Several years ago I built a blog for Chemistry.com’s Helen Fisher. At the time, Match had an on-again-off-again CEO blog, which faded away after a while. Match just wrote in to say that they have re-launched their CEO blog, and Gregg Blatt has stepped up to the plate to give us a peek into what makes Greg and Match tick. Up To Date will also feature commentary from Helen, Mandy Ginsberg and their Relationship Insider” Whitney Casey.
I really liked what we accomplished with the original Chemistry blog years ago, but they have since moved it to the crappy Microsoft Spaces platform, and it hasn’t been updated since February 23rd. Congrats to Match on the new blog, let’s not let this one die out again, ok?
Google is announcing a number of real-time initiatives at Google I/O conference later this week. Why, in 2010, can’t I type into Google “40-year old women in Boston who like baseball, running, Shawshank Redemption and sailing” and get links to dating profiles? I just did this and the first page didn’t display a single dating profile. Thats crazy.
Cougar dating sites are experiencing a backlash. First, the tv show Cougartown isn’t living up to the hype, last week Google halted cougar dating site advertising and now we learn that women should marry someone around their age or risk dying younger. Nothing like a category killer when your site’s premise leads to early death of your members.
Random acts of censorship: Mashable asks, Is Google Discriminating Against “Cougars?”. A website called CougarLife, a dating network targeted toward “women in their prime,” has called Google out for sexism because the search engine has classified CougarLife ads as not safe for families. But CougarLife’s CEO says Google doesn’t make the same distinction for “sugar daddy”-type dating sites, whose ads can be seen by anyone.
I was under the impression that cougar dating sites are categorized pretty much the same as adult and sugar-daddy sites, at least in the eyes of the public (and Google). Several sites have capitalized on recent popularity of the term cougars, but now the niche is saturated, and thousands of bunion-massaging pool boys are getting busy in the cabana with Betty White.
Tech Crunch says: Dating.com sells for $1.75 million. White Label Dating thinks the purchaser should run a white label site. Umm, sure. Given how poorly sex.com has been at generating revenue, I would advise the new owners of Dating.com to contact me to help monetize the site and avoid the world of hurt you’re headed for.
Speaking of, WhiteLabelDating.com announced a suite of customized upgrades and conversion tools to its US platform. WLD claims a million new US members since launching las fall. The newly customised platform goes live on 18 May 2010, with full functionality and features, including recommendations from one member to another based on behaviour rather than profiles.
eLove, the first company within the dating industry offering both online dating and matchmaking services, recently opened matchmaking offices in Stamford and Glastonbury, Connecticut.
Search Engine Land asks, What is an Active Member? Facebook has been posting gains of 20 to 25 million people per month. Pertinent due to the attention subscription-based sites are getting over claims of having tens of millions of profiles. As someone said in a comment, just sort by date. Usually, the farther down the list they appear, the more time has elapsed since a person last logged in.
