Niche dating sites really are on the rise. Alikewise is a dating site that allows you to find people based on their book tastes. The profiles on Alikewise include lists of books the readers like to read. For example, NerdyReaderLady likes Kitchen Confidential and The Road.
CNN's Ayesha Durgahee reports on the trend in niche dating site. She says being picky might help increase your chances of finding success. There are niche sites for farmers, matching IQ and lifestyle. Ayesha also talks about the larger, general dating sites. Take a look:
IAC's Match.com has announced an agreement by which Match.com will become the exclusive online dating site on Yahoo!. Over the next two months, existing Yahoo! Personals members will be given the opportunity to migrate their Yahoo! Personals accounts over to the new experience.
"The key to a successful online dating experience is having both a thriving community of active members and a sophisticated site experience optimized for dating success," says Greg Blatt, CEO of Match.com. "By bringing Yahoo! Personals members to Match.com, our community, which we already believe to be the largest and most vibrant in the space, has become even more compelling for our members. When you add this to our unparalleled site experience, evolving every month with new features and enhancements, we feel the distance between the online dating experience we offer and that of others in the space is growing even larger."
Will you cheat? Your fingers can tell you if you might be the next Tiger Woods, say some experts. If your fourth finger is longer than your second you may be more likely to cheat according to the research. The link between finger length and cheating has to do with how much testosterone was received in the womb. Take a look:
YourTango.com's Online Dating Coach Evan Marc Katz explains about whether or not you should lie about your age in your profile. He doesn't think it would be unethical to tweak your age slightly so you show up in most search results as long as you explain your real age in your profile. However, he says you are better off writing to people who are seeking your actual age. Take a look:
Reuters reports that Amour, the French word for love, narrowly beat out amore, the Italian word for love, in a survey to find out the most romantic word. Italian words did dominate the survey.
Italian words also dominated the top places in the list of most romantic words
"Belissima", which is both Italian and Spanish for "very beautiful", was voted the third most romantic word, while "tesoro", which is both Italian and Spanish for "treasure" (as in "Mi tesoro"/"My treasure") came fourth.
Today Translations compiled the study by querying 320 linquists. The study also found the least romantic sounding way to say "I love you." The big loser was the Japanese word, "watakushi-wa anata-wo ai shimasu"
The iPad is likely to be a popular product even with all the feminine hygiene jokes. Because of this there will be iPad dating apps. Skout.com, a dating mobile website, plans to launch the first dating app for the iPad.
As an industry first, Skout found a way connect the virtual online dating world with the real world. People can use Skout to chat, share photos, and even share videos. The new SKOUT.COM iPad app will not only show you singles nearby who are active and ready to chat, it will also boast a new concept: The HotMap. The Map will display a live overview of where most singles are currently active in your area. If members are searching for men between 25-30, the map will show the highest concentration of the results on the map. Data is aggregated live from the Skout Network of over 500,000 members using iPhones, the web, mobile web, and now the iPad. According to Match.com founder Gary Kremen, "As we stand at the cusp of mobile convergence, SKOUT is perfectly positioned to disrupt the online dating market. SKOUT represents what all dating companies must become to not only just remain relevant, but to survive." The Skout dating service is available on virtually every mobile phone with a browser as well as via a laptop or desktop computer by visiting http://www.skout.com. With Valentine's around the corner members can also rely on SKOUT to meet up with others with similar interests who are nearby hoping to communicate and maybe even find love.
The iPad would be a lot more useful for people using dating social networking websites if it had a camera but it doesn't.
A website named Crazy Blind Date is promising crazy blind dates. The site promises dates arranged in extremely short notice. The site says it is for "social, outgoing, and adventurous people." Here is how you meet each other quickly according to the faq.
When you agree to a date, you'll get to see a description of your match. If you still can't find each other amongst all the other nervous-looking people at that bar or coffee shop, quack like a dog and make armpit farts. If that doesn't work, you can send each other text messages through us. In the final 30 minutes before the date, we open a relay. If you send a text message to CUPID (28743) it will go to your date's phone. For example: "I'm at the bar in the back, wearing a blue sweater, drinking a martini."
It does sound kind of crazy. Note: making armpit farts does not sound like a good idea despite what the faq says.
Manhattan is full of singles writes the New York Post. Over 50% of residencies are occupied by just a single person according to data from the Census Bureau. Singles attract other singles is part of the reason behind the large amount of singles living in Manhattan.
"Singles attract more singles," he said. "They participate in a lifestyle that is mutually reinforcing. The more single people engage in that lifestyle, the more acceptable it is, and the more acceptable it is, the more people are going to do it."
Sociologists now call the time people in their 20s and 30s spend solo "early adulthood" to differentiate it from the period before they marry and have children -- which is happening later and later.
The ratio now makes it more attractive for single men - single women outnumber single men in Manhattan 212,000 to 165,000.
BeautifulPeople.com is a website that promises listings of beautiful people only. BeautifulPeople.com launches with 180,000 members through existing networks in the UK, US, Denmark, Japan, Spain, Italy, Canada and Australia.
Everyone is welcome to apply to join BeautifulPeople.com but only 20% of men and women will be accepted. Potential members apply with a photo and a brief profile. Over 48 hours, existing members of the opposite sex vote whether or not to admit them in to their exclusive community. Individuals who fail to impress are rejected. Applicants can view their rating process on a real time rating graph, which swings between red and green depending on how existing members judge them.
BeautifulPeople.com founder, Robert Hintze, says, "BeautifulPeople.com is governed by the principle that every human being wants to be with someone they find attractive - its human nature. By only allowing beautiful people through our doors, we remove the first hurdle."
Conde Nast may be dumping magazines but they are totally into online dating. The magazine publisher has launched a dating site for fashionistas called Truly Madly Dating. There's a little bit of Mad Men in that title and logo. Vogue.co.uk says the website is supported by GQ.com and Glamour.com. The new niche dating site is currently offering a 7-day free trail.
Gelato Dating Site Authenticates Users With Facebook and Twitter
Digital Beat reports that a new start-up called Gelato is a new type of online dating website that also pulls in real-time data from services like Facebook, Twitter and Facebook.
Instead of creating a profile, Gelato pulls in updates from your Facebook profile, Twitter account, Netflix queue, Pandora stations and Flickr photos to create what founder Steve Odom says is a more authentic profile of who you are. Odom says online dating is ripe for change because it involves static profiles that are time-consuming to create and that people don’t bother to update very often.
“Dating sites haven’t really changed in five years,” Odom said. “At the same time with Twitter, I felt if I could follow someone for a couple weeks, I’d get a more honest picture of who they are.”
The "stream dating" website uses Facebook Connect or Twitter's OAuth feature to verify you who are instead of using passwords or email.
Reuters reports that a new study has found the big spenders tend to marry big savers.
"Surveys of married adults suggest that opposites attract when it comes to emotional reactions toward spending," Wharton's Scott Rick and Deborah Small and Northwestern's Eli Finkel said in the paper.
They found that people who generally spend less than they would ideally like to spend, and those who spend more than they would like to tend to marry each other.
George Loewenstein, a professor of economics and psychology at Carnegie Mellon University, in a separate study called "Tightwads and Spendthrifts" published last year, found that the degree people feel of a "pain of paying" determines if they are a "tightwad" or a "spendthrift."
Loewenstein's study, conducted with Wharton's Rick and Carnegie Mellon doctoral student Cynthia Cryder, found that the extent to which people said they found a pain of paying strongly predicted their savings and credit card debt, but were unrelated to income.
Spending differences can lead to disagreements but there could also be ways to two different spending types could help each other out. A big spender could certainly user someone more conservative about saving money. And a tightwad may need to learn to spend some money now and then and use what has been earned.
The Washington Postreports that Match.com is acquiring People Media, a network of over two dozen dating sites.
The deal includes the purchase of about 27 targeted dating sites with a combined 255,000 paying subscribers, including BlackPeopleMeet.com, BBPeopleMeet.com, LDSPlanet.com, SingleParentMeet.com and SeniorPeopleMeet.com.
People Media, founded in 2002, had $11.6 million of EBITDA in 2008 and quotes Jupiter Research as saying the combined revenues of the targeted dating service business are expected to reach $1.2 billion worldwide this year. Still according to the announcement, People Media, besides exclusively powering multiple AOL Personals communities, reaches nearly 4 million internet users each month. Match.com attracted about 5.8 million unique monthly users in May 09 according to comScore and reported $9.9 million in operating income before amortization last year.
People Media also powers AOL Personals communities says the Post, which is where most of its unique visitors come from. It's not clear from the article whether Match.com will continue running all the Peoples Media sites as separate sites from Match.com.
Mark Sanford's Affair Brings Out the Relationship Experts
Everytime a high-profile celebrity or politician cheats the experts have to investigate why. South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford press conference announcing that had cheated was one of the strangest ever. Why do people cheat? Relationship experts, Amy Laurent and Matt Titus talked to Erica Hill on CBS Early Show to try and help answer the why. Some say men are pre-wired to cheat but others say that's just no true.
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The iPad is likely to be a popular product even with all the 
Conde Nast may be 
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