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