Article Subject: With improving technology and decreasing stigma, online dating appears nowhere near saturation

Article Link: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/2011/02/13/20110213online-dating-technology-decreasing-stigma.html

Article Rating: 4.0 (out of 5)

Website: various

Dr. Dato’s Brief:

This post goes into details of the history of online dating, naming successful companies such as match and eharmony see no end to the growth in the online dating industry. In addition, new technology making use of smartphones and GPS are finding their way into this area although the article doesn’t’ go into much details in this area.

A few issues that usually plague online dating sites include, not being honest with the profile, many scammers on the site, and the overload of too many profiles making it difficult to filter through them. Matchmaking technology has been mentioned and companies claim that their technology works in several levels of personality dimensions in finding your suitable partners. Personally, I don’t believe any matching technology out there can work as described because the human nature and its interaction with each are way too complex to narrow it down to a handful of personality traits.

Despite some of the issues faced by dating companies, the online dating industry is not yet saturated and more and more people are clambering on this bandwagon looking for love. Expect to see more players coming into this market and equally more players falling off the market. This is why its important that you put your energy on sites that will work for you. Look for dating companies that have been around for many years to be in the safe bet.

more and more people are now using online dating to find their loved ones

Tags: dating technology, online dating issues, online dating trends

Article Subject: Couples find lasting relationships through online dating

Article Link: http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/news/local/couples-find-lasting-relationships-through-online-dating/article_3ef2ecae-3715-11e0-a284-001cc4c03286.html

Article Rating: 4.0 (out of 5)

Website: virtualdatingassistants.com

Dr. Dato’s Brief:

The stories in this article conveys the message that online dating does indeed work for some couples.

In the first story Aaron who did not like the evening outdoor scene met Kathleen on an online dating site. At first Aaron who as 25 years old at that time had many older women contact him but fortunately he persisted and found Kathleen who is married to now.

The second case involves Jennifer who was too busy with school and a working life and met Mark whose profile indicated that he liked motorcycles, owned a pet bird and was reading about spirituality which interested Jennifer. They emailed each other a few weeks and they clicked, continued dating and got married.

What we can learn from these stories is that filtering through profiles is a must and persistence will eventually pay off.

online dating can work for people who are positive and persistent

Tags: dating stories, dating success, online dating couples

Article Subject: Valentine, don’t sweat online dating: outsource

Article Link: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20031646-71.html

Article Rating: 3.5 (out of 5)

Website: virtualdatingassistants.com

Dr. Dato’s Brief:

Here is another angle to online dating, it seems that people are never short of ideas to pair up couples in the best way possible!

The post describes a site called virtualdatingassistants.com who does the work of online dating for you. For their basic service of $360 per month, VIDA (virtualdatingassistants) will scour three online dating sites and create your own profiles, retouch your digital photo and they will correspond with potential candidates.

If you are feeling more ambitious then you can opt for their “executive package” which will fetch you back $1,440 per month. This entitles you to their ‘date concierge service’ where you have an executive briefing with someone, a professional photo session and much more.

The VIDA founder Scott Valdez has told Wall Street that he has been able to narrow down the email exchanges to a potential suitor to a mere five rather than the seven it takes for some other companies.

For such a website to be successful it needs a good amount of testimonials and positive reviews for people to be convinced before they part with their money. There are many dating sites out there right now and it takes only minutes to setup your profile but the real essence of online dating is the communication (which is highly personal) that takes place between the members of the site.

could this be a trend - virtual assistants helping you find a date

Tags: dating made easy, online dating service, virtual dating assistants, virtualdatingassistants.com

Article Subject: The 10 Commandments of Online Dating

Article Link: http://www.onlinedatingmagazine.com/features/10commandmentsonlinedating.html

Article Rating: 3.5 (out of 5)

Website: none

Dr. Dato’s Brief:

Here is another good post on advise for online daters, although I think they took the “Thou shalt..’ a bit too far

Instead of going through the entire list, I will only mention the pertinent ones.

2. Thou Shalt Put Others Before Thyself
A fair comment on where some people unobtrusively make their profile sound too much like “I”. Ideally you want to mention more about the person you want to meet and also have a common ground to talk about ie. activities that you like doing etc.

3. Thou Shalt Read Profiles Before Communicating
Good point in that most messages sent by users are not specific enough and sounds like the person just skimmed over the profile. If you want to add value to your message you need to read the profile and message appropriately with some substance.

7. Thou Shalt Be Unique
This pertains to the user making his profile and activities unique enough so that it stands out from the crowd. For example, a popular facebook profile gets attention because its always engaged with interesting stuff and therefore draws an audience.

To read all of the ten commandments related to online dating, please go to the article link above.

dating advice can help you avoid pitfalls and save you lots of time

Tags: dating commandments, online dating advice, ten tips dating

Article Subject: Singles type into love, boosting German dating sites’ profits

Article Link: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5920278,00.html

Article Rating: 3.5 (out of 5)

Website: ignighter.com

Dr. Dato’s Brief:

The article talks about the dating industry in Germany where it is claimed that the online dating service works unlike here in the US.

An interesting viewpoint held is the view that social dating sites such as facebook presents no danger to the online dating industry because men and women generally don’t like to be an ‘open book’ when it comes to dating ie. having all their personal friends, pictures for viewing.

Nevertheless, the dating industry in Germany seems to be growing particularly in inner cities such as Hamburg, Frankfurt etc. There have been several sites that have come and went because of the cost of operation and there have been the bigger sites that have gobbled up the smaller ones. Nowdays only a handful exist and doing well and these include ElitePartner “”Singles with Class” and FriendScout24. It is claimed that one out of five Germans have found a partner online.

friendscout24 a german dating site appealing to some european countries

Tags: european dating, friendscout24, german dating