Spark Networks has launched Facelink, a meta-search engine which returns online dating profile results from across all Spark properties.
Facelink reminds me of when I went to Lycos a few years ago to discuss their meta-search engine. I told Lycos that their site was destined to fail (it did) and I’m not straying too far from that message after trying out the current version of Facelink.
Network-based meta-search engines don’t work unless significant marketing dollars are redirected to the search engine from other destinations. The service should also work.
Instead, with Facelink, we are left scratching our heads. The user experience is all over the place, every search result is different, some profiles have photos, some don’t, some photos are hidden, some profiles are inactive, very confusing. Some say I need to create an account to view photos (again), yet the next search result doesn’t show that same massage.
Spark runs “over thirty online dating networks”, then why are there only 20 sites (they are not really networks”) included in the search results?
Search is free, you still have to pay to join the site(s) members belong to that you want to contact. Where is the one-pass where you can belong to all sites for 30 days? They should consider rolling that out as a billing feature.
In what particular circumstances would someone want to see search results across religious sites like JDate and Christian Mingle?
Why can’t I filter results by site? Why aren’t the sites a profile is associated with listed in the search results?
Why does the site look and function like it was built in an afternoon?
What is the concept behind “parametric search” and how is it different from regular dating site search?
It’s not revolutionary by any sense of the term, but I do like the free text, once you get the hang of it, wonder how it stacks up against MatchWords in terms of efficiency and effectiveness. I know, let’s have a shootout (not!)
I searched for women ages 31-25 who use the word “biking” in their profile. Of millions of profiles, only 864 mention the word. That can’t be right, can it?
There are 25 women in Boston who use the word restaurant in their profile? Something is seriously wrong with the search algorithm.
Search results are spotty, the lack of simple geographic filtering is a big problem. Women who mention biking in New Jersey show up before women in the Boston area.
Search results don’t display photos! That’s no good, this isn’t Google, show me some faces, and in gallery view, please. When I click through to profiles, most from JDate. To make matters worse, on some profiles I can read the text of the profile but “Only members can see my photos”.
I click on “Email Me” and am sent to registration page that doesn’t explain that I have to register and pay to become a member, before I can even see her photos. Hello user interface person, did they let you into any meetings?
I click on one more text result and am greeted with a mini-version of the profile of a woman with a great smile. I can see her photo, but then we have the signup page below her profile and the alert “You have exceeded the visitor search limit. Please login or register now to continue searching.”
Talk about a site that needs big Beta tag on the home page. Spark Networks spent a lot of money standardizing on a platform to power all 30+ sites, but the system templates and business logic isn’t future-proofed enough to adapt to a meta-search engine.
There are two types of people who will visit Facelink, those that already belong to a Spark Networks property, and those that don’t. Spark spent zero time differentiating the user experience ad marketing copy for each constituency. Actually, there is no marketing copy explaining what is going on. Click and pray.
Why doesn’t spark give you the option to create an account on Facelink?
Why did they bother to create a separate standalone site? How are they going to promote it?
My grade: C-, Facelink needs a lot of work to be even remotely interesting and useful.
Here’s the Facelink press release.
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David:
Did you happen to notice what the stock price did yesterday immediately following the announcement?
I agree with what you’ve said above. Considering how they’ve been bleeding members for the past year, American Singles for one had 111k members at the end of 2005 and only 34k in the 2008 2Q 10-Q filed with the SEC.
I think this was a last ditch effort to somehow get members of one of their sites to join the other ones. Of course, just like you said (and as per my email) between a Jewish and a Christian site.
I’m looking forward to the December 1 launch of http://www.thedatingrevolution.com more and more seeing how desperate Spark appears to be becoming.
Ross Felix
Founder / CEO Dating Revolution
http://www.thedatingrevolution.com
Ross, nice looking site and thanks for the email. Amazing to see the decline of AS.
In my humble opinion, it’s not that surprising at all. Spark Networks hasn’t done much to improve their template in the past years, has raised prices and (at least for me) always provided poor customer service and technical support. Their click feature is the only innovation I can remember them adding to the industry in the past 5+ years.
Why would someone pay $40/month* for a non-niche site built on an aging platform to reach 111k members, when they can pay $35/month* for 1.35mm members on Match.com. (* based on a month to month membership with no discounts)
Feel free to contact me directly if you’d like to continue the discussion.
Let’s talk here, that’s what comments are for. Spark has brand awareness and a large marketing budget, that’s why people continue to join.
I just signed up for your site. It’s weird to ask for so much information and have nothing happen. Didn’t even receive a confirmation email.
Just what are you up to?
David:
We were going to make a change to it… but right now the main reason for that page is to try and capture demographics to get an idea of who our members might be so we can run our site with their needs in mind.
That’s very odd that you didn’t get a confirmation email. Thanks for letting me know, I just sent off an email to the developers. I look forward to you reviewing the site after it launches.
When I ditched OtherSingles, I had over 112k active members. How does AS survive on 34k?
AS was the second site I joined back in the late 90’s. I joined flirt previous to AS in the mid 90’s. As of this writing, flirt boasts 20 members online. How the mighty have fallen.
facelink is a complete FAILURE, when it comes to user experience, why not have the user go to a page that gives a special facelink offer or something instead of going right to the jdate reg page, its confusing, and deceptive, why not give the user the option to email that person ONCE or send them a prewritten note, there is NOTHING that compels me to sign up with ANY of these sites, no urgency, no compelling offer, nothing, after all of these years being in the online dating biz they come up with this?
SPARK is a perfect example of when you let programmers, promoting people with no experience in marketing, project management, product management, and all around hacks dictate what you can accomplish, all of the innovators in that company who had great ideas for them have moved on to BIG things, and this is PROOF that without JDate (the two founders left years ago) SPARK would fail,,
what makes things worse is i know they are convinced they are being innovative, they still have not touched mobile, sms or anything of that nature in any signifigance.
its like they are stuck in 1998 just with flatter monitor screens. this company has its own head up its arse about how things are done, they actually think that Jdate (their first site) will carry them forever, they are LOSING members to countless free dating sites and pay sites that do things WAY better, THIS is the reason their beloved stocks are in the shite can, a refusal to be better, just recycling of what has not worked (ie lycos)
as a marketer im insulted, as a user of online dating sites im revolted
Wow EPIC FAILURE.