Yahoo! Sued Over Personal Advertisements

Lovecity.com, "The World's Premier Internet Love Site", has sued Yahoo! over their use of Google Adwords for their dating service, Yahoo! Personals. Lovecity claims that typing in any combination of their trademarked name "lovecity" or www.lovecity.com" will bring up an adword for Yahoo! Personals. Of course, this is nothing new, as it happens all the time in advertising. And is this a case of deliberately buying the keyword of this website, or of the fact that Google's search results brings up ads for the "dating" category.

We may not know, since when I tried searching google for Lovecity.com, all I get is escort and porno ads... Not very savory, but better than having your competition advertised...!

(Oh, and we also get that one featured ad for True.com)

8 Essential Safety Tips

Chatmag (an online chat magazine) has a little article from soulmades.com.au about the 8 Esstential Steps to Successful Internet Dating.

The article covers 8 sources of safety that you should take into consideration in your online dating activities. Partly it is common sense, like knowing when to give out your telephone # or e-mail address and about meeting in public. But there is some good insights into how you evaluate your potential date through the online interactions that you may have with him/her. Does their story match and make sense? Do they send photos, do they want yours? What if they are from overseas? And some insights into the anonymity of online dating.

Worth the few minutes to read, especially for the online dating or dating newcomer.

ABC TV's "How To Get The Guy"

ABC is premiering a new television show tonight, it is called "How To Get The Guy" and produced by Emmy winning producers David Collins and David Metzler (Best known for producing "Queer Eye For The Straight Guy"). It is essentially about 4 lovely single young women who are out there looking for Mr. Right. The show is shot on the streets of San Francisco, CA. The women are accompanied by Love Coaches and the women are guided through a "series of events that ultimately leaves them learning more about love than any of them thought possible."

If your Monday nights are free these next six weeks, you might be interested.

Speed Dating?

Read a Wisconsinite's take on what she calls the "newest trend" in dating: Speed Dating. Jenny Dolan went out to the local six minute speed dating in her town, La Crosse, Wisconsin, and reported on the experience. That you try to make the best impression you can in six minutes and decide afterwards if you want to contact the "date" again.

The most interesting part of speed dating, to me, is that you can meet so many people so fast. Yes, you can do that on the Internet too, but to actually see someone, let your gut give you a first impression instinct and to reject or allow that person into your life with relative ease, well, if dating is all about the numbers, then this certainly isn't a bad idea!

And, like she says, this isn't particularly that great memory you'll be telling the grandkids about someday!

Don't Date Him Girl

So you think you've found the perfect guy? Nobody you know knows him to give you the scoop? Well, this website could be your friend. It's called "Don't Date Him Girl" and is full of profiles and information about men who lie and cheat. Interesting reading if you are a little down about having to sit at home alone on a Friday or Saturday night!

Of course, take all this with a little grain of salt as these are all written supposedly by ex's and dumped or jilted lovers. But knowing things helps, just be aware that maybe it isn't entirely true, ok?

Click here to visit the dontdatehimgirl.com.

Online Dating Starter Kit

Match.com has a free "Online Dating Starter Kit" designed to get you off the ground and running quickly in your online dating endeavors. It helps you with the basics of getting your profile written all the way through how to manage those awkward first dates and beyond. It's a great little resource, and it's free! Can't beat that.

There are 6 experts that do the video presentations to quickly and painlessly walk you through and introduction to online dating. They give good hints and sound advice. It is a well thought out program and worth the time it takes to view it especially if you are new to Online Dating or maybe you are an old hand at it and need to boost your online activities!

The sections cover:

• Writing A Power Profile
• Expert Photo Advice
• Take the Mystery out of Searching and Find the One
• Manage your Match.com Life
• The Art of E-Mailing
• Taking It Offline

And I'd also suggest downloading the .pdf file of the presentation. It's a short book, but a good read as well. It lets you digest the material at your own pace. I found it beneficial to watch and listen and read the docs as well. Sometimes for me things soak in different when they are learned in different ways.

Of course, they'd really like it if you'd use Match.com for all your online dating needs, but the skills that they teach are pretty much universal to online dating and dating in general.

Highly Recommended. Click on over to Match.com today and get started with it!

Lifetime's "Lovespring"

Lifetime's new improv-style comedy Lovespring about a dating service is supposedly getting good reviews. If you are the kind that needs to take a break from dating, but still want to in some way be connected to it and learn (if you think that is possible with a comedy -- I do) then this show may be right up your ally. It runs on Monday nights at 11 p.m.

"Lovespring International is a supposedly elite dating service run by a crew of dysfunctional characters." and another tagline from the tv show "The Last Dating Service You'll Ever Use" hehe

Check out a small clip of some of the show's characters list of dating Do's and Dont's! Click here.

Coffee After A Date!

I really enjoyed reading this article in the Scotsman. It's about why men inviting their date in for a cup of coffee have an advantage. It is because the caffiene inside the coffee makes people more agreeable. The results of the study show that after drink coffee they are more agreeable to persuasive arguments!

So note that! If you can invite the chick inside after the date... offer coffee! Of course, that depends on if you are fairly persuasive. If not, maybe stick with the alcohol!

About Virginity Pledgers!

There is this interesting article that talks about the phenomenon of "Virginity Pledgers". It tells about teenagers that take the pledge but then later become sexually active will more than likely deny having taken the pledge. And on the flip side, those who were sexually active and then take the pledge are fairly likely to easily "forget" they were and deny it and claim to be virgins!

I think it makes sense, I mean, it lends a bit of honesty to you. Oh, I never took it that way I'm not a hypocrite. Or after having sex as a kid, going with a Virginity pledge and keeping a virgin afterwards.

What I find most interesting is that this is a 1996 report. 10 years old and we are just now being told all this? I wonder how much these researchers were paid. I mean, I'd like a gig like that... a steady job to "report" on some BS that is pretty much common sense! How about you?

Internet Dating Laws

Salon.com has an interesting article called "The Shadowy Laws of Internet Dating" which talks about some of the scams and frauds that go on with Internet Dating and what kinds of laws there are out there. And how right now there really aren't any. Interesting read.

I tend to agree. I think if someone or some company is doing fraud, then they should be punished under fraud laws, there really shouldn't be laws specifically at Internet Dating. Protect yourself, use some common sense and caution and go from there. Ask your friends and/or relatives what they think about what your doing if you don't trust yourself with those choices. Don't ask overly negative friends/relatives -- only those that are looking for your best interests.

The Trouble of Dating

The trouble of dating is that you really do feel somewhat of a looser when you come home on a Friday night. It's not even 8. Your home. You don't have anywhere to go. You can't call your friends, and for sure they aren't going to be calling. And the worst thing about this is that I look carefully for any neighbors that might see me getting home and try to slip in the driveway unnoticed. Thankfully it was raining tonight and no one was watching (at least I hope not!)

You end up flipping on the tv and looking at the stuff they show on Friday nights. Or in my case, I'm finding that rented DVD and hitting the sofa, turning the volume up, maybe pull a beer or glass of wine out of the fridge and just crash there.

[sigh]

New Bachelor on ABCs The Bachelor

ABC has chosen their new bachelor for The Bachelor. It is 33-year old Italian prince Lorenzo Borghese. The show will be filmed this Rome. If you like this sort of show.

It's reality tv, but yet, has very little to do with reality! go figure!

Lorenzo Borghese

New Reality TV Show

Playboy TV is launching a new reality tv show. It is called "Foursome" and puts 2 men and 2 women into a hollywood mansion for 24 hours. Every moment of the day is filmed. It premiers July 8th. "FOURSOME ratchets up the dating show concept to Playboy′s level," stated Mark F. Mauceri, Playboy TV′s Vice President, Worldwide Programming. Cameras catch everything and the viewer will be there for the ride, including the bedroom.

ok.

Matchmaking Scam (Revisited)

Wow, the story I talked about yesterday, Orly the Matchmaker, has hit the mainstream news now. ABC's Good Morning America has a video you can view on Yahoo. See them in action!

And remember, you read it here first!-- read my original story here (I don't know why I'm linking to this, its just below this blog post)

:)

Matchmaking Scam and Happy Birthday Marilyn

The Guardian has this really fascinating story about a professional matchmaker (Orly Hadida) getting successfully sued by one of her clients (Anne Majerik) who paid her $125,000.00 to introduce her to affluent and sophisticated men, and more specifically Anne says she was promised "a cultured gentleman" and his "estate of up to $20 million." The Los Angeles jury found that Orly hadn't deliver as promised and awarded Anne $2.1 million! Wow! The website azcentral.com has some more details.

Anne Majerik claims she got a few introductions to "inappropriate men", such as the "international banker" who turned out to be a bank interpreter. Orly (visit her website) claims "The lady is a serial matchmaker suer" and had given "enthusiastic feedback about nearly every man to whom Orly had introduced her."

Whatever...

The Guardian article tells of a few of the lawsuits in the online dating industry, including those against Match.com and Yahoo! Personals. It also quotes a dating industry watcher who says that paying $100,000.00 or more for someone to find you a man isn't wise (duh!) and that billionaires aren't really looking for women! haha! I know, I'm getting near penniless (damn that gasoline!) and I'm looking. But mostly I end up spending time by myself with imaginary dates! Tonight's might have Marilyn Monroe in it, it's her birthday today, if you didn't know. Or maybe I should say Norma Jean... Happy Birthday doll!