(Online Dating Industry Journal) Time.com has named eHarmony as one of the five worst Websites online. In it's writeup, Time.com says
"Our main beef with this online dating site is its power to cause utter despair... if you've taken the time to answer eHarmony's 436 compatibility survey questions and paid its premium charges ($21 to $60 a month, depending on how many months you prepay), and the site then delivers terrible recommendations — or worse, rejects you as unmatchable — what do you tell yourself then?"
Time.com also emphasized that eHarmony "discriminates against gays".
Another site to make the list is MySpace.com, which last year Time.com had named as one of the 50 best Websites online.
Joe's Comments
This whole writeup is probably one of the worst ever that Time.com has done and they lose a lot of credibility. eHarmony definitely has its problems and the brilliant Chemistry.com campaign pointing out its differences with eHarmony has been great for Chemistry.com (and bad for eHarmony). Yet to say that eHarmony "discriminates against gays" really goes overboard. That's like saying that Gay.com's Personals (which don't allow straight people) is discriminating against straight people. True.com doesn't allow sex offenders to register - are they discriminating against them? Also, True.com doesn't allow married people to register. Are they discriminating against them? The whole writeup is weak and flawed, particularly when there are a lot worse services and Websites out there. And what's with Time.com naming MySpace one of the top 50 sites last year and one of the worst five sites this year? Perhaps Time.com might consider putting itself at the bottom of the list next year for its uneducated and poor reporting.
Yes, the e-commerce realm -- especially the social networking sector -- is a frontier, and the markletplace is righteouly fickle.
I've been dissing eHarmony all along. Cannot stand its sanctimonious founder, its shoddy science, and its exclusionary policies.
I took the eHarmony screening, and they told me I was unmatchable. Don't know whether to take that as a compliment!
Please check out the fledgling flirtysomething.com -- my antidote to the online dating doldrums. Its free for now, so signup and play.
Posted by: Charla | July 21, 2007 at 08:04 AM
p.s. I do agree with Joe Tracy, however, the Time.com writeup is reactionary and shallow...but, so is 99% of all content on the web, no?
Posted by: Charla | July 21, 2007 at 08:09 AM