There’s so many formats for online dating these days that it’s almost hard to swallow that another one is coming to life. However off this may seem, Comcast and HurryDate have teamed up to bring Video Dating Profiles to your local cable TV.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Cable giant Comcast Corp. has paired up with a dating service to offer video dating profiles to high-end cable customers.

Comcast, the nation’s largest cable company with 21.5 million subscribers, will test “Dating on Demand” in its home turf of Philadelphia in the next few weeks. About 600,000 of Comcast’s 1.5 million customers in the Philadelphia market have digital cable, a spokesman said.

The merger will help fill the cable giant’s need for content while drawing younger customers to its video-on-demand service, an analyst said.

Hurrydate will host three socials at which singles can make three- to five-minute videos that will be offered locally to video-on-demand customers. A viewer can learn more about the video subject on Hurrydate’s web site.

To exchange e-mails, the viewer must join Hurrydate, which costs $14.95 a month but will be free to video participants for six months.

Source: Comcast Press Release via Social Software Weblog.

This certainly brings new meaning to Channel Surfing. It’s very difficult to gauge how successful a venture of this nature will be. Real estate has tried for years to do the same thing with properties interspersed with you daily dose of Bob Vila, but the success rates vary widely.

Of course this has both an upside and a downside. Unlike the real estate placements, I am most likely opting to view these videos. Unfortunately, there won’t be much by way of search or filtering which could be an issue (or not if no one signs on) and then I’m forced to make a $15 investment to face possible rejection.

Doesn’t sound like a winner to me.

There are few that can deny the impact that Online Dating has had on the way we form new relationships. On the other hand, many are still up in arms over the actual quality of those new connections and others are quite confused when it comes to the future of the industry.

By any account, the industry can only get bigger. The real question, however, is just how much bigger it can get before it either collapses under its own weight or splinters into a suite of yet-to-be-named hybrid niche industries.

Perhaps one of the first signs that there aren’t all green pastures ahead is a recent tussle that surfaced between Match.com and True (formerly TrueBeginnings). News.com reports:

The online personals business is getting to be about as much of a jungle as the dating market itself–at least from the looks of a battle between Barry Diller’s Match.com and an upstart competitor.

Diller’s InterActiveCorp has launched legal action against six former employees of its Match.com online dating service, who moved to TrueBeginnings, a Texas-based relationship Web site.

Match.com had subpoenas served on the former employees to investigate potential breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty and other interference with business relations, according to a TrueBeginnings statement.

Source: News.com, “Online personals business gets nasty”

Maybe there is some secret Online Dating sauce that Match.com was developing? It will be interesting to see how this pans out.

CNN.com has an interesting article that talks about the “dark side” of Internet Dating, the side that most people don’t want to talk about and site management want to keep you from hearing.

As the article notes:

While the Internet has arguably increased the chances of meeting potential mates, it carries its own share of heartbreak and growing complaints about false profiles, bad behavior and ill-suited matches.

A number of online daters and Internet sites are taking matters into their own hands, critiquing these services and warning their peers of the pitfalls of Web hook-ups.

Source: CNN.com, “The funny odds of online dating”

The article identifies several sites that can assist in the selection process:

• http://www.dateseeker.net
• http://www.datingsitesreviews.com
• http://datingreviewsonline.com
• http://www.edatereview.com

Two of the primary complaints I have see voiced by users of online dating sites have been related to:

• Honesty - The nature of the virtual, asynchronous relationships forged early on with online dating sites provides far too many opportunities for dishonesty. From misrepresentations of relationship status, to fictitious or outdated photographs, to outright falsifications in online profile data, the road is certainly perilous.

• Chemistry - No matter how many e-mails people exchange, or the quality of the streaming video chats, the chemistry that exists between two people is hard to ignore and impossible to replace (despite what eHarmony might think)

There have been many efforts, both social and technological, implemented to thwart these forces, however, I wonder how effective they will be. On the one hand, they can be overcome, but it will require tremendous effort and third parties to remedy. On the other hand, going through that much effort might be just enough weight to collapse the entire enterprise.

What happened to just going out and meeting your soul mate, anyway?

A valuable characteristic of a network is the inherent ability for nodes to discover their parents, siblings, and children. For years, more and more network technologies have been spawned that ease this process for not only the humans at the helm but also for the system agents that drudge through the data on our behalf.

Apple computer released a very unique network recognition system, aptly named Rendezvous as part of its OSX operating system. The basic role of Rendezvous is to allow machines, and inadvertently their operators, to locate available networks and initiate conversations, in one form or another. For the most part, these conversations are either social a la user-user chat or functional a la synchronization, streaming, and sharing of files/resources.

In the next few weeks, the Rendezvous methodology of auto-discovery will be unlatched from Apple, and more importantly. from the desktop and destined for your pocket. A bright developer, Razvan Dragomirescu of Simedia, is poised to release his newest application: Pocket Rendezvous. As described:

It’s a web server for the Pocket PC that advertises itself to other Pocket PCs in the neighbourhood wirelessly using ad-hoc WiFi networks and Rendezvous. Windows users can look here for a Windows Rendezvous browser/publisher. Pocket Rendezvous also allows you to browse for nearby devices running Pocket Rendezvous and view the content published by the Pocket Rendezvous server on those devices. You can also browse for regular Rendezvous services published on your network.

Source: Smart Mobs, “Pocket Rendezvous”

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Stowe points to a Seattle Time’s article that discusses the recent patent awared to eharmony. The patent (6,735,568) describes a “method and system for identifying people who are likely to have a successful relationship.” Though I am a firm believer in psychology and science, I simply don’t want to relinquish my life-altering decisions to a computer (no matter how smart it is). For me, the Spark is just too important and I’m not alone.

Critics say computerized matchmaking discounts the je ne sais quoi of love in favor of formulas that can seem like basic arithmetic compared to the painstaking psychosexual calculations humans make about mates.

“In the long run, I can certainly see the merit in a questionnaire that helps you make choices about who you date,” said Robin Gorman Newman, a Great Neck, N.Y.-based dating coach and author of “How to Meet a Mensch in New York.” “But it still comes down to attraction as the first step. It sometimes just takes simple chemistry to know when you’ve found Mr. or Ms. Right.”

Seattle Times, “‘Love patent’ guarantees to take guesswork out of matchmaking”

Perhaps what gripes people the most about these systems is the lack of the human factor. This sentiment, I think, is common to many systems within the SNS industry. Seemingly, we desire the automation but need to continue to hold that last mile sacred.

Those matters aside, the patent just seems incredibly vague and, providing they have the war chest to back it up, could prove to be extremely limiting to the Online Dating and SNS industries as a whole.

It never ceases to amaze me the multitude of angles taken when approaching the singles scene, and online dating to be more specific. Judith Meskill’s Social Networking Services Meta List has more 40 alone in there, everything from age to pets are potential filters.

It what must be one of the newer entrants to the space, LoveInWar intends to spin its own matchmaking web focused on political affiliation and partisianship. Different, to say the least. I think their description says it best:

Who says sex and politics don’t mix? We all got concerns, views and what not. For many here, politics is what defines us. But sometimes, even politically minded people need a break. Sometimes you wanna meet others. Take a long walk on the beach or something. That’s where Love In War comes in. Think of us as a rest stop on your little revolution. Even Ché took some time to party. Go to Cuba, you’d understand why.

Source: Love In War web site

A friend pointed me to a soon-to-be-launched online dating service that uses MSN Messenger as it’s core platform for deployment. This new service, LemonTonic, is truly interesting in many different regards.

Designating itself as the Evolution of Online Dating, the LemonTonic service leverages the IM (Text, Audio, and Video capabilities) of MSN to create a compelling new service that adds both search and privacy to the mix in a meaningful and engaging manner.

As the site describes:

Lemontonic is the evolution of online dating

Ready for a fresh approach to online dating? Powered by Microsoft® Instant Messenger, lemontonic is the most realistic, exciting and enjoyable way to meet new people online!

We developed lemontonic specifically to answer the needs of a growing, global community of singles who are seeking new friendships, love and playful encounters online. Our technology allows people to share the thrills and experiences of dating at their own pace in an attractive, interesting environment.

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Jonas Luster has conducted a study of 1404 online dating consumers. He’s posted some preliminary results on his blog, with the promise of more to come in the future.

Though there are many interesting findings, I’m quite interested in the relative levels of interest generated by theses systems, security, and perceived value from the consumer, as seen from each gender’s point of view. Here are some of those numbers:

• 94 percent of all males seeking female companionship and 98 percent of all males seeking male companionship stated they were “highly likely” or “definitely” willing to meet online matches in person after a brief online acquaintanceship. Of those, 92 percent stated they were comfortable meeting partners even without an online courtship period.
• In contrast, 34 percent of all females seeking males, and 26 percent of all females seeking female contact online, stated they were “highly unlikely” or “definitely not” willing to meet online matches in person after a brief online courtship. Only 34 percent of those stated they were more likely to meet an online partner in person after a lengthy courtship.
• 64 percent of all interviewees seeking partners online stated they were using search engines, such as Google, and other means to verify identities of their respective matches. Less than one percent stated they would also enlist the paid services of online detective agencies.
• Of those responding, females reposted a weekly average of 130 initial emails from male matches, and 45 emails from female matches respectively. Males stated an average of four initial contacts per email per week from female peers and 89 emails per week on average from male peers.

Jonas Luster, “Finding your Sweetheart”

Thanks to the Social Software Weblog

Some bright blokes in London have come up with some new technology that will combine mobile phones and chance encounters to spark new relationships. The notion is that a personal profile will be stored within the phone along with a pre-defined query of what their mate’s qualities are. As noted:

When there are enough similarities between two people, and they happen to be in close proximity, the service tells their phones to communicate with each other

Called Serendipity, the service was created by a team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston. The latter-day cupids hope to offer people an alternative to online dating, the New Scientist magazine reported on Wednesday.

Source: Reuters, “Proximity dating on offer for lonely hearts”

Is it just me or does this almost seem a little too invasive? Reminds me of the ads from Minority Report that reacted to the individual’s retina to customize digital displays.

Viral Marketing Blog reports on a new round of quizzes making the circuit over at Match.com. Apparently the quizzes are quite viral in nature:

This ultra-viral, ultra-cool set of Match.com attraction quizzes are “scientifically developed” to determine what physical or personality type you find attractive. It boils down to rating a bunch of faces or a bunch of personality characterisitics. In return? A very long customized report for free. Not bad at all.

Source: Viral Marketing Blog