Hello, and welcome to Online Personal Watch’s Weekly News Roundup. I’m Mark Brooks, and here are the latest headlines from around the industry.
Let’s start with the bad news about Userplane. The IM guru will no longer support a free, unlimited service starting November 6th.
The good news is that Userplane will instead be introducing a low-cost, all-in-one-package. This will include their Webmessenger with Presence Bar, Webchat with Minichat and Webrecorder, Desktop.
Here's an interesting little side story. Toksta, a Userplane competitor, has changed its name to Stickapps.com, in response to an alleged trademark infringement. Stickapps is for sale and will probably sell for a low six figure amount very soon.
Moving on, it’s time to bid adieu to BBW Personals Plus. The dating site for plus-sized singles has re-launched as MoretoLove.com. Despite the new name, the system and features have remained the same. MoretoLove is run by Spark Networks. Company president Greg Liberman said in a press release "MoretoLove.com isn't just about body type. Our members want to find people who want more out of life and have a lot more love to share."
Now, it’s time for our weekly hook-ups and break-ups recap. There could soon be a new power couple over in the mobile dating sector. Flirtomatic is set to announce a major deal with a U.S. carrier, according to the Daily Finance. Signs seem to suggest the carrier is AT&T, since their ex-exec Gary Cohen now works for Flirtomatic as the VP of North America. Flirtomatic has pulled in $15 million in revenue from its social network and sales of virtual goods. The company has $11 million in venture backing to date and expects to turn a profit by next year.
There's no break-ups to report this week, but there is news about one scientist who is trying to break down eHarmony’s secret matching formula. eHarmony’s mathematical algorithm pairs up members based on their responses to a 258 question personality test. The site is now trying to figure out how their algorithm correlates with physical chemistry. Singles come into the eHarmony lab in Pasadena, California. They then go on mini-dates, and their body language is monitored. The findings are then cross-referenced with the daters’ responses to the eHarmony questionnaire. Among the constants in their research, physical attraction, they say, is a poor predictor of long term relationship success.
To watch this full report from ABC News, head over to opw1.com
Watch out for our review of the eHarmony test vs The Compatible Partners test. That's coming up on the weekend. The conclusions were pretty straightforward. The two tests are indeed near identical, but we did tweeze out a few differences.
That’s all for this week’s Online Personal Watch’s News Roundup. Tune in again next week as we bring you the latest and greatest from the world of online dating. No ads, no fluff, just raw news and CEO interviews. I’m Mark Brooks. Thank you.