Online Dating Insider

MingleMatch issued the following press release:

MingleMatch Achieves Significant Milestone With Color Code Personality Profiling

Number of Members Using the Color Code Relationship Profile Service Surpasses 170,000

PROVO, Utah, June 28 MingleMatch, Inc. -- a worldwide leader in providing online dating sites targeted to specific markets -- today announced it recently exceeded 170,000 members that have taken advantage of the Color Code Relationship Profile service available on all MingleMatch sites. Through the Color Code Relationship Profile -- available through an exclusive strategic relationship with Dr. Taylor Hartman, developer of the Color Code system -- MingleMatch sites provide subscribers with a greater level of personal awareness, more accurate matching of members, and an insightful compatibility assessment.

"MingleMatch is pleased with the value our members have found in the Color Code Relationship Profile," said Ryan Sanders, vice president of MingleMatch, Inc. "We established the relationship with Hartman Communications because we realized the incredible potential and added value the Color Code could bring to our dating sites. To surpass 170,000 members participating in the service in only 6 months, really validates that decision."

"I'm thrilled that so many members of the MingleMatch sites have found the Color Code Relationship Profile such an added benefit," said Dr. Hartman. "Our original vision of many successful relationships built through MingleMatch and the Color Code is quickly coming to pass. I anticipate thousands, if not millions, more singles benefiting from this service."

On MingleMatch's niche-dating sites, the Color Code Relationship Profile is generated as participants answer a 45-question profile. The results of each profile places the individual in one of four core color groups -- red, white, yellow, or blue -- with the possibility of a secondary color of varying strength. An individual is given a detailed picture of what each color means. Knowing these personality traits, motivators, and idiosyncrasies creates a higher level of self-awareness and an understanding of how to relate to others.

Participants generally answer the profile questionnaire on their first or second day on a MingleMatch site -- another validation of the service's value. The Profile allows members to know more about themselves, more about the people they meet, and have a much clearer understanding of the multiple characteristics of successful relationships.

In addition to the success of the Color Code Relationship Profile, MingleMatch is experiencing continued strong growth that far outpaces the industry in general. The company recently launched six new niche-dating sites. "We are encouraged by our consistent, unprecedented growth," said Sanders. "It's testament to the value singles place on the 'clean, safe, and friendly' online dating environment we create."

About MingleMatch, Inc.

MingleMatch, Inc. is a privately held company that manages and maintains demographically targeted singles communities online. With more than 25 niche online dating sites, MingleMatch provides its services to hundreds-of-thousands of single men and women. Under the mission-statement of "clean, safe, and friendly," MingleMatch provides a clean, anonymous online environment where members meet comfortably and safely. The company's rapid growth continues to prove MingleMatch sites as premier destinations for niche online dating.

Paul Alasko, a licensed therapist, offers online dating advice in his advice column in the Monterey County Herald.

He starts by saying that "[i]nternet dating is definitely not for marginal people who can't find a date from their circle of friends," but he doesn't elaborate any further on this idea.

Then he explains why the "bees to flowers" theory.

One objection I hear about using online dating is a deeply held cultural bias called "bees to flowers." This bias says that if your flower was bright or fragrant enough, you'd attract more bees. We all struggle with the fantasy that just walking into a room ought to be enough to prompt a flurry of invitations. This idea is both silly and unrealistic.

Thus he assures you that using an online dating service is not a "mark of a loser."

He says you should only agree to meet someone the first time for a half hour. Dinner is too long of a commitment, because there's such a good chance the person won't be what you were expecting.

He says you shouldn't meet at a bar. It's not clear why that's a bad idea.

He says you need to practice the "art of disengagement," that is getting out of the date after a half hour when the other person is trying to extend it.

He says that you should limit your online dating search to matches no further than 40 miles away, because its too impractical to date someone who lives further away than that. One should remember that Monterey County is a non-urban area along the California coast. If you agree with his advice, and you live in a more traffic congested area, it would make sense to cut that distance limit even further.

Suppose you use one of these online dating services to find a date. What do you do next? Traditional advice is to "just be yourself."

Featured in an article at MSNBC today is a company by the name of First Impressions. You pay them $195, and you get to go on a simulated date with one of their trained psychologists.

“We’ve researched carefully what behaviors are more widely appealing to others,” [First Impressions co-founder Ann] Demarais said. “I could say, ‘Look, you might be quirky and off from the norm, and I like that,’ and so I give you a positive rating. But that wouldn't be as valuable than to say, for example, that this [behavior] is more universally appealing and you're not doing that all the time — are you aware of that? Is that the image you want to project?”

So if you're tired of just being yourself, First Impressions will help you to act like somebody else.

The MSNBC article also features other "quirky matchmaking services."

Google's new email service, Gmail, will pay for itself by displaying context sensitive ads along with your email. But it is reported by Jim Hedger at Webpro news that certain categories of ads will not be shown, including online dating ads. [link]

In reaction to our increasingly prurient culture, Google has announced several sectors that will not be allowed to target GMail recipients. GMails with words relating to sex, guns, drugs, online dating, and other topics that might offend "family values" will not have advertisements displayed in them.

I can see why ads for "sex" or "drugs" might offend family values, but I'm surprised that online dating is including in the group.

This is the question asked by reporter Katie Lietz of Purdue University's The Exponent. [link]

When professional journalists want to get an opinion about online dating, they usually call up one of the online dating services such as Match.com and speak to someone in media relations. But this college reporter took a different route, and talked to college professors.

Ximena Arriaga, associate professor of psychological sciences, said that sites like these often set people up for disappointment.

"Anyone who promises a scientific formula for finding true love is overstating," she said.

Another professor had the following to say:

Margaret Keiley, associate professor of child development and family studies, was slightly more skeptical.

"I think it’s a waste of money. It’s a way people have found to make money off other vulnerable people," she said.

Kudos to Ms. Leitz for some excellent reporting.

Associated Press reporter Rachel Konrad investigates eHarmony's patented system for matching people. [link] Yes, in May, eHarmony was awarded U.S. Patent No. 6,735,568.

Not surprisingly, critics and competitors trash eHarmony's process as overly scientific--some dismissing the "love patent" as a gimmicky marketing ploy.

Ms. Konrad talked to the author of a dating book:

"In the long run, I can certainly see the merit in a questionnaire that helps you make choices about who you date," said Robin Gorman Newman, a Great Neck, N.Y.-based dating coach and author of "How to Meet a Mensch in New York."

"But it still comes down to attraction as the first step. It sometimes just takes simple chemistry to know when you've found Mr. or Ms. Right," she added.

And finally, she gets the opinion from Match.com:

"EHarmony makes claims that their system is the most scientific approach," said Tim Sullivan, president of Richardson, Texas-based Match.com, the largest online dating service, with 12 million profiles and 1 million subscribers who pay $25 per month. "But we find these claims to be ... ridiculous at best."

According to Reuters [link], Match.com has sued six former employees because they took a job at a competing online dating company.

Match.com declined to comment on the legal issue, but TrueBeginnings CEO Herb Vest was much more vocal.

Vest took out full-page advertisements in the Monday and Tuesday editions of The Wall Street Journal and The Dallas Morning News, calling the actions "a blatant effort to intimidate these six individuals."

Like a hero in a romance novel, Vest vowed to defend his employees. "To get to them, you must, first, come through me," Vest wrote in the ad. "True reviewed the employees' agreements, and we firmly believe that we have not broken any rules by hiring them."

Online Dating Insider gives a big thumbs down to Match.com for trying to deny its former employees the right to earn a living.