Dating Sites and Software

Why Zoosk Wants to Make Online Dating More Like LinkedIn. The Internet dating routine is relatively straightforward, if tough to progress from step to step: Make a profile, find some dates, pick a mate, get offline.

But the dating site Zoosk wants to change that by incentivizing its members to stay online after they've found romance. The company is beginning to unveil a host of new features and services designed to make its service more sticky. "I use the example of LinkedIn versus Monster," co-founder Alex Mehr said in a Valentine's Day interview.

"Monster just focuses on the job-seeking phase of your professional life, whereas LinkedIn covers your entire professional career. We want to provide a service like that for your entire romantic life. " Mehr said that Zoosk will be able to do this with relationship-enhancing bonuses such as reminders of key dates including birthdays and anniversaries, deals on events and activities for two, and advice centers for couples. Zoosk works differently than most dating sites already, Mehr says. Badoo Unveils Features to Help Shy Users Flirt. In a bid to lure in more users in the United States, multilingual social network Badoo has rolled out two "U.S.

-friendly" features that aim to help users charm strangers online. The London-based company, which has 130 million users in 180 countries and has recently made a push into U.S. borders, touts its free new features — “Interests” and “Ice Breaker” — as digital aids for users who are concerned about leaving favorable first impressions. Ice Breaker offers conversation starters, while the Interests component allows users to leave self-generated hobbies instead of pre-defined ones like other dating sites require. Badoo predicts the features "will help thousands of people connect with like-minded friends, hobby partners or potential love interests. " “It’s hard work coming up with lines to impress new people,” says Jessica Powell, Badoo's chief marketing officer. Online Dating? You Might as Well Look for Love in a Bar [STUDY] Online dating sites frequently trumpet their ability to corral the most compatible fish in your sea through sophisticated algorithms.

But a psychological study released this week says that you may be better off doing it the old-fashioned way and just meeting a stranger at a bar. A team commissioned by the Association of Psychological Science says that the algorithms employed by sites such as eHarmony, Match.com and OKCupid don't do much much to determine whether sparks will fly when they compare people's interests and personalities, according to a recent Reuters interview with report author Eli Finkel. "There's no better way to figure out whether you're compatible with somebody than talking to them over a cup of coffee or a pint of beer," said Finkel, an associate professor at Northwestern University.

Finkel and his team found that the massive databases of potential matches don't reveal enough about the people behind the profiles. "The assumption is that they work," he said. Love-Seekers Beware: Online Dating Fraud Rose 150% Last Year. Lonely hearts seeking love this Valentine's Day, be wary.

Online dating fraud rose by 150% percent in 2011 as scammers and hucksters turned up the false charm and predatory trolling. That's according to data shared with Mashable by fraud protection agency Iovation, which works with several major Internet dating services. Iovation reached that number by employing patented technology that analyzes hardware and software, rather than mine for personal information, says Molly O'Hearn, vice president of operations.

Iovation found that in 2011, 3.8% of all transactions it processed for online dating sites were fraudulent. That includes users misrepresenting themselves to try to acquire personal information, directing users to phishing sites, spamming people with unrelated messages, or persistently harassing users. From 2009 to 2010, dating fraud on the sites Iovation monitors declined slightly, from a rate of 1.5% to 1.4%.