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This is what happens when I keep compiling links and then forget about them.
How will dating sites take advantage of FacebookConnect? Speaking of Facebook, I don’t see any Match people in Are You Interested anymore.
50+ essays on viral marketing, social network monetization, product design and more.
Facebook Growth By Country and the Slowdown in App Usage.
Why is it that I have to enter in my personal data over and over again for every Facebook application. Being able to sign up for applications quickly is the whole idea behind Facebook applications, and most apps fail at this miserably. Facebook should have a private tab on my profile containing information I may choose to release to dating and other applications. This is straightforward to implement, what’s the holdup? Don’t they realize this might increase the likelihood that I install an application?
The major caveat here is that the Facebook API for developers lacks a lot of basic functionality, so I can’t blame everything on the developers of applications. Or can I? Developer interest in Facebook waning, everyone is moving over to iPhone app development. Viximo to the rescue.
Markus should add widgets and an API to PlentyOfFish. He’d probably do it in a week of man-hours, but if he only works 15 minutes a day, might take a while.
Is the Facebook Land Grab Over? Slide, maker of the most popular Facebook applications, halted new application development.
The way that most dating sites and social apps recommend people to me is broken. Match’s Daily5 is fair, and they vow to continue improving the algorithm, but the introductions I get for the most part never seem to make sense. SinglesNet and Mate 1 are a 10 on the scale of annoying use of this feature. But boy does it drive pageviews.
Look at all the stuff on this Are You Interested page. PlentyOffish ad, giant application branding header and provocative SinglesNet Ad. This is the only way to make any money these days on social apps. I would pay Facebook $50 a year never to see ads like these again. The word application is really a misnomer, these are HotorNot clones masquerading as advertising delivery mechanisms.
But many are they are making money and allowing companies like Zoosk to raise millions of dollars in funding. It doesn’t matter if these applications are generic, they are best of class and launched before people got tired of developing Facebook apps. These are the companies that get funded.
Why are people allowed into these apps without a photo? Even a photo of a tree is more interesting than a question mark. I would make the blank photos say “anonymous coward” like they do on Slashdot. Calling people out can be a great motivator if applied effectively.
Social network dating apps need to evolve past the HotOrNot model into something more engaging. However, early tests of matching apps with lots of features were not embraced by users, who like the empty calories of clicking and rating 100 people at a time and then moving on to something else on their lunch break. It’s no wonder the application useage growth has plateaued.
These checkboxes are out of control! Why aren’t they explicitly explaining WHAT data the application is accessing? Most of them don’t appear to access anything other than your Friends list.
Check out this SpeedDate app on Facebook. Why can’t I just accept a gift or a beer or a hug or a video from someone without having to go through the process of installing an application. Too many steps.
#1 How can SpeedDate know who is hot?
#2 Do I get faster matches with non-hot people?
#3 I’ve never noticed a difference between 1, 8 and 16 friends. Nobody ever contacts me on SpeedDate except for people SpeedDate thinks I want to meet. See above argument.
List of Applications in the Facebook Dating Applications category.
Viibee on Facebook.
I need to come up with a full list of dating apps to track via Appsaholic. It’s difficult, because of the ambiguity between dating and social apps. One thing I know is that I’m going to knock down the 1,000+ dating apps in the Facebook Directory down to a much smaller number.
AzoogleAds Facebook advertising network.
How Much is a Facebook ad worth (Jan 2008).
Facebook Applications Trends Report (March 2008).
Top Facebook Applications and Applications statistics from Adonomics.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
And this would accomplish what exactly? I don’t see how this would allow people to meet and date faster or more effectively.
Match’s Daily5 is fair, and they vow to continue improving the algorithm, but the introductions I get for the most part never seem to make sense. SinglesNet and Mate 1 are a 10 on the scale of annoying use of this feature. But boy does it drive pageviews.
The long term effects of these kind of things are very very negative. These sites make a brand promise they can’t deliver on and it creates a strong negative viral feed back loop.
I realize that monetization may be an issue but that isn’t our only reason for launching the apps (the Tribester app is meant as s stepping-stone to the upcoming Tribester.com Jewish Social Network, for instance). Moreover, I have to believe, particularly now that Facebook’s reach is significantly broader, that there has to be a market for free, feature-rich dating applications, just as there is for the same users outside of Facebook’s walls.
Better introductions don’t have to create a negative viral feedback loop, it’s all in the implementation. We’ll see in a few months if the Daily 5 works for people, regardless of the traffic increase at Match.
The only real internal success indicator for the marketing team at Match, is to cross the barrier of (and sustain) more than 2,000,000 paying subscribers for IAC’s Personals but …..
I think the Daily5 (worldwide) is the greatest mistake Match had ever made, in less than 6 months, Daily5 will end wearying/annoying its customers.
(Outside USA&Canada, the Daily5 is Chemistry rebranded).
Regards,
Fernando Ardenghi.
Buenos Aires.
Argentina.
ardenghifer@gmail.com
What do you mean Daily5 is Chemistry rebranded? I don’t understand.
Because they had bought the social networking site ZeroDegrees. It was discretely buried by circa 2005, although the Udate homepage still has a link to it!
————-
“What do you mean Daily5 is Chemistry rebranded? I don’t understand.”
* For USA&Canada only: Daily5 has its own algorithm to provide matches, and Chemistry is an independent site from Match. Daily5 is a recommendation engine and Chemistry is a personality matching method.
* Outside USA&Canada: the “Daily5″ is Chemistry rebranded, because Chemistry was merged with Match.
The Executive Team at Match decided to translate and change some pics to customize the pseudo-normative test used in Chemistry, from the original English version for USA&Canada.
—-Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Brazil and other Latin American countries: “Daily5″ is Chemistry rebranded as Cupido Diario
—-Portugal: “Daily5″ is Chemistry rebranded as Cupido Diario
—-Australia, New Zealand, Philippines: “Daily5″ is Chemistry rebranded as Daily5
—-Spain: “Daily5″ is Chemistry rebranded as Afinesati
—-Italy: “Daily5″ is Chemistry rebranded as Com-Bacio
—-United Kingdom: “Daily5″ is Chemistry rebranded as Match.com Personality Test
—-Norway, Finland, Denmark: “Daily5″ is Chemistry rebranded as MatchMe
—-Netherlands, Belgium: “Daily5″ is Chemistry rebranded as Chemie
—-France: “Daily5″ is Chemistry rebranded as Alchimie
—-Austria, Germany: “Daily5″ is Chemistry rebranded as Amor
—-Ireland: “Daily5″ is Chemistry rebranded as Daily5
—-China, Japan, Korea and other asiatic countries “Daily5″ is Chemistry rebranded, they only changed 3 pictures to give them an asiatic-look (workplace, couple kissing and different type of houses).
– Match International site “Daily5″ is Chemistry rebranded as Daily5
The Daily5 for USA&Canada is different from the “Daily5″ outside USA&Canada.
Regards,
Fernando Ardenghi.
Buenos Aires.
Argentina.
ardenghifer@gmail.com