Anonymous matching

Anonymous matching

Anonymous matching is a matchmaking method facilitated by computer databases, in which each user confidentially selects people they are interested in dating and the computer identifies and reports matches to pairs of users who share a mutual attraction. The purpose is to allow people to initiate romantic relationships while avoiding the risk of embarrassment, awkwardness, and other negative consequences associated with unwanted romantic overtures and rejection. The general concept was patented on September 7, 1999 by David J. Blumberg and DoYouDo chief executive officer Gil S. Sudai, but several websites were already employing the methodology by that date, and thus apparently were allowed to continue using it [http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=/netahtml/search-adv.htm&r=54&f=G&l=50&d=PTXT&s1=matchmaking&p=2&OS=matchmaking&RS=matchmaking] . United States Patent 5,950,200 points out several potential flaws in traditional courtship and in conventional dating systems in which strangers meet online, promoting anonymous matching of friends and acquaintances as a better alternative:

Implementations

Some of the most notable implementations of the idea have been:
*eCRUSH. launched Valentine's Day, 1999, is the most successful implementation of the concept. Targeted to the teen market, it has more than 1.6 million users and claims more than 600,000 legitimate matches [http://www.ecrush.com/faq.phtml?sess_sid=&cobrand=] .
*DoYOU2.com. The website's owner, DoYouDo, Inc., was incorporated 23 September 1999 and acquired by MatchNet in September 2000 in exchange for stock valued at $1,820,000. According to MatchNet's 2003 annual report, "The acquisition was made primarily for the purpose of acquiring the patent on this business model for future development."
*The LiveJournal Secret Crush meme. In mid-2003, a company named Anonymous Consulting created an online quiz called "Secret Crush Meme," [http://www.euthanize.us/memes/secret-crush-meme/] which would provide each user with a chart showing who on their LiveJournal friends list had a crush on them, as well as what "kind" of crush they had (public, secret or ex). The quiz was designed to harvest crushes between LiveJournal users (hence the elaborate disclaimer). In October 2003, a new quiz, called "Secret Crush Meme 2: The Revenge of Secret Crush Meme," was released [http://www.euthanize.us/memes/crushmeme/] , which showed users how many crushes other users had on them, as well as what kind. There was a catch: For four dollars, the company would tell someone who had crushes on them. This created controversy between couples who listed other users as crushes as well as people getting ex-crushes when they felt they should have gotten public crushes, and much ethics debating. Finally a small PERL script was written and distributed to poison the database. Faced with attempts to poison the database from many different IP addresses, the project was shut down.
*SecretAdmirer.com. This service claims 100,000 successful matches [http://www.secretadmirer.com/] . Salon.com called SecretAdmirer.com "the grandfather of the concept, launched in 1997." [http://dir.salon.com/story/tech/feature/2002/08/07/crushmaster/print.html?pn=2] Its methodology is different from the others in that in order for a match to occur, the recipient must send emails out, rather than simply place names on a confidential list.

Viral marketing

eCRUSH, DoYOU2.com, the LiveJournal Secret Crush meme, and SecretAdmirer.com are examples of anonymous matching services using viral marketing to increase their membership. Users are encouraged to send an anonymous email to their crush so that they will visit the site and enter their own crushes, facilitating a match. In the case of SecretAdmirer.com, the email is mandatory; this represents a more aggressive type of viral marketing.

At least one site, CrushLink, was accused by eCRUSH of sending spam emails disguised as crush notifications. According to a Salon article, "What makes SomeoneLikesYou and Crushlink different from the rest of the sites in the genre is this: they bait hopeful visitors to hand over as many e-mail addresses as possible by trading clues for e-mail addresses" [http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/08/07/crushmaster/print.html] . Both sites are now defunct.

References

*Lester, Amelia A. and Borja, Anais A.: [http://thecrimson.harvard.edu/article.aspx?ref=121750 The Rise and Success of Sparknotes] , The Harvard Crimson, 18 October 2001.
*Mieszkowski, Katharine: [http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/08/07/crushmaster/print.html The bot who loved me] , 7 August 2002.
* [http://www.sparknotes.com/about/history/ A Brief History of SparkNotes] .
* [http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=/netahtml/search-adv.htm&r=54&f=G&l=50&d=PTXT&s1=matchmaking&p=2&OS=matchmaking&RS=matchmaking United States Patent 5,950,200: Method and apparatus for detection of reciprocal interests or feelings and subsequent notification] , United States Patent and Trademark Office, 7 September 1999.


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Effectiveness of Alcoholics Anonymous — Research into the effectiveness of Alcoholics Anonymous and in particular of their twelve step program has generated a number of studies within the United States as well as within other countries. Several of these studies researched Twelve Step… …   Wikipedia

  • Cocaine Anonymous — Logo Cocaine Anonymous (CA) is a twelve step program for people who seek recovery from drug addiction. CA is patterned very closely after Alcoholics Anonymous, although the two groups are unaffiliated. While many CA members have been addicted to… …   Wikipedia

  • DoYouDo — DoYouDo, Inc. is a Beverly Hills, California company that owns the patent to an anonymous matching service designed to detect mutual attraction between friends or acquaintances based on confidential lists they create of people they are interested …   Wikipedia

  • Matchmaking — This article is about human matchmakers. For modern matchmaking which tends to substitute information technology or game like rules for the expert s finesse, see Dating system. Gerard van Honthorst: The Match Maker, 1625 …   Wikipedia

  • ECRUSH — Infobox Website name = eCRUSH favicon = caption = url = [http://www.ecrush.com www.ecrush.com] commercial = type = social network service registration = Yes owner = Hearst Corporation author = Clark Benson, Karen DeMars Pillsbury launch date =… …   Wikipedia

  • Twelve-step program — ] As summarized by the American Psychological Association, the process involves the following: * admitting that one cannot control one s addiction or compulsion; * recognizing a greater power that can give strength; * examining past errors with… …   Wikipedia

  • Oxygene (programming language) — Oxygene Developer RemObjects Software Stable release 3.0.21 (August 29, 2009; 2 years ago (2009 08 29)) Influenced by Object Pas …   Wikipedia

  • Advance-fee fraud — African sting An advance fee fraud is a confidence trick in which the target is persuaded to advance sums of money in the hope of realizing a significantly larger gain.[1] Among the variations on this type of scam are the Nigerian Letter (also… …   Wikipedia

  • Fingerprint Verification Competition — (FVC) is an international competition focused on fingerprint verification software assessment. A subset of fingerprint impressions acquired with various sensors was provided to registered participants, to allow them to adjust the parameters of… …   Wikipedia

  • C Sharp syntax — The correct title of this article is C# syntax. The substitution or omission of the # sign is because of technical restrictions. Main article: C Sharp (programming language) This article describes the syntax of the C# programming language. The… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”