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Read/Write Web has several posts about online dating this week. Fellow Corante blogger Ken Yarmosh says Myspace is unofficially a dating site. Link
PeopleAggregator is the focus of this post. Open social networks are the future. Open profiles are coming to social networking, heck, they’re here already. How long until the dating industry gets behind the movement? Large social networks make more from advertising dollars than they do subscriptions.
Social networks are creating new ways to mimic the “paywalls” dating sites rely on. In the past, daters have considered paywalls part of what separates the casual daters from serious daters.
To date, dating sites have failed to emulate social networking sites, mainly due to the paywall issue. Nobody is going to pay for social networks in their current incarnation. Match.com squandered this opportunity long ago.
Social networks need to come up with new ways to recreated the “serious dater” filter through what I call “intention filters” and identity mechanisms that create a level of accountability and responsibility that avoids the nightmare that Google Romance would become if someone actually builds that.
Up-and-coming sites like PeopleAggregator are leading the charge, making it easier than ever to enable people to create relationships within and across social networking systems.
After a long drought the dating industry faces an incredible opportunity to take advantage of the appeal of social networks while maintaining their focus on dating and relationships.
Technorati Tags: people aggregator
Category:Social Networking Tags: social-networkingBlog reactions
4 responses so far ↓
1
Todd (Check me out!)
// Jul 14, 2006 at 11:33 am
My space can be a great way to meet people. Then again, it’s a phisher’s paradise. That’s one thing the dating sites have gotten right. They actively weed out the phishers.
2
Greg (Check me out!)
// Jul 14, 2006 at 4:51 pm
SingleAndActive.com (http://www.singleandactive.com) does exactly that; open social network focused on outdoorsy types.
As noted we have in place “intention filters” that, to date, have proven successful in creating and maintaining clear TOS “norns”.
Great (and funny) feature article on SingleAndActive.com in July 06 issue of Outside mag.
3
James J. (Check me out!)
// Jul 14, 2006 at 8:03 pm
Are you saying that you no longer believe that payment as a filter is a valid concept?
4
relaxedguy (Check me out!)
// Jul 15, 2006 at 8:26 am
I’m saying a certain amount of serious daters will always pay for the the priviledge of joining a specialized community. My comment was to the fact that social networking sites have in some cases become de facto dating sites and they will continue to eat away at paid dating site membership if they invent new ways to mimic the paywall.
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