Few dating tips for the new year

I gathered few dating tips for the new year:

What should a guy do when a woman tells him “I need time to get to know myself”?

OK, let me do a little translation for you...If a woman says, "I need time to get to know myself" or "I need to find myself" or anyvariation of this common theme, it usually means:"YOU WERE ACTING LIKE A WUSS, BEING CLINGY AND YOU WERE GENERALLY NOT A CHALLENGE ANYMORE. I WANT YOU TO LEAVE, BUT I DON'T WANT TO HURT YOUR FEELINGS, SO I'M GOING TO TELL YOU THAT I NEED TIME TO ‘FIND MYSELF’ TO GET YOU TO LEAVE ME ALONE WITHOUT A HASSLE."I'm harsh, aren't I?Well, here's the deal. In general, if you become too predictable, too involved, too needy, too wuss-ish, and too "head over heels" too early in the relationship, it will drive a woman away.Think about it this way: The REALLY attractive women have guys chasing them FAR more than the average/below average women. You need to do something DIFFERENT, while at the same time being ATTRACTIVE.Probably the best thing you can do when you finally meet a really great girl is call her HALF as much as you normally would, and give her twice the space. Think about it...

(source: AskMen)

Choose those you have a good chance of dating, don't aim low but do aim realistically. In other words, your dating is based on the whole package you present as well as just your personality. If you are looking for a glamour girl or boy and want to date someone trendy and gorgeous then good for you, but be prepared and be realistic about your chances.

(source: topdatingtips)

How to approach a woman and avoid rejection?

Never assume someone is free simply because they do not have their wedding band on their hand. Some women wear them others do not. Not to mention that she may have a boyfriend.

make casual invitation to a cup of coffee , Considering that it is at her work place I would make sure that:
a) It would be someplace that is relatively free off other workmates, or
b) Go for the indirect approach as in giving her a card with a little note

Bottom line: If she accept invitations, then she is interested, if she doesn't then you have nothing to be embarrassed about as the message is just a casual invitation to a cup of coffee.

(source: datingfast)

On a Date, Who Pays?

A simple rule of thumb to follow when wondering who pays on a date is: whoever initiated the date, is expected to pay for it.
Having said that, not everyone knows this rule or abides by it. So what do you do when the person who asked you out on a date hasn't made the move to pay?
Wait. Take some time to see whether or not your date intended to pay and they just hadn't picked up the check yet. If they don't pay within five minutes of the check being placed on the table, point casually to the bill and say, "Can I help you with that?" This should signal to the initiator of the date that they were expected to pay, but you're still willing to go dutch if the question of who pays was assumed.

(source: dating.about)

7 Ideas on How to Dump a Guy Nicely

Meet him
Don’t break the news to him over the phone. Not only it is rude but he’s always going to wonder about what went wrong. Give him a chance to hear it from you directly. Email and SMS is even worse. Invite him home or go for a walk together. Either way, sit him down and explain how you feel. Be honest!
Answer why?
Most men are intelligent. He will want some kind of an explanation. Don’t just say ‘It’s off’ and walk away. This was the guy you fell in love with once. So be kind to him and explain why things didn’t work out for you. You owe him some kind of explanation especially if you’ve been together for a while.
Blame yourself
It’s easier and kinder to blame yourself for the break. You could say ‘It’s me, I’m just not ready for somebody as nice as you’ or something to that effect. Don’t lay all the blame on him or you’ll soon be having a fight rather than a conversation.Let him thinkOnce you’ve told him, don’t expect an answer immediately. If he’s in love with you this will probably be breaking his heart. So respect that and let him be. Don’t shower him with questions or a hundred ‘I’m so sorry’s’. He will need a few minutes to let it sink in. Give him that time to think about what’s happened.
Let him talk
He may want to explain things especially if he did something wrong. Hear him out but don’t have that ‘Oh, I wish I had known’ look on your face. If your mind is really made up then let him now this is the end of the road. Avoid getting trapped into the loop again. A firm yet gentle ‘no’ is the best for both of you.
Just friends?
That’s great if he wants it that way. But make sure you tell him how you want to keep the relationship. If a clean break is what you want, be clear that he understands that. If you want to go on as friends, but he doesn’t, then respect that and move on. Don’t sob uncontrollably on his shoulder as you’re the one breaking up with him! Remember?
Don’t hold on
Let him go. If he wants to leave, then let him. Don’t keep pulling him back into conversation. He probably just needs a good drink and some sleep!

(source: allwomenstalk)

My tip is:

Don't Exhaust Youself searching for your next date , use Copenda , Just type your preferences ...and Copenda will find the match, your next match can be from any site such as Myspace, Facebook, hi5, friendster, match, plentyoffish and more.

Happy new year,

Lizi

Happy holidays

Hi Friends,
I wanted to thank everyone who voted for us in the Open Web Awards contest , hosted by Mashable.com. Copenda succeeded to be among the top 3 in the social search category together with Facebook and Wink.

After the holidays we will expose new functionalities:

• You will be able to manually add new profiles and claim existing profiles
• My Copenda - personal user page with your favourite profiles , claimed profiles , profile management capabilities and much more.
• More filtering capabilities : for example you will be able to have search results only from specific sites.
• 2 New facebook apps and google gadget (I will be able to give you some more details very soon)

Stay tuned!!!

Happy holidays

From me and all Copenda staff

Please vote for us!!!

Hi,
We made it!!! thank to you we are on the final three in the "Social Search" category in the Mashable open awards contest.

Please help us and vote for us:
http://mashable.com/2007/12/17/owa-voting-finalists-1/

Thanks!!!

A new feature from Google - Google profiles

"A Google Profile is simply how you represent yourself on Google products — it lets you tell others a bit more about who you are and what you're all about. You control what goes into your Google Profile, sharing as much (or as little) as you'd like."Until now, you could create profiles in Blogger, orkut, Google Groups, Google Co-op and all of them could contain different information. You could also add photos in Gmail, Google Talk and orkut, so the situation started to become confusing.The new Google profiles are already available in Shared Stuff, Google Maps, Google Reader and will be added to other web applications. For example, in Google Maps you'll find the link to your profile at the top of the page.

This is a very good news , I would recommend them to add some more profile characteristics such as : age,gender,high etc. adding these profile characteristics will enable people search engine such as Copenda integrate these profiles into their search results.

Read more at: Google blog

Please vote for us!!!

Hi,
We need your help , There are very important web contests and we need your help to vote for us.
Please help us to win these contests:

Mashable
http://mashable.com/2007/12/07/owa-voting-social-search/
Choose Copenda.

Techcrunch
Please vote for us in the following categories:

• Best new start-up of 2007
• Best international start-up
• Most likely to succeed

Don't forget to write: copenda.com

Copenda is Live!!!

Finally we launched today.
Here are the first reviews:

• Mashable: http://mashable.com/2007/12/03/copenda/
• Online dating post http://onlinedatingpost.com/archives/2007/12/dating-site-aggregator-copenda-launches-tomorow/
• killerstartups.com http://www.killerstartups.com/Web20/Copendacom---Social-and-Dating-Networking-Combine/

Fill free to add your review.

Copenda - Launch date

After a long development period we finally ready for launch , Copenda will be launched next week on the 4th of December.
Please be patient, It is beta and there might be some bugs.
On the following 4 weeks after the release we will add key functionalities that are currently not ready to the launch date:
My Copenda - a private dashboard which aggregates user personal data.
Ability to Claim a profile and get notification
Users will save profiles as their favorite and track them
Additional major site - we will add Facebook profiles to our search engine - we are currently indexing them.
Online Chat
If you can't wait and want to have a sneak pick into Copenda click here.
I will be more than happy to hear what you think about Copenda - what you like and more important what you didn't like.

A Kiss-Off to Online Dating

According to Sarah Lacy from BusinessWeek the era of Web 1.0 is over, online dating is dead. Going on sites like Facebook or MySpace it's like going to a bar with your friends, whereas a dating site is like walking past a bunch of animals in cages at the zoo. According to comScore, the number of people visiting online dating sites dropped 6% in September. Unique visitors to Yahoo Personals and eHarmony fell 21%, Match.com had a 16% drop, and True.com's visitors plummeted 46%. ComScore does show some names like Plentyoffish.com growing, but these are new sites with far smaller user bases.

here is her funny fictitious letter to the online dating sites:
"Dear Online Dating Sites,
I am writing to tell you it's over between us. It's not you. You've been great. You've helped me connect millions of happy couples and no one can take that away.
It's just that—well, I've changed. My needs and users are different now. And you were right when you asked about my relationship with MySpace and Facebook. I can't ignore the feelings I have for them any longer. Please don't be hurt. We had a good run, and you'll always be a part of me. But I'm moving on. I hope we can still be friends.
Love always,
The Internet "

I agree with here , I don't know if online dating will vanish but we cant ignore the recent statistics showing that the younger generation are using social networks to meet new friends and not using online dating sites.
Although many users use social networks for dating purposes, the social network user experience is not suited for this purpose.
We predicted this trend two years ago when we initiate Copenda ,
Copenda is a revolutionary social people search engine that allows people to search for their soul mate or new friends in social networks and dating web sites. Our complex algorithms crawl semi-structured data from multiple social networks and online dating sites.
Copenda will bridge the gap between social networks and online dating sites by integrating an innovative user interface with dating site features such as personality search and social network features such as ranking, comments and tagging.

See the full article

Windows Live™ Messenger IM Control

I have just found a very cool control from Microsoft , Windows Live™ Messenger IM Control lets people on the Web reach you in Messenger by showing your Messenger status on your web site, blog, or social networking profile. The Windows Live™ Messenger IM Control runs in the browser and lets site visitors message you without installing Messenger first.
Yahoo has a similar presence control , but unlike the MS control when you want to contact the person you are redirected to yahoo web site.

For more details check the folowing post.

I had this IM control to our blog so you can now use it whenever you want to contact us.

Google OpenSocial - new opportunities

Last week Google launched OpenSocial a new set of javascript API's adopted by the industry leaders. these set of API's will enable the development of cross platform applications.
So far the following websites have committed to the new initiative: Engage.com, Friendster, hi5, Hyves, imeem, LinkedIn, MySpace, Ning, Oracle, orkut, Plaxo, Salesforce.com, Six Apart, Tianji, Viadeo, and XING.
From our side it is a very good news , developing Copenda application for the leading social networks in on our roadmap and the new initiative will enable us to expose our app to broader audience.

Read more here

Myspace has been spammed

Today I have found a very odd thing when I browsed Myspce profiles , hundreds (maybe more) of fake profiles , all of them contain some general information and a link to an adult web site.

I cant understand how web site like Myspace can allow such a thing...

If you want to see it yourself just click "browse" on Myspace and browse for women in the US.

Beware , online dating scams

An online dating scam is when a scammer, male or female, creates a false personal profile and makes contact with you via an online dating agency or even a specialized chat room. The scammer says that they are seeking romance or a soul mate but are really out to steal not only your heart but your cash too.Scammers can sign up to online dating agencies or chat rooms just like anyone else. Many online dating sites allow anyone to join for free, and they usually do not screen their members. Scammers take advantage of the anonymity of the internet to create the profile of your perfect match and make any number of promises to attract you and cause you to let your defenses down.
How do I know it is a scam?
The scammer will ask for your money! This will not happen immediately - however, before long the scammer will ask for financial help for any number of reasons. Almost always, they will ask you to send money using an untraceable source such as a telegraphic money transfer. Some of the most common reasons they give for why they need your help include:
• I want to meet you but I don't have enough money to travel to see you
• I have been robbed and beaten, I require urgent surgery or treatment for a serious illness or me or my family member has been a victim of a serious or fatal accident and you are the only person who can help
• I am stranded abroad and I don't have money for travel or visa costs. • I want to purchase a home or property with you
• I need your bank account for help in depositing cheques, money orders, drafts…
Other signs are:
• your new date looks like a model - this is probably because the scammer has used a stolen or a magazine picture
• your new date only gives you a post office address and/or a phone number which he or she never answers and which does not have voicemail
• your date talks a lot about herself or himself and does not answer your questions - probably because they are sending standard emails to hundreds of people. What can I do to protect myself?
• only use a reputable online dating or chat service and follow the basic safety tips for online dating
• be skeptical and ask yourself simple questions like, 'why am I the only person who can help them but I have just met them?'
• test your date - ask them lots of questions, try to phone them or post them something or possibly suggest meeting them. If all attempts fail, you are probably dealing with a scammer. What can I do if I have already lost money?If you have already sent money there is little chance of you ever recovering it from them. However what you can do is:
• report the scam to the dating or chat room site where you met the person.
• contact your local police and report the matter or to obtain more information
Source : soonews

More statistics - Consumer trends in social networking

ComScore analyst Gian Fulgoni has shared some interesting findings on social networking abroad. These findings were very surprising , at least for me , For example, it’s commonly thought that with the success of sites like MySpace and Facebook, the U.S. is the hub of social networking activity. However, Asia is not only the fastest-growing region for social networking, it is also the largest: By contrast, fewer Latin Americans visit social networking sites, but are much more engaged:

You can find more statistics regarding leading social networks share on each region here.

Copenda is just around the corner

As we promised Copenda will be ready very soon.

We finished the development of 95% of the modules planed for the beta and we already crawling profiles from 5 sites: Myspace,Match,Friendster,Plentyoffish and Hi5.

In the next few weeks I will update you with the Beta launch date.

In the meantime here are some screenshots:

More info here

More social networks are lunching new application platforms

More and more social networks are going the Facebook rout and lunching new application platforms.
Hi5 had also already announced on its blog the release of its API, which seemed to offer some additional tools for the developer community. According to VentureBeat, the full platform will be available to developers within the next 12 months.
Tagged, which has well over 40 million members, is building a platform that will exactly mimic the Facebook Platform API. In other words, if successfully implemented, Facebook apps will be able to run on Tagged without any significant code changes (developers will have to manage the different user communities, of course).

Source: Mashable

What is your Facebook strategy?

With the groundbreaking launch of the Facebook Platform this past spring, and the subsequent runaway growth of Facebook Apps adopted by millions of users this summer, the question on everyone’s lips (including Google and Microsoft) has been: “So what’s your Facebook strategy?”.

A very intersing post, writen by Dave McClure , was recently published on TechCrunch.
Dave write about seven major aspects of Facebook you can use to increase the visibility of your startup, business, product or service:
1. Set Up Your Graph: Profiles & Privacy
2. Make Connections: Networks, Groups & Events
3. The Need for Feed: Your [Shared] Social Activity Stream
4. Share Your Content: Share & People-Tag Your Stories & Media
5. App to the Future: The Facebook Platform, APIs, & Applications
6. Pay to Play: Ad Networks, Sponsored Stories, & Paid Distribution
7. Show Me The Bunny: Gifts, Points, & Virtual Currency

Read full post here

Top 10 Worst Pickup Lines

I have just found a funny post about the top 10 worst pickup lines:

10... You remind me so much of Pokemon that I just want to pick-at-choo.
9... I’m new in town. Can I have directions to your house?
8... I misplaced my Teddy Bear. Will you sleep with me?
7... Wow, your legs must be really tired because you have been running through my mind all night!
6... What's that in your eye? Oh, it must be a twinkle from when our eyes met!
5... Did you clean your pants with Windex, because I can totally see myself in them.
4... Those must be space pants, because your legs are outta this world.
3... Hi, my name is Justin… Justin Credible.
2... I may not be Fred Flinstone, but can still make your Bedrock.

And now for the worst pickup line of all time:
1... Is your name Visa, because you’re everywhere I want to be.

Source: Online dating magazine

Online Dating Statistics

According to Mediamark Research Inc. (MRI) , some 2.5 million US adults participated in online dating in the last 30 days.

Some of MRI's findings:

• Of the 2.462 million adults who reported participating in online dating in the last 30 days, 52.2 percent are men and 47.8 percent are women.


• Younger people - ages 18-34 - comprise almost half of all online daters, making them 59 percent more likely than the population as a whole to be in this group.


• Middle-aged people are significantly represented: Nearly one-quarter (24.2 percent) of online daters are between the ages of 35-44.

Read more at MarketingVox

Zingku,mobile social networking service,acquired by Google

Google acquired mobile social networking service,Zingku, for an undisclosed amount.

Currently, the Zingku site is closed for new registrations as the company moves to Google.

Zingku allows users to upload an image of themselves and add it to a magazine cover, a Most Wanted ad, a movie poster, a celebrity photo and lots more. And thanks to the “Post to MySpace button”, they can quickly post thier remixed photo to MySpace, Friendster, Windows Live Spaces and Xanga.

Photos from Anatalya,Turkey

Here are some photos from my last vacation to Anatalya,Turkey.

We staid at the luxurious brand new Gloria serenity.

True.com wins a low suit

A user of dating website True.com is suing the owners of the site alleging that its offer of free membership to women but not men amounts to gender discrimination. As part of the case the man, Michael Cohn, argues that he had not agreed to terms and conditions when he clicked 'Continue' on the website's registration form when signing up for a free trial.
True.com's registration form asks for a user's date of birth, screen name, password and email address. A statement follows the last field in the form: "I am at least 18 years old, and I have read and agree to the TRUE Terms of Use and Code of Ethics." Beneath that statement was a single button marked 'Continue'.
The website owner, TrueBeginnings LLC, claimed that clicking on the 'Continue' button represented Cohn's acceptance of the site's terms and conditions.
Cohn said that he had not been forced to read terms and conditions and had not explicitly agreed to abide by them.
The issue was important in the case because Cohn wanted it heard in California. The Terms of Use stipulated that any dispute be heard in Texas. The Superior Court of Los Angeles County had sided with True.com and dismissed the case in California. Cohn appealed.
The Californian Court of Appeal said that there was no reason why Cohn should not have been considered to have entered into an agreement with True.com. That was also the decision to which the first court had come.
"Under these circumstances, where appellant obviously had access to the internet and was entering into a contract on the internet, there was nothing inherently unfair in requiring him to access contractual terms via hyperlink, which is a common practice in internet businesses," it said. "The trial court did not abuse its discretion in finding that appellant agreed to the forum selection clause contained in the Terms of Use."

Read full article

Friendship in the Social networks era

According to a research recently published by Dr Will Reader from Sheffield Hallam University online users say they have about the same number of close friends as the real-life average person. Another research published by by Professor Robin Dunbar at the Evolutionary Psychology and Behavioural Ecology Research Group at Liverpool University has shown that the average person has a social network of around 150 friends, ranging from very close friends to casual acquaintances.
The conclusion from these two researches is that the average person has around 150 friends in real life , I really doubt these fact and I think that the average person has mach more online friends then real-life friends.
Making friends can be costly, according to behavioural ecologists. While it might not be a very romantic view of friendship, making new friends involves an investment by committing time and energy to another person in the hope that they will provide reciprocal benefits in the future.
Dr Reader and his colleagues wondered whether online networks are somehow reducing the investment necessary to make new friends by lowering the perceived risk.
Some 90 per cent of the online friends rated as ‘close’ have been met face-to-face, with the remaining 10 per cent likely to be friends of close friends, perceived as having many of the mutual friend’s attributes and therefore “low risk”.
According to Dr Reader, the importance placed on face-to-face encounters is a result of the necessity to base an investment on honest information.

Read more at: Science Daily

50 Cent's latest album “Curtis” exclusively on his MySpace

50 Cent premiered his latest album “Curtis” exclusively on his MySpace profile yesterday, letting all of his 900,000 “friends” get a first listen to the album before it’s released in stores. You have from now until Tuesday, when the album hits stores, to check out the album in its entirety here.
In conjunction, MySpace TV will also debut a series of five exclusive interviews with 50 Cent, each video at 10 minutes in length. What should be fun for fans is the feud going on between 50 Cent and Kanye West, who’s album is also being released on Tuesday, September 11th. MySpace looks to be happily fueling the rappers’ battling fire, as it’s offering this exclusive premier deal with 50 Cent while also featuring Kanye West as a guest curator on the MySpace Music Channel to promote his album as well.

Source : Mashable

DigFoot: A Directory Just For Social Networks

DigFoot is an upcoming site that is a directory for other social networks. The site is currently in private beta, and I got a chance to check it out.
Acting as a searchable directory, DigFoot has about 1,000 social networks indexed so far, and will be adding more. Users can help out to this end as well, by suggesting more sites to be added to the directory. From the homepage, you can start your search by choosing one or all of the four parameters by which you can search. Enter a site name if you know what you’re looking for and you’d just like more information, or select from three drop down menus that let you choose a category, a site type, and a primary language. Your search results will be displayed accordingly.
Each social network listed on DigFoot has its own profile page, which shows the name and a link to the network, as well as a basic description of the site that DigFoot has pulled from the About Us page. As a registered member you have the capability to add more site information, and leave a review. Each network can be added to your DigFoot bookmarks, which are displayed from your toolbar for easy access while navigating the site. Each bookmark has an edit link that takes you directly to the page where you can add more information about that network. Having a browser bookmarking tool for its own service would prove helpful as well.

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Singlesnet Low-Brow Dating Adverting

More proof that most high-volume dating sites are more interested in low-quality traffic than anything resembling a quality dating experience. Singlesnet has resorted to the ass-tastic ad campaigns that True and Mate1 originated on social networks over a year ago. What are the chances that the ad traffic is gender-targeted and women see a naked hunky guy?

Read full post: Online Dating Insider

Bebo premieres new online drama

A new interactive drama series, ‘Sofia’s Diary’ from Sony Pictures Television International is to air on Bebo.com this Autumn.It’s a development that will help to keep it ahead of the competition as social networking sites battle for users.
Sofia will post daily video and text updates on her own Bebo profile and will engage directly with the Bebo community to offer users an interactive storytelling experience unlike any other.‘Sofia’s Diary’, is the second interactive drama series to be introduced by Bebo. It follows the success of the recently launched KateModern (bebo.com/katemodern), which attracted over 3 million views in its first eight weeks.

Read full article

Recent IDC Report: Social Network Sites are Popular But Not Profitable

Despite generating a hefty media buzz, social networking sites like MySpace.com and YouTube Inc. have not yet figured out how to use that publicity to generate significant advertising revenue, according to a report released last week by IDC.
The Framingham, Mass.-based research firm predicts that while the barriers keeping companies from advertising brands on sites featuring unfiltered user-generated content may eventually be solved by some social networks, others may never be able to attract significant advertising, the report noted.
YouTube, the report suggests, could earn substantial advertising revenue if it could figure out a way to acquire premium content from distribution deals with companies like Viacom Inc., NBC and Walt Disney Co. However, the report noted that Google so far declines to pay the sums required to purchase the content.
The report did note that MySpace generated US$125 million in advertising revenue in the fourth quarter of 2006, but also added that the total amounts to only a fifth of what Microsoft Corp.'s Microsoft Online Services Business brought in during the same period.
Read full article: Pc world

Facebook Campaign Forces Bank to Reverse Charges

The International bank HSBC has reversed its policy and has refunded student customers as a direct result of a student campaign on Facebook.
With the plans to charge graduating students 9.9% APR on their overdrafts, many students were infuriated with the bank’s decision, stating that having a free overdraft to help them establish themselves with graduation and finding a job was the reason they signed on with HSBC in the first place. The National Union of Students has initiated a campaign on Facebook, threatening to boycott HSBC, and the bank listened. Interest charges for overdrafts up to £1,500 have been frozen, and any interest charged for the month of August will be refunded to students.

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Yahoo's new social job network: Kickstart

Yahoo is looking to change the game with their new social job network, Kickstart. They are currently conducting research surveys among college students to find out what they think of this new service.

Yahoo Kickstart connects college students with alumni at the companies that they are interested in. As you can see in the screenshot above, this student's "in" at Nike is an alumni named Dave Bottoms. Dave has expressed an interest in helping out students and connecting with alumni. He also knows one of your friends, went to your school, and shares a common interest with you. That's a really powerful networking tool. Presenting specific connections like this adds a whole new value to this job network.

As you might also expect, everyone who signs up with Yahoo Kickstart gets their own profile page, where you can build a mini resume and add a quotation to give the profile a more personal feel. Everything here is pretty standard for a social network, but there is a definite professional focus, much like LinkedIn. The personal profile isn't anything revolutionary, but it certainly gets the job done in this situation.

Source : Cnet

Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites

PC Magazine have chosen the top new or under-the-radar sites of 2007.
check it out ...

Playboy Launching Social Network

Playboy is heading back to school to boost the bottom line. Riding a wave of renewed popularity among consumers around the globe, Hugh Hefner's Playboy empire is set to launch a sexy social networking site dedicated solely to college students, its latest online venture as it tries to reinvigorate its stagnant finances.
The launch of Playboy U, which has similar features to those found on Facebook, comes as Playboy's 54-year-old magazine continues to lose money and readers.
Playboy has cozied up to collegians before, featuring parties, promotional events and pictorials of student bodies from across the country. Now, executives hope Playboy U will help build brand loyalty among young consumers.
Backed by a hit cable TV show featuring Hefner's three girlfriends, a Sirius radio channel and the adoration of young Hollywood stars who are again flocking to parties at the Playboy mansion, the company is trying to grow its licensing business and online presence and build an international fan base that includes a surprising legion of female fans.
The site bars nudity but leaves little to the imagination with pictures from the mansion's "Midsummer Night's Dream" party and message topics such as "What Do You Think About Penis Enlargement" and "How Many People Have You Slept With? To Lie or Not to Lie."
The site has instituted a college-only policy, which bars anyone without an e-mail address ending in .edu from joining. And Playboy U says it will boot any university faculty, staff or alumni or other non-students that it discovers on the site.
In many ways its format is similar to Facebook and MySpace — people choose to "friend" each other, can post videos and photos or leave messages on a "wall." But users can also access university-specific pages that list campus events while viewing individual profiles of Playboy U members throughout the Web site.

Source: Yahoo news

Study finds caution with dates online, but not in person

Women who date online are likely to take precautions to protect their personal safety when first meeting a man face-to-face, but often are much less careful about protecting their sexual health once that encounter moves to the next level, a Houston-based study has found.
While the women who were surveyed went to great lengths to screen online acquaintances before meeting them, nearly a third reported having sex on the first date and three-quarters of those said they did not use condoms, according to the study by The University of Texas School of Public Health.
Those behaviors reflect a "virtual intimacy" the women developed with men online before meeting them in person, said the study's author, Paige Padgett.
"They may not think of it as being risky sex," said Padgett, a research associate who specializes in epidemiology and sex research. "They don't see it as a one-night stand, even though it might turn out that way, because they really feel they have a relationship with this man."
Padgett surveyed 740 women who posted personal ads on seven dating Web sites. Some were looking for love, others for sex, she said.
During the five-month survey, which began in July 2002, 568 of the women met face-to-face with at least one man with whom their first contact was online. After taking precautions to ensure their safety during the first in-person encounter, 30 percent of the women reported having sex during that date, and 77 percent of those did not use condoms, Padgett reported.

Read full article

Orkut Launching New Design

Orkut is rolling out a new design this morning, starting with a select number of users. It’s a much-needed change to the previously ugly social network that became unintentionally popular in Brazil.

I don't like Orkut , you cant perform profile oriented search : age ,interests ,location etc.I think the Idea behind social networks is meeting new people and the current Orkut search doesn't help.

10 Tips for Approaching Women

What do you do when you see a woman you are attracted to? Do you run and hide? Do you use some canned line that you read on the Internet? Do you stand there in fear trying to think of the right thing to say? What is the right thing to do?
When approaching a woman, most guys make the mistake of thinking too much about what to say. They believe there's one magic line that will work in all situations. They rehearse this magic line, and when they deliver it, they hope the woman will become instantly attracted to them.
Unfortunately, rarely does this approach work -- because most of what you say is irrelevant. To catch a woman's attention, it is all about the confidence you display when approaching her.
Here are 10 surefire ways to intrigue her every time:
1. Observe something. Make a comment about something you observe in the environment. This is especially effective at the grocery store. For example, if she is ordering a turkey sandwich, ask her if the turkey is good here.
2. Smile. This shows her that you are friendly and confident. A genuine smile not only feels good to you, but will put her at ease while creating openness in the interaction -- a requirement for building rapport.
3. Do not hesitate. If you hesitate in your approach, this tells her that you are not feeling confident -- an immediate turn-off. When you see her, walk over to her within a short period of time (the three-second rule). Show her you are a man who knows what he wants and goes after it.

Read all tips at: Yahoo

New social networks

New intersting social networks:

• PeopleJam - The site will connect users with "life coaches" in areas like health and fitness, relationship, finance, career, and spirituality.
• PMbuzz - Social networking site informs entertainers, clubs, promoters, DJ's, and club-goers of the New York night scene. Subsequent roll-outs are planned in other major U.S. markets over the coming months.
• BigLickU - The social network targets the 50,000 students attending the Roanoke-Blacksburg area colleges, like Radford and Virginia Tech, and is the first attempt by a large metropolitan newspaper to reach into the college market. The site hopes to increase registered users from the current 960 to at least 5,000 by early 2008.
• Zivity - Social network aiming to be a user-generated Playboy Magazine online

Social networking to drive mobile broadband

Social networking, dating and user-generated content sites will push mobile broadband above a billion users worldwide by 2012, Juniper Research has said in a report.
Indeed, the number of people using mobile social networking sites alone will jump from 14 million in 2007 to 600 million in five years, Juniper predicted in its report, "User-Generated Content: Social Networking, Dating and Personal Content Delivery".
Revenues generated from delivering access to dating, social networking and other personal content sites will jump from $527 million this year to over $5.7 billion in 2012. While mobile dating and chatrooms make up 57 per cent of current user-generated revenues, that will fall to 21 per cent by 2012 - and be overtaken by social networking sites, which will rise to over half of generated revenue.

Read full article: ITPro

Simulated online dating offers insight into real-life relationships

Psychologists at the University of Illinois have explored how people manage romantic ties by looking at the choices that people make in simulated online dating relationship.
The online study took participants through a series of scenarios about a relationship with a fictional partner. Each scenario ended with two options, from which the participant chose his or her response.
The researchers found that a participant’s attachment style was a good predictor of the pattern of his or her choices. “People who are highly insecure are more likely to interpret their partners’ actions in a negative way and then choose to respond in kind,” said Vicary, adding that the more secure individuals more often chose the positive, relationship-enhancing options.

Read full artice : Zee news

Nokia launches mobile social network - MOSH by Nokia!

While all the big carriers are working hard to get existing social networks ported to play nice on their networks and handsets, Nokia seems to be taking a completely different approach. They’ve launched the first-ever social network launched by a handset maker - and who better to do it than the the most prolific mobile phone manufacturer on the planet? MOSH by Nokia aims to bridge the gap between the mobile and desktop social networking with their cross-platform design - upload, share, collect, or download various media from your mobile phone as well as your desktop (or laptop).
Recently I hear more and more about new Cross-platform social networks and dating sites - some of them such as MOSH are new and some are well known such as Myspace an Match.
Though mobile social networks are in their early stage and and their usage is still far behind the Internet we are working on exposing Copenda to mobile users. Copenda will enable people to search for friends or their next date directly from their mobile. The results will come from these cross platform social networks and dating sites.

Virtual World Hangouts: So Many To Choose From

The avatars roaming many online virtual communities may be cartoonish and their activities inconsequential, but the recent sale of Club Penguin to Disney for $350 million (with $350 million in earn out) demonstrates that the business of casual immersive worlds, or virtual hangouts, is not entirely child’s play.
Virtual hangouts are where people can engage each other using imaginary characters in imaginary environments. They have been around and popular in Europe and Asia for years. However, they appear to be gaining traction in the United States as of late. Some commentators even believe that the type of experience provided by these destinations could very well become integral to the forthcoming Web 3.0 era.

With so many virtual worlds , The problem is finding your friends or people with similar interests , Copenda will help you do that!!!

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Match.com expands mobile online dating service

Online dating service Match.com recently lunched a new application for cell phones, allowing subscribers to keep track of their paramours while on the go.
MatchMobile will first be made available in the United States, UK and Canadian markets, with plans to extend the service to nine more countries by the end of the year.
The service provides subscribers with text messages to their phones when they have an e-mail from another Match.com subscriber and allows them to search for potential matches from their cell phones.
For an extra fee of about $5 per month, MatchMobile subscribers can receive and answer e-mails from suitors on their mobile phones.
About 3.6 million U.S. cell phones subscribers used a mobile dating service in May this year, according to data from tracking firm M:Metrics that was provided by Match.com. The company also cited forecasts from Frost & Sullivan, which predict that revenue from mobile dating services will grow to $215 million by 2009.

We are really happy that large dating sits and social networks are lunching mobile applications , It will help us when we lunch Copenda Mobile.

Source: Reuters

Kingdom Of The Online Cupids

Millions of people use the Internet to find love. Whether searching for a mate for life or just one night, they are fuelling an industry that rakes in $700-million annually in North America, and is seeing a continuous stream of new players.
Canadian companies -- from Lavalife to plentyoffish.com -- have made a huge mark in this space. Some would argue Canada is the capital of the online dating business, with many of the leading trends in the industry taking shape here first.
The Canadian dating site making the biggest splash at the moment is Plentyoffish.com. The founder and sole operator, 29-year-old Markus Frind, runs the site from his West Vancouver apartment. He hit the jackpot by making his site completely free. Started in 2003, it is now the third-most popular dating site in North America, according to Web traffic tracker Hitwise. The site pulls in more than US$5-million a year from text ads that appear beside user profiles.
Another Canadian dating site attracting its share of attention is Toronto-based Ashley Madison Agency. The site delivers
its customers a dating pool filled with people all looking for the same thing: a relationship outside of the one they are already in. The site's motto is "When monogamy becomes monotony."
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Story of My Life Tracks Your History

Story of My Life is a website that lets you become the author of your journey, storing it forever.

Well, almost forever. If you only get the free account, your space is only temporary. Plans start at $19 one-time fee for 20MB and upwards of $400 one-time fee for for 500MB. There are several tools for the creation of your own story, formatting it in the likes of a book, with chapters and all. If you’d like to jot down some thoughts outside of your life story, you can use the blog function, which may seem a bit redundant for some, but serves its purpose. Neither stories nor blogs can support images and videos, and there’s a separate “vault” feature where you can create image galleries.

We we track this site , If it will be a success we will add it to our social people search.

Full article

Facebook Audio Nuked

Like Napster, you knew it couldn’t last. Facebook has killed off the Audio application for copyright violations, making it one of the first 3rd party apps to get the chop. We’d previously heard that audio was no longer showing up in the App directory, but now it has gone entirely from the site.
Essentially, Audio allowed users to upload MP3s to Facebook and share them - even though uploading copyrighted MP3s is illegal, and your name could be easily linked to the uploads, the app flourished and gained 750,000 users. The Audio app was removed completely last night.

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75% of the Internet users say ,age is the most important factor when searching dating sites

A recent survey conducted in May to July 2007 among random sample of Internet users found that the most important search factor when searching dating sites is "age".
Users could choose from various options:

• Age


• Location


• Height


• Religion


• Body Type


• Ethnicity


• Marital Status


• Interests


• All of the above properties have equal importance


• Other
  

My first assumption was that most of the users will choose option 9 : "All of the above properties have equal importance" because love and friendship are influenced by many factors.

I ,for example, prefer someone who is older than me but I think (theoretically , because I'm married) I would date someone younger than me If he had similar interests and was single.Surprisingly Option 9 came only to the second place with 9% of the votes.Another surprise was that nobody chose "high" - I personally know a lot of women that will date only taller guys.

Here are the results:

We , at Copenda, took these results very seriously as you can see in the following screenshot:

I Will soon publish another survey about social networks search.

Brothers aim to hold Facebook founder accountable

Three former Harvard students, twin brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and Divya Narendra have filed a lawsuit accusing Mark Zuckerberg ,the founder of Facebook, stealing the idea for their social networking site.
The lawsuit, which was originally filed in 2004, alleges copyright infringement, the stealing of trade secrets, breach of contract and fraud.
"The fraud that's been perpetrated here is partly against us, but it's also against 30 million people who believe the site was developed in an ethical way and that it was the true creation of Mark Zuckerberg, when in fact it couldn't be further from the truth," Cameron Winklevoss told CTV's Canada AM.
According to the Winklevoss brothers, Zuckerberg's tenure with their social networking site, now known as ConnectU, lasted between three and four months. But once the brothers learned of Zuckerberg's Facebook project in a Harvard student newspaper, his employment was terminated, they said.
"We basically entrusted him with all of our source code and business plan and models and everything that we had pretty much been working on for up to a year about, prior to engaging him," Cameron Winklevoss said.

Read full article at CTV.ca

The perfect honeymoon - Four season resort at Sayan Bali

Copenda - a social people search

People search is an area being pursued by a variety of startups which are recently getting a lot of attention. Few days ago I read on mashable a review about 6 of these startups (you can read it here).
Each one of the solutions has different approach to the people search , but what I found that it's common to all of them is that their implementation is a variation of white pages.
When I use one of the mentioned search engines I expect to find a specific person.
After I enter name or email I get search results containing list of profiles from various social networks. These solutions are great to find information about specific person or locate your friends.
We , at Copenda have a totally different approach to people search - we call it social people search.
Copenda is a place to meet new people , you enter general preferences and you get list of profiles from various social networks and leading dating sites. You can use it to find your soul mate or meet new friends with similar interests. Copenda uniquely integrate dating sites aspects such as personality search and structured profile with social networks aspects such as ranking, comments and tagging.
Stay tuned because copenda is just around the corner , don't forget to check the web site:
http://www.copenda.com/.
More information is coming soon.

Simple search

Advanced Search

SiteVolume Measures Frequency of Search Terms Across Social Networks

SiteVolume is a recently launched service that lets you see how often search terms appear in various websites.

From the makers of TweetVolume, SiteVolume is really an extension of the original service. Going beyond Twitter, you can now see the frequency of your search terms (up to five) for more websites, including Digg, MySpace, YouTube and Flickr. You’ll need to first choose the tab for the site you’d like to search. Then enter your search terms. The results will appear in the shape of a bar graph, indicating how many times each of your search terms appears on that site.


Source: Mashtable

British Online Dating Statistics

I found very intersing UK dating statistics that were published on "THE GUARDIAN" magazine.
Dating Direct's ,one of the largest online dating sites in UK, average member is 45 and only 6% of British web users aged 18-24 do online dating, according to market research company Synovate, though 38% have met someone online and consider them a friend, even though they have never met in person.
Deborah McCrudden, Synovate UK's head of youth and trends research, said: "I think there are other sites they are using to start up friendships and conversations and that could lead to love."
Some players in the dating market have already admitted the rise of free friendship sites such as MySpace makes subscription services a harder model to sustain.

In numbers
141 Number of dating sites in Britain, according to Nielsen/NetRatings
13.4% Proportion of UK internet users visiting personals sites in May compared with 8.2% three years ago, according to Nielsen/NetRatings
10,000 Number of male millionaires reportedly available on Sugardaddie.com
45-55 Typical age worldwide for dating services

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MySpace named in top 5 worst websites

Time magazine has named what it says are the five worst websites on the internet. The list includes the hyper-popular MySpace social networking site, as well as the virtual worldly Second Life page.
Time named MySpace among the five worst websites despite also naming the social networking site in its '50 Coolest Websites of 2006' list last year.
The other websites on the list were dating site eHarmony.com , invitation site Evite.com and also avatar creation page Meez.com .

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Social Networking, Online Video Are Top Digital Trends

Online video and social networking are outpacing other digital media behaviors, according to a study recently released.
Ipsos Insight released some findings of its annual study "The Face of the Web 2006." The survey, conducted in November and December 2006 among a random sample of 6,553 adults around the world, found that online video activities have replaced music as the driver of digital media's growth.
Thirty-six percent of U.S. Internet users watched a TV show or other video streaming online at the end of 2006, up from 28% at the end of 2005, and three-quarters had done so in the 30 days before polling.
Globally, about one in five adults has visited a social networking Web site, and 20% of regular Internet users had visited these types of Web sites in the past 30 days, according to the study.

See full article

How to Beat "Dating Déjà Vu"

I found an interesting article, written by Karen Sherman , about 5 tips for avoiding another hurtful relationship.

1. Be self-observant. Ask yourself, after you've gotten to know someone, what are the traits in them that you were initially drawn to? It's likely that these are the very aspects of the person that bother you -- ones that you say you don't want in another relationship.
2. Be analytical. What issues from your childhood does this person reflect?
3. Consider doing some personal work. By working on whatever the unresolved issue is for you, it will no longer need as much attention through someone else.
4. Be aware. Everything you want to know about someone is there right in the beginning. You just have to pay close attention and not be blinded by your emotions. That's why your friends can see a trait that you might not.
5. Work it through. Is the overall relationship a good one? Remember that everyone has issues. If each of you learns to accept and respect the issues of the other person, the relationship can be quite healing for both of you.

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FoxyTunes Lets You Insert Songs in Emails and Blogs

FoxyTunes released a new version that has several upgrades, and a new feature, Signatunes, letting you add music to your emails and blog posts.
Signatunes comes with the new FoxyTunes upgrade, and shows up in your message editor in services like Yahoo Mail. The FoxyTunes icon, when clicked, will add your currently playing song to your email message or blog post. Signatunes currently works with Facebook Notes and Mail, Yahoo, GMail, MySpace blogs, AOL Mail, Horde, WordPress, Hotmail and SquirrelMail. The song appears to the recipients as a link for the song directing to FoxyTunes’ website.

Source : Mashable

The Scientific Laws of Romance

I came across an interesting theory about relationships.
According to the Author , Ethan Todras-Whitehill , In a relationship, there exists a Constant Distance (CD) between two people that must be maintained at all times.

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Facebook Developers Demand to Spam What’s Wrong with This Picture?

Valleywag published a letter from an anonymous Facebook platform developer complaining about the abusive limits Facebook is imposing on viral growth.
“Facebook just recently unceremoniously undercut the very thing that was driving the virality of most the initial applications, which is the ability of people to invite all their friends to an application,” the developer complains.

Read full letter here

Starting an Online Dating Service

According to Joe Tracy, publisher of Online Dating Magazine, Out of every 100 online dating services that are started, 99 of them will fail and never make a profit. Everyone starting a new service thinks they'll automatically be a part of that 1%, but then again, many Americans also think they'll one day win the lottery. The harsh reality is that from the time you launch your service you are part of that 99% and only those who know how to prevail will change that fate.

Joe has some advices for new sites that want to be part of the 1%:
1) Put the consumer first. I'm sure you've been upset at the way a company has treated you in the past. Strive to make it so that no one is ever that upset with you. Remember the golden rule, "do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
2) Find ways to heavily differentiate yourself (in a good way) from mainstream online dating services (i.e. offer refunds).
3) Network with other businesses to create joint ventures that benefit everyone involved.
4) Offer incentives for people who become members (paying or not). Note: My free ebook "Maximizing Your Online Dating Success" can be used as an incentive.
5) Don't start too big.
6) Remember that you need to market from several different angles and markets. Just doing online advertising won't cut it.
7) Find ways to create press releases that will attract attention. All it takes is for one news organization to write a story on you and that one story could result in many more.
If you have the money, hire a good public relations firm to help.
8) Be serious. Running a successful online dating service isn't something you do "just on the side". There's a lot of issues to work out, especially if you become successful - servers, technicians, customer support reps, etc.

Read more at : Online Dating Magazine

Viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace

A very intersting none academic research "Viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace " published by danah boyd.
The research is about who goes where and how is it relateted to the socio-economic class.
Acording to the publisher ,the goodie two shoes, jocks, athletes, or other "good" kids are now going to Facebook. These kids tend to come from families who emphasize education and going to college.They are primarily white, but not exclusively. They are in honors classes, looking forward to the prom, and live in a world dictated by after school activities.
MySpace on the other hand is still home for Latino/Hispanic teens, immigrant teens, "burnouts," "alternative kids," "art fags," punks, emos, goths, gangstas, queer kids, and other kids who didn't play into the dominant high school popularity paradigm. These are kids whose parents didn't go to college, who are expected to get a job when they finish high school. These are the teens who plan to go into the military immediately after schools. Teens who are really into music or in a band are also on MySpace. MySpace has most of the kids who are socially ostracized at school because they are geeks, freaks, or queers.

Read full research

CircleUp Launches Its Most Sensible Widget

I have found a cool new widget from CircleUp , embeddable MyQuestions widget to accompany its existing service, combining the functions of an instant messenger with a Q&A forums.

This widget enables you to ask a question, get an answer, see others’ questions, leave your own answers, and track everything with RSS along the way. You’ll need to be registered in order to use this widget, as it functions around your existing CircleUp account and groups.

You can place your widget on your website, blog or social networking profile, including MySpace, hi5 and Piczo.


Full Article: Mashable

Online Dating Cartoons

The emergence of online dating presents a great opportunity to explore the more humorous side of the dating ritual.




More cartoons at: Online Dating Magazine

Jupiter Research Undervalues German Dating Market

Dirk Pflitsch at Online-Dating-News has published an analysis “Online Dating Companies in Germany” which is based on a paper based survey filled out by 46 of 60 mayor players. Dirk contends that Jupiter
We estimated a €116 million market in 2006 while Jupiter Research said €66 million.We try to explain the difference:- We included adult dating and niche dating sites as for Christians, Single Parents… (about €20 million).- Jupiter data is based on asking a few 100 Germans about their online behaviourwhile we have a direct access to the companies. Their way causes some problems, i.e.:The turnover increased because most of the German dating companies switched from a non-reccuring to a auto-recurring membership.But most of the mebers don’t even know that - thats why turnover increased!

Source: Online Dating Insider

Half of Brits regularly use online dating sites claims survey

Use an online dating site? You're not alone if a new survey is to be believed - over half of us in the UK have registered at two dating websites, while 83 per cent of people have been on a dating site at some point.
And while it's hard to take the results of a 3,000-people survey undertaken by an actual dating site as cast iron fact, the research does suggest it works - with a third of those registering finding a long-term relationship and a quarter still going strong. And just to throw in a happy ending, six per cent got married.

Full article: TechDigest

Online Dating Can Be Dangerous

An estimated 40 million Americans use online dating services hoping to meet "the one." There are more than 1,400 Web sites in the $700 million a year business, but some question their safety.
Prosecutors say a Philadelphia nursing student was conning women on match.com. He was convicted this week of assault, but the accusations don't end there. His victims, described as attractive, ambitious professionals say their lives will never be the same.
Prosecutors said Jeffrey Marsalis, 34, told some tall tales, pretending to be a doctor, an astronaut and even a spy to lure women on Internet dating sites.
"He faces up to 20 years in prison and he will have to register as a sexual offender for the rest of his life," said prosecutor Joe Khan.
Marsalis was convicted of sexual assault. However, he was acquitted of more serious charges that he drugged and then raped seven women in his apartment.
"You read about it, you see it on TV but you just don't think it can happen to you," one anonymous victim said.
She said she knows about tricksters like Jeffrey Marsalis and how easy it is to be duped online. According to her, a man she met on a Christian dating Web site was seeing 60 other women from 25 different Web sites. He pretended to be everything from a country music manager to a Pentagon consultant. He even lied about having cancer, she said.
She claims he stole thousands of dollars from his victims.

Full Article: abc news

Engage.com Survey Reveals Correlation between Attraction and Social Consciousness

Sixty-four percent of singles say they'd like to know about a prospective date's social values as they consider compatibility. Nearly seven in 10 say a potential romantic prospect should be in sync on a social issue, such as the environment or racial and religious tolerance, or at least be socially conscious and active.
The Engage "Social Engagement" survey of more than 500 single adults shows that 58 percent say they are active with social causes including: environmentalism (24 percent); education (18 percent); and homelessness and poverty (10 percent), among others.

Full article: PRNewswire

IBM Takes Social Networking to Businesses

IBM jumped on the Web 2.0 social networking bandwagon with the release of a suite of products it describes as social software for business. The new Lotus Connections suite features - activities, communities, bookmarking, profiles and blogs. Business has been slow to adopt social networking as a tool applicable to the workplace. A changing trend, according to IBM and its partners.

Source: Social networking watch

How Physical Appearance Figures in the Dating Arena

In the past, contemporary culture has been criticized by the spiritual community, for an omnipresent narcissistic existence – or, an abundant over-concern with the projection of attractive, ‘superior’ images and masks -- which characterize people in some form of ‘perfect’ state.
The supposition that a standard of perfection is actually attainable by the masses (which it isn’t, not only because it is generally unrealistic, but also largely genetically implausible) is also damaging, since it assumes a level of invulnerability that does not exist, as well.
To the contrary, numerous icons of pop culture, past and present, have proven that most of those portrayed as ‘perfect,’ or ‘best,’ for the most part, are all too human, and often much further away from any form of super-human aspect, on any level.
In earlier eras, a realistic conception of beauty, such as under Plato, determines that beauty is inherent in the object itself, containing an essence prior to and apart from human interpretation and reflection. As evidenced by Socrates’ musing in Plato's Symposium, "What if man had eyes to see the true beauty -- the divine beauty, I mean, pure and clear and unalloyed," physical beauty was treated as an access to higher qualities. Physical beauty, as it appeared to Plato, seemed more of an inspirational tool, rather than some ideal to strive for.

Full Article

U.S.A. Internet Dating Rankings - Hitwise

The U.S.A. internet dating rankings are now in. Singlesnet moves up to #1 position. PlentyofFish ousts Match from its 4th spot, a cause for concern for YahooPersonals, Match and TRUE. Racy gay dating site Adam4Adam moves up to 7th position. HotorNot recentl switched to free and moves up two spots to #9. OnlineBootyCall continues its climb, moving up one spot to #12. FriendFinder, LoveAccess and OutPersonals poke up into the top 15 at #13, #14, #15, bumping MSN Match, Gay and Ameican Singles off the top 15.

Source: Onlinepersonalswatch

Nielsen//NetRatings Engagament Rankings

Nielsen//NetRatings engagement rankings for May show member commuities, which includes online dating and social networking, coming in third next to email and IM. Interestingly enough, gaming comes in fourth. That should tell you something. Ever thought about adding games to your site? I'm surprised none of the majors have added games yet. You can use games to help people engage with each other, and your site, and make money by upselling them to full gaming packages.

Top 5 Subcategories Ranked by Total Time, May 2007**
Subcategory In Millions of Hours
E-mail 342.9
Instant Messaging 253.6
Member Communities 205.6
Online Games 170.0
Current Events/Global News 119.6

Source: Onlinepersonalswatch

TripAdvisor Adding More Social Features

I really like TripAdvisor,the travel blogging service,I use it whenever I plan a new trip.
TripAdvisor , is scheduled to roll out more social networking aspects to its service, making it easier to find and share information from others. The new features should launch sometime tomorrow.
The new social components of TripAdvisor will let you register your network of travelers, importing contacts from all the major email services such as GMail, Hotmail, AOL and MSN. Some new search technology is being included in the site revamp, which will make content from your friends network show at the top of your search results.
Moving towards a more social existence is something TripAdvisor is surely interested in. The company released its Facebook application last week, enabling users to display their account map on their Facebook profiles and marking where they’ve traveled. Other travel social networks include TripTie and Matador.

Source: Mashable

Flickr application available for Facebook

There is now a Flickr application available for Facebook, bringing a bit more color and life to your Facebook profile than many of the applications we’ve seen in the past two weeks. The Flickr Facebook app is available here. It’s important to note that this application was not created by Flickr.
The Flickr app features include the ability to share your Flickr photos with friends directly through your Facebook profile, highlight recent photos, and connects you with friends on Flickr friends that are on Facebook as well. You can also browse through your own Flickr photos from Facebook. Geo-tagged photos have the geographical information displayed along with their respective photos. Of course it’s good that this is one of the more social Facebook applications, too.

source: Mashable

Online market for singles booming in Germany

According to experts the online-market for finding a parter for life is developing into a particularly lucrative business. In 2006 Germans spent 65.6 million Euros in order to find a mate on the internet. This corresponds to an increase of 49% as compared to the year 2005. For the year 2007 the Jupiter Research market research institution calculated that turnover in this field could increase by another 29% to reach 84.5 million Euros.
This development is not limited to Germany. Therefore, the forecasts by market researchers are very optimistic. Thus, the number of users of online-dating services in Europe is expected to rise from 2.8 million in 2006 to 6.0 million by the year 2011. Corrispondingly, turnover in this business is forecast to increase from 246 million to 549 million Euros in the same period. One of the most important markets in this respect could be Germany. Here in 2011 online-dating services with an expected turnover of 138.1 million Euros could generate one quarter of Europe´s total turnover. A similar German market share was already registered in the year 2006.

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Top 10 Most Clever Subject Headers

Online dating services like LavaLife, Date.com, and Match.com require an opening line or subject header, making it a great way for you to be creative, funny, or even philosophical.
Online Dating Magazine has searched through thousands of profile headers to bring you the Top 10 Most Clever Subject Headers that they found:

10) Down to earth Angel seeks wings
9) New girl on the block needs a tour guide
8) Looking to write a new chapter in my book of life
7) Take me to the moon. I’m not a halfway kinda girl
6) If FUN was a MUST then I must be the one you’re looking for.
5) Bright spark looking to ignite shared paths
4) Over 280,000 women looking for a relationship and all I want is one.
3) If I could arrange the alphabet, I would put U and I together!
2) Any good e-males out there?

and the number one most clever profile subject header....

1) Just like a new job, I offer excellent benefits.

by Joe Tracy, Publisher of Online Dating Magazine