Article about OKCupid in Gelf Magazine – The Love Theorem.
OKCupid has launched a Firefox toolbar which keeps you logged into Instant Messaging and alerts you when people you are talking with appear online. I like this a lot. Userplane did this for years but now that it’s in Firefox, I’m all over this.
Moving to t he bottom of the browser, we have the OkCupid IM controls, which appear at the bottom of the browser when you’re on the website. Slick implementation, only improvement I can think of is to have the IM session start automatically with the person who’s profile you’re browsing. As for the toolbar, the only thing I don’t like is that there is no way to go to the person’s profile.
Plentyoffish recently removed IM and Markus says Uk and AU traffic experienced a double-digit increase. Can this be directly attributed to the removal of IM or are their other reasons why traffic jumped?
I empathize with women using IM on dating sites. There *must* be privacy controls to filter who is able to IM you. Without them, it’s a giant perv-fest and woman will either turn off the feature or leave the site for good.
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Markus removed IM from Plentyoffish.com and the IM users shifted to using the on site messaging. Traffic went to the site instead of the IM system. Which is good for POF’s bottom line.
(Full Disclosure: Plentyoffish is a client of mine, Courtland Brooks)
really doesn’t matter if they see ads on the IM or the site…. You still get money either way.
IM decreases the number of relationships generated and the overall effectiveness of a dating site.
I would like to hear other dating sites back up or refute Markus’ claims that IM decreases # of relationships and effectiveness. If filters are in place to keep woman from being deluged by men, I would think that IM would be a positive feature. I know I use it a heck of a lot, as opposed to chat rooms, which are terrible for the most part.
Anything that switches people over to firefox is a social good.
Why do dating sites want to generate relationships? People hook up and leave the site, no?