| Attack of the flirt-bots
Bummer. Wasn't artificial intelligence (AI) supposed to be more, well, ominous? Like the rogue Skynet system in Terminator, or Agent Smith in The Matrix. Something that at least threatened humanity with extinction. Something, you know, impressive. Instead we get ... "flirt-bots." Computer security watchdogs are warning about a new type of artificial intelligence software coming out of the extensive Russian hacker networks. It's a "bot" or robot program called "CyberLover," designed to dynamically interact with people through Internet chat rooms and dating Web sites. .
Girl-group get-togethers to plan for 2008
Many women have a love-hate relationship with Sex and the City. It was a great show but it spawned so many horrible things: New York bus tours that stopped at, among other show-specific sites, the store where Charlotte bought her "Rabbit Pearl" vibrator; sassy single-girl dating columnists; and online quizzes to determine which character you are. So when the Sex and the City movie was announced, we wearily resigned ourselves to the onslaught of more articles on what the fab four were wearing; if the on-set photos of Carrie in a wedding dress were a real part of the plot or just a dream sequence; and on the cultural impact of the series we just can't seem to get away from. We'd love to say enough already, but who's kidding who? Come May 30, we'll be in line for the movie with everyone else. Spice Girls The reunion tour! .
UK women spend 105 mins a day online
UK women are spending an average of 105 minutes online a day, according to findings from at IPC Media. Women were found to visit an average of nine sites per session, prompted mainly by emotional and functional activities. Dating, social networking and photo-sharing were among the most popular activities. Up to 7,500 sit on IPC Media's Origin Panel, which researches the changing attitudes and behaviour of UK women. Amanda Wigginton, group head of Insight... .
Beware Yahoo Personals’ deceptive billing policy
You might be wondering what a post like this is doing on a blog largely about VoIP, but bear with me. To some extent, this post is about VoIP. And athough I try not to air my consumer grievances here, I am writing this post to warn you about a practice that your knowledge of can save you some dollars. OK, first let us go back a year. My love life, my dating life, was in a rough patch. (If you want details, you buy the next pitcher). Not wanting to remain in the state I just referred to, I decided I would declare a jihad on loneliness. Being a creature of the Internet, I posted a profile on several dating sites including Yahoo! Personals. My Match.com profile soon led to a happy result. That's her photo on the top of my CPU tower. As soon as the ultimately "happy result" became quantifiable, I let my Yahoo! Personals account lapse.
Israel Jewish Singles Dating Site Expands
It's unclear how many couples have met and married via the Internet, but experts agree that a boom in Websites catering to Jewish singles has broadened the relatively narrow opportunities open to them, especially those in small communities, or without any community at all. Virtual mating rituals reflect real world changes. First came the online chat rooms, sites for personal ads and dating services, where members can post their addresses, photos, and personal messages without committing to commit. Think online dating is just for the hip-hop, hip-hugger generation? Think again. These days, you're almost as likely to find an AARP member surfing for love on Israel Anglo Singles, the most popular Jewish Anglo virtual dating hotspots in Israel. In addition to those in their 20's and 30's, there now are hundreds of Israel Jewish singles over 40 using their keyboards to meet their next match.
B.C. Mountie who had sex on the job ordered to resign
A British Columbia Mountie who had sex on the job and used his uniform to draw dates will have to resign, an RCMP adjudication board decided Wednesday. RCMP Const. Trent Richards admitted to having sex with women on at least 15 occasions while on duty at the rural detachment in Shawnigan Lake, B.C., on Vancouver Island. Richards, 34, posted his profile on internet dating sites offering "sex with a hot cop" and posted a photo of himself in his red serge dress uniform on one site. RCMP accused Richards of using force computers to pursue his extra-curricular activities. Richards has been suspended with pay since January 2007. The adjudication board decided Richards must resign within two weeks or be dismissed for "repeated on-duty sexual activity, as well as repeated misuse of RCMP information technology." He has 14 days to appeal the decision to the RCMP commissioner.
SayHeyHey: Online dating gets video site
PALO ALTO, Calif. — Many online dating sites seek to connect soul mates, to bring together those looking for eternal and everlasting love. The latest Internet dating site, recently launched in Palo Alto, is not one of them. "It's not about marriage," said Alex Gurevich, co-founder of SayHeyHey.com, the first free all-video online dating site. The new site eschews the typical format of online dating sites where users carefully word profiles and post photos "from 10 years and 20 pounds ago," Gurevich said. Instead, users of SayHeyHey post videos of themselves talking, wakeboarding or — in co-founder Soudy Khan's case — utilizing a beer bong. If a visitor is interested in someone else's clip, he or she can send a video introduction.
Thieves make off with online personalities
These identity thieves don't want your money. They want your quirky sense of humor and your cool taste in music. Among the 125 million people in the U.S. who visit online dating and social-networking sites are a growing number of dullards who steal personal profiles, life philosophies, even signature poems. "Dude u like copied my whole myspace," posts one aggrieved victim. Copycats use the real-life wit of others to create cut-and-paste personas, hoping to land dates or just look clever. .
Parent of Dating Sites Looks for a Suitor
Wanted: Single dot-com Yenta seeks ambitious Mr. Big with deep pockets for a long-term relationship. The parent company of the popular Jewish online dating site JDate has put itself up for sale, people close to the auction said Thursday, and is already in talks with several prominent media companies, the New York Times reports. The owner of JDate.com, Spark Networks, which owns dozens of online personal sites aimed at religious, ethnic and other special interests, is in early talks with suitors that include Yahoo; eHarmony; IAC/InterActiveCorp, the Barry Diller company that owns Match.com; and MySpace, which is part of the News Corporation, these people said. Shares of Spark, which trades under the ticker LOV, have jumped more than 20 percent in recent weeks. Its shares closed yesterday at $4.90, giving the company a market value of $131.4 million.
SyFriday: Living Life Out In The Open
Every once in a while, I like to pop over to the Battlestar Wiki site to see how Joe Beaudoin and crew are doing. Not only is the Battlestar Wiki a great resource on everything you ever wanted to know about "Battlestar Galactica," but I've known Joe online here for many, many years, dating back to our days working in the Galactica Newsletter Network. One of the neat things to read over at Battlestar Wiki is Joe's blog. Normally, I don't talk about what other sites -- especially those that some might consider competition -- is doing, but this was something I found interesting. Earlier this week, Joe shared a very detailed story about how Wikia offered him $2,500 to sell his site to them. .
Match.com Eyes Social Scenes at Facebook, MySpace
Online dating site Match.com has made its own resolution for 2008: to get out and meet more people, or in this case, potential subscribers. Match is in the midst of a foray into Internet social networks, testing an application for online hangout Facebook, and seeks growth in new vehicles for its subscription service, according to Chief Executive Thomas Enraght-Moony.
"We're extending Match to wherever people are," Moony told Reuters in an interview in New York on Monday. "MySpace has announced their platform initiative, we're exploring that. If they opened up the Nintendo Wii (video game console), I'd probably do that as well." After building sites for lonely hearts in 37 countries, Match posted slower global subscriber growth at the end of 2007 from a year ago as it fends off competition from rival services, as well as from social networks themselves.
2008 haute couture creation of Hungarian designer Bori Toth
NAOMI, a 28-year-old single woman from north London, is fed up with online-dating sites after failing to find love in cyberspace.
Theyre awful, she sighs. People put their best foot forward on them, putting up the best photo they can find of themselves and...
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