lest for a little while. Via All things Digital.
It’s time for another episode of Which Test Won. Which landing page do you think performed best?
Congrats to David Levy at Tigerbow for getting plugged on the Today show.
Flipping the Funnel with Joseph Jaffe: marketers are losing control of what their brands stand for. Your brand’s message is what your customers and prospects say it is.
This story on active vision dovetailed nicely with the fantastic OKCupid post about online personals photos, The 4 Big Myths of Profile Pictures.
The Definitive Book of Chinese Astrology has some dating and relationship stuff in it. I’m amazed that more companies don’t pay attention to astrology when it comes to matching. 2,000 years of experience versus a few dozen, hmmm.
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by David Evans on February 2, 2010 in Finance
Not 48 hours after FriendFinder postponed their planned initial public offering this week, another stalled dating industry IPO. This time It’s Avid Life Media, which owns the Ashley Madison cheaters adult site. Avid wanted to raise the planned $60 million to acquire another company, I wonder who that was supposed to be?
Update: The site to be acquired is Moxie Media.
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Finance
