The Love Connection

On-line dating and friendship sites

Topics we explored

• 1. Identity: What characteristics do the sites highlight? What questions are asked

• 2. Deception: What are some safeguards?• 3. Searching: How do the sites allow users to search? • 4. Matching: Do the sites base their systems on homophily?

What are the goals/options of the sites (marriage, casual dates, casual sex, friends).

• 5. Contacting: what do users have to do to be able to contact potential mates? Are there free contact options (i.e. “winks” or “teases”)? Most sites have built-in anonymous webmail (that both ensures privacy, and ensures you have to pay them for the privilege of contacting others)

Types of sites

• Mainstream

• Sub-population

• Personality matching

• SN: Friendster

• Semi-SN: Craigslist

“Mainstream”

• Match.com– One of the biggest in the space– Long, long sign-up process – 10 (!) steps,

including lots of free-response essays– Intended audience (and thus types of questions)

really run the gamut, from normal stuff like appearance, to what’s your ideal kind of date, to what’s your favorite NBA team (why just NBA?)

Another “mainstream”:

• Yahoo! Personals– Similar to match.com, though a little bit more

basic; seems like they’re catering to a bit more of a casual set

– Simpler signup process (but that does that encourage more “fakesters”?)

“Sub-population”

• Ethnic

• National

• Religious

• Sexuality

• Special interests (divorced, golden age, widowed, BDSM, “passion”)

There’s a lot out there

• On-line dating conglomerates:• http://www.friendfinder.com/

– Friendfinder.com, asiafriendfinder.com, amigos.com, adultfriendfinder.com, germanfriendfinder.com, seniorfriendfinder.com, bigchurch.com, etc.

• http://www.geosingles.com– 135 national singles sites (i.e.

zimbabweansingles.com), 5 ethnic, 16 religious, 9 “special interest”

www.vietnamesesingles.com (part of www.geosingles.com)– Profiles of people in Vietnam

www.gay.com

• Registration for “adult” content search (must pay): • Relationship search free• Has chat, video chat, blocking, no winks• Noteworthy features: Mannerisms (masculine/butch),

tattoos, piercings, HIV + or -, Home and Family section (nothing about wanting kids), pictures stressed, how out are you and your match.

• No automated matching – it’s a listing. • This is also a community site covering travel, news,

family issues, business, and shopping.

www.rightstuffdating.com

• “The Right Stuff is an international introduction network for single graduates and faculty of a select group of excellent universities and colleges” (Berkeley is among them!)

• Hetero relations only, can’t be currently married• Can be an offline or online member• Monthly postal mailing and email of all members’

profiles (names protected)• $70/six months (discount if graduate ’93 or later)

Personality Matching: e-Harmony

• Call themselves “the fastest growing relationship site on the web”

• Their test gives “instant, objective feedback on yourself and how you relate to others”

Social Networking

• Friendster– Not immediately obvious that it’s a dating site

(though that was the founder’s original intent)– Since the people you find with it are friends of

friends, some seem to use it just as a lineup of people that they can ask real-life friends for introductions to (thus skipping the electronic communications part)

Craigslist personals – “pseudo-SN”

• “pseudo” because you don’t have to know friends of Craig, but apparently many people do (or did)

• ultra-low barrier to entry

• no matching, limited searching

• however, still highly, highly popular