MySpace has agreed to send out “Amber Alerts” about abducted children to its membership. I almost read that to say that the Amber Alert would be for kids stolen off of Myspace.
In addition, MySpace today announced a new set of safety features to increase online safety and privacy for its community, including email verification and an “over/ under” privacy tool for all users.
Email verification doesn’t work. Check out 10 Minute Mail or the recent talk about Throwaway Identities.
See also Myspace Zephyr project for parents.
I don’t think this is a verification system that Sentry is supplying Myspace.
Via PaidContent.
UncategorizedFirst is was family networking, then couples and now women, what’s next? A men’s social network? The Dude Network?
Oomph.net is described as Oxygen’s first social network. One of its twists: personality tests designed to help women find other women with similar interests and personalities. “Passion groups”—each led by an expert—are offered as another option for meeting “like-minded” people. Online friends will see birthdays but not years. The offer of free mood rings for Oomph registrants is a little too jr. high but it is one way to collect addresses, which can then be used for target marketing and advertising.
I am envisioning the Madison Avenue power executive wearing her angry-german looking Oliver Peoples glasses, revealing the term “passion groups” during a powerpoint presentation. What will the reverberation be over at iVillage?
Almost makes me pine for working in the ad biz in NYC a decade ago.
More from PaidContent.
oomph, oxygen, social networking Open markets are good and I believe everyone should have the opportunity to succeed.
That said, there are too many broken, poorly designed, sad excuses for dating sites out there. I would like to take most of them behind the shed and put them out of their misery because they make my job harder.
The initial *perceived* barriers to entry to build successful dating sites are too low. We need to raise them. I am all for risk taking and starting internet businesses, but there should be some kind of test you have to take before you can roll out a new domain name (no hyphens!).
Why not have a “throw in the towel” day? Shut down your dating site and become an eBay Power Seller. Less stress, shorter workdays and more money and time in the sun.
The software for sale to run dating sites is terrible, with few exceptions. The service these companies provide is even worse. Why would you want to get into something that is going to cost little to build and your sanity to make work and keep running?
Someone needs to start a consortium of developers dedicated to the building and maintaining of dating sites. Guru.com doesn’t cut it. Neither will your nephew or the guy you met at the local geek networking event.
Today when people call me to ask for advice on how to start a dating site, I often mention green energy or pet rocks as a better way to make money. There are too many dating sites which a) never should have been started, b) have no idea how to run an internet business, c) have unrealistic expectations. Is it better for them to limp along on life support or close up shop and move on?
The world does not need another dating site. If you think your idea is novel and never been done, it’s probably for a reason. Sometimes ideas are more fun to think about than execute.
You probably don’t have enough money to make your site successful. Your competition has a bigger marketing budget, and knows where to spend it (and where not to waste resources.) eHarmony spends $90 million a year on radio and tv jingles.
You are not Match, or PlentyOfFish. The chances of this kind of luck and success are infinitesimal, even lower than most dating site visitor-to-member conversion rates.
Most people don’t think about dating sites as internet businesses, which is exactly what they are. There is no “you” in running an online dating site, it’s your IT guy and your credit card processor. They are your new best friends. Who call at 2am.
If you still want to get into the game, congrats, you are either comfortably ignorant or incredibly smart. Either is good, just know where you stand and what direction you need to go in to be successful.
Keep reading and learn how to make it in the world of online dating “social networking”, because that is what online dating is going to be called in 2008 as the space between the two continues to narrow and paywalls fall down in favor of free dating (which I’m not a big fan in most contexts, BTW.)
Dating Site, less+is+more, rantMingles, a dating site I’ve never heard of, has ended it’s Commission Junction affiliation. No word if this was voluntary or they were kicked.
affiliate+marketing, commission+junction, Dating Site, minglesFrom the rumor mill: Word is filtering back from iDate that a new Jewish dating site has not been paying affiliates for while and they are considering shutting down due to financial problems.
RumorsBusy day, few things you should know about. One-time client Trufina has announced a new free service. No link to press release on their own website, hrrumpf.
College Park, Md.–Trufina Inc., a leader in the Online Identity
Verification space, announces today a unique initiative to bring
verified personal information to the Internet community–at no charge.
With Trufina, a subscriber has an “Internet ID card” that has been
verified to be accurate. Trufina users can also have several versions
of their ID cards, much like a user might have several different credit
cards in her wallet. When a user wants to assert something about their
identity, they can choose the appropriate card. And because that
information has been verified by a trusted source, personal information
can be trusted to be accurate. Trufina users have complete control over
their IDs and can choose where that information is used–and who can
view it.
Verified users can also “assert” information on their own behalf. Once
Trufina’d, subscribers can assert their age, address, phone number and
other information for use across the Internet. For example, a user who
would like to purchase wine over the Internet could assert their age
with no trouble whatsoever.
Trufina IDs are applicable across many areas of the Internet. For
example, eBay users can reduce fraud by requesting buyers and sellers
to sign up for free Trufina ID cards and then sharing that ID with
them, reducing fraud and increasing trust.
Websites can also implement Trufina’s personal information validation
services to easily offer the verification of personal information for
their users. For example, social networks can offer the Trufina ID free
of charge to their subscriber base, reducing the occurrence of
inaccurate information. Users of that social network will know, upon
seeing the Trufina shield in conjunction with a subscriber’s profile,
that the viewed information asserted has been proven accurate. In
addition, Websites can now be assured that when a Trufina user
registers and uses their site that each Trufina member is unique, as
they can only register for the Trufina service one time.
Users can also join by going directly to www.trufina.com and
registering for a free account. Once completing a short questionnaire,
verifying the user’s identity, a user receives her own Trufina ID that
she can use anywhere on the Internet. Members can reuse their Trufina
ID whenever ID verification is needed.
Christian Madsen, Trufina’s CEO, said, “Trufina’s service is
user-centric, putting all the control in the user’s hands. Trufina
users control their own information by controlling what information is
visible to others. This was critical for our user base and in line with
our company’s philosophy and policy to give our users complete control
and privacy.”
About Trufina (www.trufina.com)
Trufina is the first company that offers users the ability to verify
personal information, control it, and share it across the Internet. At
Trufina we strive to lead in the development and deployment of the most
advanced verified identity system on the Internet. Trufina’s unique
approach brings more confidence and integrity to any online experience
by removing the guesswork of determining if the other person across the
Internet is being truthful.
