While most of us tend to spend Valentine’s Day emptying our wallets in an effort to impress our significant other (and subsequently, helping the local restaurant and florist industries to stay afloat for yet another year), eight years ago, three guys named Chad, Steve and Jawed decided they weren’t going to conform to this notion and instead, started work on a website that quite literally changed the world; YouTube.

They officially registered the domain YouTube.com for a few dollars on February 14th 2005 and just over a year later, sold the website to Google for $1.65 billion; so not a bad ROI then.

There’s a whole host of reasons that the site was so successful with the most obvious being that they managed to create a product that was in high demand at the right time, and did it well. I remember the times before YouTube and I remember embedding music video codes on my Piczo site (yes, I was a teenager), often struggling to find the code I needed on the poor selection of sites available. Needless to say, YouTube solved this problem within just a year-or-two of operations and opened up a world of other, user-generated content too.

I think another huge reason was so successful is the fact that it marketed itself. Every time a user embeds a video from YouTube on their site/blog, the YouTube branding is prominent on the video player and this alone would have introduced a huge number of people to YouTube. Sure, it might seem like an obvious tactic now, but back in 2005 it wasn’t something that every company was doing.

However, I think the main reason for YouTube’s success is the almost democratic nature of the site. The journey YouTube has been on over the past few years has been governed almost entirely by its users as they’re the ones uploading the content. Essentially, it’s this democratic nature and community-oriented experience that’s at the heart of just about every hugely successful website out there.

Think about the sites you visit on a daily basis for example; Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, MySpace (back in the day), Instagram and even Google to an extent – their users are at the heart of them all as essentially, it’s the user-generated content that drives the sites forward.

So, who should we thank for the success of YouTube? Ourselves. We made the site what it is today.

Of course, none of it would have been possible without its founders, investors, a great initial concept and a number of great decisions made over the past eight years but these days, it’s the community that drives the site.

History of YouTube Infographic

Here’s a brief history of the YouTube.com site from formation to the present day.

This can make Facebook something of a security nightmare. Hackers who gain unauthorized access to your account not only have access to a great deal of private information, but they can wreak havoc with your personal life in many different ways, such as what happened when members of 4chan hacked various Facebook accounts.

Even Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and CEO, is not immune to this problem as his fan page was recently hacked and vandalized.

This raises serious questions about the security of Facebook, if Zuckerberg can’t avoid being hacked, what can the rest of us hope to do? Fortunately there are steps that we can take to make our accounts more secure .

Because, while there is no such thing as being “completely secure” we can definitely make ourselves more secure than most and that, in turn, makes us a more difficult target and one less likely to get hit.

With that in mind, here’s five quick tips to put you ahead of the pack when it comes to Facebook security.

1. Enable Secure Browsing  

This one is a must if you routinely surf Facebook on open wifis such as coffee shops and public libraries.

Go into your account settings and, under account  security, tick the box to enable “Secure Browsing”. This will encrypt all of your traffic to and from Facebook, ensuring that anyone who happens to be sniffing (watching) the network you are on, a common tactic on public networks, isn’t able to grab your data, including your password.

This is a good first step to keep your information safe.

2. Tighten Your Privacy Settings 

Next up, go into your privacy settings and set them as restrictive as you can, limiting the bulk of your data to just your friends. You can further restrict the flow of information using lists, ensuring that not all of your friends have access to all of your data.

This is important because a lot of what people consider “hacking” is actually human engineering. People can often guess or obtain passwords and other sensitive information based no data made available.

For example, if someone is able to locate your pet’s name publicly and you used that as a security question elsewhere, someone might be able to get or reset your password to that service.

3. Be Password Smart 

Not only is it important to use good, strong passwords on your Facebook account but you also have to ensure that you don’t reuse that password on other sites. For example, that’s how 4Chan was able to compromise so many Facebook accounts.

If you have a difficult time creating and remembering passwords, consider using a service like LastPass to help you generate, remember and enter truly strong passwords.

4. Enable Facebook Device Login Notifications  

Under the same security settings you found “Secure Browsing”, there is also an option to send you an email or text message when a new device accesses your account.

While this may not be practical for every Facebook user, especially those who routinely login from new machines, those who have only a few computers they use regularly will likely find this to be a boon, providing early warning of any suspicious account activity.

5. Block Untrustworthy Apps 

Finally, any and all applications that you aren’t using should be blocked from accessing your Facebook profile. You can always re-enable such apps later but applications are a potential security risk as you have to worry about not just the security of your account, but of these apps.

After all, if someone manages to compromise the app itself, then your account is vulnerable at least as far as the permissions you granted it will allow.

Ditch the apps you aren’t using to avoid exposing yourself to any unneeded risk.

The Bigger Question

All of these security issues with Facebook raise serious questions about how much we can trust Facebook with our data and our private information. It also raises questions about the role Facebook should play in our daily lives as a social hub and as a broadcast point.

Unfortunately, these are not easy questions to answer and everyone has to decide what the right answer is for them. But clearly these are questions that demand further scrutiny as Facebook’s presence continues to grow.

This guest post was written by Lior Levin, a marketing consultant for Producteev, a company that offers a to do list app.

Google Plus is being set to rise as the next competitor to social media giants like Facebook and MySpace, but what about the Google +1 button? It’s basically the same as the Facebook “Like” button. Are people paying attention to it, and will Google want to continue its use in the future?

To get an idea of whether people are using the Google +1 button or not, I decided to see which of the top 100 sites on Technorati had actually implemented a +1 button for sharing purposes. As can be seen in the pie chart, there were an overwhelming number of sites that had not inserted the +1 button.

Next, I took a look at thirty of the newest posts on Social Media Examiner to see how the Google +1 button was stacking up compared to Facebook “Likes” and Twitter “Retweets.” Again, it was overwhelmingly underused compared to Facebook and Twitter usage.

To get a second look, I did the same thing with Mashable. Out of the thirty newest posts made at the time, I came up with this data. It is very similar to what I found when I looked at Social Media Examiner. Retweets win out as the most used, Facebook likes come second, and Google +1 comes in a far last place.

Conclusion
With both Social Media Examiner and Mashable, the Google +1 button is just as visible as the Facebook “Like” button and the Twitter “Retweet” button. They are all displayed in the same format and just as easily accessible.

Clearly the Google +1 button is not being used on a large scale like those for Twitter and Facebook. Not much attention has been given to the +1 button as of yet. The real question now is: with the new ramping up of Google Plus, will we see the Google +1 button usage rise in unison, or will the +1 button continue to flounder leaving Google with a decision of whether or not to scrap it all together?

As I write this, I’m letting you know that I have never been on Plurk before. All I know is that it’s another form of social media. So here is my general review and response to the site.

After finding it on Google, I pulled it up. My first reaction is I’m still not quite sure what this it. The opening page set up has a list of posts from users. You can vote whether or not you like this post. It looks sort of like Twitter, but the voting makes it different. The voting appears to be similar to the “Like” option on Facebook. On the right it says:

“Tired of your existing social networks? Share your life easily with friends, family and fans.”

That still doesn’t tell me what you are, Plurk. Are you a way to link all of my social media and share it? At least it has a big button that lets you sign up for free. Let’s click on it.

On the sign up page there is a message reading :

“Sign up to share short messages, links, videos and everything else with your friends.”

Okay, so this is starting to look more like Twitter than Facebook. The sign up process is easy. It’s the standard make a user name, add your email, and you’re in. Unlike other social media sites that I use, you don’t have to click on a confirmation email. It took me automatically to my profile page to set up. My profile page is split into two sections. A blue top half tells me this is where I “plurk” and where I see my friends’ plurks. So Plurk is the new verb that we’re using like tweet. The bottom half is a brown section where I set up my profile. May I mention that the picture they have up as my default is this creepy looking face. I’m not too fond of that. It’s a bit of a turn off.

Already I found a confusing part of the set up. Up in the blue section where I Plurk, it had a continue button. I clicked it to read more on how to do this thing. Instead of finding more information, it took me to where I can set up my connections to other social media. Shouldn’t that be under the brown section with my account setup? You can set up through your email, Facebook, instant messenger, and Twitter. Though if I may add, it says that I can connect to Twitter, but I do not see a Twitter option. At the top, there are friend suggestions, ways to look up friends, and an option to make “Cliques.” Cliques are the way to put your friends in a list. I’m sorry, but the word clique is a turn off for me. That word always had negative connotations in my mind. A clique is an exclusive group of people where others cannot join. Thanks to high school and college memories, there were times where I was left out of cliques or kicked out of groups of friends, because I apparently wasn’t cool enough to be there. I’m sure there have been other people with similar experiences.

Scrolling down to the brown section to set up my user page, I see the word “Karma” in huge text. After studying religion in college, I’m wondering what karma has to do with this. I clicked on it and found out to get higher karma, you have to plurk constantly, follow and respond to friends, and not spam other users. The reward for having higher karma is a new set of icons. After browsing through the icons, I’m not impressed. They look like AIM instant messenger took their rejected icon ideas and threw up on Plurk. Make some original ones like on Skype. At least gaining karma isn’t hard to do as mentioned above.

You can also acquire badges on the site. At least these are cooler than the icons. You get badges for doing things on the site like plurking so many times, starting a community, and finding bugs. One caught my eye over the others. It’s a yin yang you get rewarded for reaching “Plurk Nirvana” whatever that means. What is with this Buddhist and Taoism thing going on?

Since I don’t see an option that lets me customize my profile, I decided to get rid of the creepy user default picture. When I clicked on it, it not only brought up the picture uploaded but also my profile customization option. Why is that option under the user picture? I uploaded a photo fairly easily. As long as it’s smaller than one megabyte, you’re fine. I do appreciate the option to have .gif images. I like when my pictures move on my profile.

Time to customize my page. There are two options. The first is they give you a list of websites to customize your page with more complex backgrounds, and the second is just changing the colors. To keep this simple, I changed my colors. Or did I? I assumed that it would be different colors to choose from. Instead it’s different patterns. Just a few examples, one looks like the computers in The Matrix, one appears to have designs like a Turkish rug, and there are other choices of solid colors. I chose the simple pink background. To change up the timeline, it’s the same process, and I selected the similar pink option. One thing I notice is that I can’t give my page a title right away. I have to have ten karma points first. If I wanted my page to look professional, I can’t even title it. Plurk, leave your karma points for your reject icons and let me make a nice profile page. At the bottom of the set up page, you have access to these karma creatures. When you have so many points, you can select a creature. These little guys are flat out scary looking. Are they supposed to be cute? They look like Pokemon and a Rob Zombie film had a bunch of love children. One is a bunny with monster teeth and what looks like blood splattered on it. I don’t want any of these creatures on my profile.

My profile is set up. Time to plurk. The action of plurking sort of looks like a Facebook status. You can choose a verb to use in your update and add a link, a youtube link, or a picture. I tried out both the picture and youtube uploads, and they’re very simple. As a first time user, I appreciate this. Like Twitter, you have a certain number of characters to write a short message. Searching for other plurkers (or people who use plurk) is easy. You type in an interest or a person’s name to find them.

So far Plurk is okay. Since it’s very similar to Twitter, I believe it’s a site that will become easier to use once I get the hang of it and play around more. Overall even though I’m a bit freaked out by the creatures and the set up process was confusing at times, I do see the potential of Plurk. On a side note, I mentioned above that they didn’t send me a confirmation email. When I went back to check, I found an email waiting for me. I was able to access most of the site without confirming my account. I’m not sure how I feel about that. The only problem I see was the opening line on the first page. It states that it is easy to share my life with friends and family. This can only be accomplished when I link my other social media sites with Plurk. If that’s the case, I might as well stick with Facebook and Twitter.

My Initial Thoughts

Hellooooo, Mate 1! I’ll be honest with you guys, this site is not playing around. So far, all I’ve done is type the URL into my browser, expecting the typical SEO-heavy home page full of “singles here!” and “meet your match!” but Mate1.com had other plans. There’s literally nothing on the home screen but a very up-close-and-personal photo of a very pleasant looking woman in a very suggestive posture. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not pornographic or anything, but if her eyes could talk…I’d need a shower.

Aside from the homepage pin-up, the design was pleasingly sparse. The sign up box on the right, however, did feature one optimization that I haven’t seen on sites like eharmony or JDate: the box told me to “Meet North Carolina Singles.” I immediately felt like Mate1 knew something about me, even if it did just come from my cookies and IP address. It’s something.

Come On In

I entered in my basics: woman seeking man, etc. and after hitting submit was told that over “2000 members” were available in my area. Well, hot dog! That’s like, 6 bars full! I entered in some more info, including my “nickname,” then met another screen telling me I could enter after filling out another mini profile. At this point, although I was kind of sick of filling out info screens, I was invested so I stayed. Point for you, Mate1.com! The last step asked me to upload a photo, but I found a loophole in the “Finish Profile Later” button.

Stay Awhile

The first thing I noticed when I got into the site was about 10 thumbnail photos of attractive, young (ish) men. One was in the banner ad at the top promoting “Free communication week!” while several were clearly the results of my search. The last was a second banner ad, telling me to get more emails by filling out an “essay?” I’m sorry, what? An essay? I thought I was getting a boyfriend, not a GED.

Either way, my matches looked promising! The thumbnails did not feature very much info, just whether or not the guy had more photos and when he joined the site. Next to the (might I say, pretty decent) mens’ photos were options to Chat, Email, Flirt, or Hotlist. I clicked on View All Matches and was shown some more man mug shots, so to speak. I was impressed by the diversity in both ethnicity and age of the men Mate1 found for me.

Other Findings

I poked around a while, and figured out what some of the other offerings of the site were all about. The “Hotlist” turns out to just be a…list. You populate it yourself when you find someone you like – by clicking on their Hotlist button, you add them to your list which you can revisit later. Flirting is pretty similar to Facebook poking. By Flirting with someone, you pretty much are just saying “hey, you’re not terrible looking and your profile photo wasn’t terrifying…” At that point, the ball’s in the other person’s court, really. Unless you just want to Flirt incessantly until they eventually block you. Not that I would know anything about that.

So if most dating sites are Lady Gaga, Mate is…Taylor Swift. Other than these features, there’s not a whole heckuva lot to Mate One. It’s very simple in its execution which, depending on who you ask, is either a positive or a negative. Having just come from my Lavalife account, I felt a little shell shocked by the lack of tools on Mate.com, but hey, maybe that’s a good thing. Less distractions mean more time for actual human interaction, which is, afterall, why we’re all here. Here as in “poking around on the internet for sexy photos of other people” not here like “on this planet.”

Show Me the Money

So here’s where this Mate1.com review struck gold. I realized that I hadn’t seen an option anywhere to be a member, so I started digging around. Try as I might, I could not find a single way to pay Mate 1 for their services – highly unusual. So I did a little experiment. I went back through the whole process and signed up like I was a man… BINGO. Turns out, if you’re a man, Mate1.com wants you to pay to become a member, which means having access to all the messaging features women have for free. What Mate offers for men is a 3-day trial for only a couple of dollars which then automatically carries over into a monthly membership. The monthly rate is somewhat high (around $50) compared to other sites, but the page where men are asked to sign up is rife with pictures of beautiful women, pleading with their eyes. Excellent marketing, all in all.

Overall Impressions

I liked Mate1, for both its ease of use and for its, well, freeness. What the site lacked in bells and whistles it made up for in professionalism and subtle hints at sexuality. It truly seems like a good place to actually communicate with people rather than play with buttons, which is more than I can say for some sites. Although in today’s age of 14 second attention spans, it’s hard to say whether or not… I’m sorry, what were we talking about?

Initial Reaction

When I first logged onto Lavalife I was pleasantly surprised by the modern interface and good graphic layout. Pictures of cheery looking singles (oddly, mostly women) greeted me next to a quick sign up form that required my email and username. Pretty standard info thus far, but I was excited and intrigued. I entered the standard stats, selected all three types of matches I was willing to accept (dating, intimate, and relationship) and entered into “Where Singles Click.”

Profile

The next screen prompted me to complete my profile, and I must say, this step seemed less aggressive and intimidating than on other sites I’ve visited. I think it had something to do with the pleasantly neutral coloring and the distinguished fonts used, but who knows, maybe I was just in a sharing mood. The rest of the questions were straight-to-the-point and well explained in the margins – for example, my “Opening Line” was described as “like a billboard – the first thing other members see” and lava life provided me good and bad examples, which was extremely helpful compared to what I’ve been asked to come up with on Match.com a as well as Zoosk.  A couple easy questions (and I mean easy: “Intimate: Try something wild….”) and selections later, and I was all profiled up, ready to mingle.

The Site

Wow. At first glance, Lavalife looks more like a NASA control panel than a dating site, but with more colors and clip art. I loved the way the site was set up, with tabs all across the tops to indicate different sections of the site, including “Dating,” “Relationship,” “Intimate,” and “Party” (?). It appears that most of the site is set up this way, differentiating between those interested in casual encounters, sexual encounters, and well, marital encounters. I like that Lavalife attempts to span the spectrum of online activities and didn’t just settle for one niche.

There was a section called “news alerts” that told me of my (so far) zero messages and IMs as well as “viewed me”, a popular function on many of the sites I’ve visited. Other items in this list included “Smiles,” which I assume is similar to the ubiquitous “wink” and “Backstages” which is…to be determined. Why the sudden rockstar/groupie reference, Lavalife.com? Should I expect to be messaged by Bret Michaels shortly? There was also a helpful line graph indicating exactly how full my various profiles were, one for all three sections. My OCD side likes graphs, line or otherwise, so I was a happy camper.

Poking Around

So I turned to the Quick Search box, which allowed me to input some criteria to narrow down those that fit my specifications. I could have expanded into the Advanced Search which included additional selections such as languages spoken and ethnic background, but I was curious to get to the meaty parts.

The first thing that popped up was a “Featured Members” scroll, surely a selection of those who pay more for their Lavalife subscription. Underneath that was a standard listing of photos and profile-snippets, though I appreciated how much info was given for each person, as opposed to say, just height and weight. About ten listings per page in no discernable order, the Opening Lines that were presented to me ranged from “Black is beautiful” to “I might be the one you’re looking for!” Needless to say, a good variety of guys – from those looking to party and hook up to those who seemed to be truly trolling for love. There were for the most part decent looking and decidedly less My Spacey than some of the crowds I’ve seen, which is definitely a plus.

I was soon bored with the ten-guys-per-page template and started looking around, at this point somewhat overwhelmed with the choices Lavalife was offering. I noticed a popup at the bottom of my screen attempting to get me to sign up with Lava life Instant Messanger as well as a persistent banner ad (constantly changing) at the top of my screen. Thankfully, the designers kept the page simple enough that nothing looked cluttered, just full. It’s the type of site I could spend hours on, just looking around at new features. It’s the kind of fun I think online dating should be.

Additional Features

There was a tab called “Party,” and I was thoroughly curious. Turns out, there are 5 free (to members) online parties scheduled a day, where members congregate to real-time message and generally just flirt with each other. I like the idea, as it encourages everyone to get online around the same time, and I suspect it’s also a pretty good marketing tool for Lavalife. The countdown feature built urgency, and I was tempted to party. And I don’t even like parties.

Clicking on “Lavalife Voice” opened a new tab on my browser and brought me back to the site’s previously mentioned roots: phone messaging exchanges. I was encouraged to join for free and start talking to singles in my area, NOW! No thanks, Lavalife, that’s just a little too far a jump from anonymous instant messaging, but A for effort. Some people are into that kind of thing.

There was a “More” tab with some additional newsletters, magazines, and repetitions of the other offerings again, by my attention was drawn to the THREE INSTANT MESSAGES I had received in the 20 minutes I’d been online. They were all benign variations of “Hey, what’s up?,” but I have to say I was impressed as Lavalife’s the only site I’ve reviewed so far that allowed me to receive messages (and actually encouraged others to send them to me) without a paid membership. Point to Lavalife.com.

Final Thoughts:

I like that it took me a couple of clicks to figure out how to subscribe to Lavalife… I was never accosted with “Sign up now!” messages. With price points ranging from $19.99 per month to around $35, it’s an affordable, mid range option that boasts “millions” of single members. The site was easy to use and felt slightly more high-brow than some of the others I’ve visited, which in turn made me feel less sketchy in general about online dating. Lavalife seems like the place to be for those who are slightly more serious about their online matchmaking. And Canadians. Lots of Canadians.

Join Lavalife.com and Get 7 Days Free

First Impressions:

When I first logged onto Zoosk I was greeted by an affable looking, sweater wearing woman of indiscernible age or ethnicity. She was practically begging me to “sign up,” which meant entering in my email address and password and (apparently) agreeing to the terms of service, whatever they were. As I did this, I noticed the familiar blue of Facebook hovering just above my mouse – turns out Zoosk.com has a Facebook link up that allows you to login straight from your Facebook page. Social media and online dating: the original match made in heaven.

So I signed up “for FREE” so I could continue poking around. Well, Zoosk was laying it on pretty heavy and definitely wanted to make sure I received its affiliate emails as I was then prompted to complete an email verification process. Between this and the general stress of looking for love online, I was already exhausted. Being hip is hard.

Zoosk Technology:

After I took a short nap, I logged back on – surprise! A pop up told me I had two “coins” to use on the site just for logging in! I found out later the coins are used to buy “gifts” on the site – flowers, clothes, and the like meant to impress potential mates and spark flirting. After I closed out that pop up, another appeared me to invite me to download Zoosk Chat, the site’s own Instant Messaging feature. I declined, but overall, my Zoosk review found that the site is more technologically integrated and driven than some of the others out there, a plus for those who like to use all the benefits their internet connection has to offer.

A little research led me to some press releases about Zoosk’s foray into both social and mobile media. Have you ever been standing in line at the grocery store and thought “Hey, I sure wish I was checking out hot singles in my area right now”? Well, Zoosk has an app for that! With available iPhone, Bebo, and MySpace, Zoosk Mobile is paving the way in digital dating. Users of the feature are offered premium options like digital roses to give out and a link to view others who have “favorited” their profile. These perks and the convenience of mobile are perhaps what have led over 30 million people to subscribe to the service. Myself? I still use a flip phone, so I won’t be partaking in the mobile features, but hey, it’s nice to know they’re there if I ever enter the 21^st century.

My Matches:

I didn’t spend a lot of energy making my profile unique. I was actually semi of interested in what kind of matches Zoosk.com would show me without my own details and specifics. The singles in my area loaded and…well, I was rather disappointed, to be honest. Similar to sites like Match.com and JDate.com, the profiles were displayed linearly, showing only a small thumbnail, their distance away from my location, age, astrological sign, and (oddly) height. Clearly, Zoosk is geared more toward volume than scientific matching, and they expect you to take the time to filter through their sometimes unwieldy results. My communication options included wink, message, gift, and add friend. Now, if these options don’t remind you of Facebook then I don’t know what to tell you. I suppose you haven’t been online since 1998.

My Profile:

Once I got around to my profile, the first thing I noticed was how sparse it was. I had to go through the “basics” which included the usual suspects: name, age, height, religion, ethnicity. I then was presented with three ominously empty text boxes in which I was to type “my story”, “my perfect match”, and “my ideal first date.” Talk about pressure. Zoosk, I could have used some more guidance here. I was then prompted to enter photos – again, some guidance would have been nice, even an example? – and then the kicker: the “Likes” page. Please enter your likes, it asked; music, movies and books. Zoosk wanted me to just skip the hassle and directly connect to Facebook to fill in these gaps, making it even more apparent that Zoosk is pretty codependent on the social giant – a sort of Nicole Richie/Paris Hilton relationship. Oddly disconcerting, the constant Facebook reminders made me wonder if Mark Zuckerberg is using Zoosk as his own personal singles bar…

The last two sections were pretty fun. The first invited my friends to write testimonials for me – a neat touch and certainly nice to beef up my profile. I could send them an email through “approved” providers like Gmail, all of which left me wondering how many affiliate connections Zoosk is nurturing at once. The Icebreakers page was enjoyable to go through as it featured questions ranging from “What’s Your Fighting Style?” to “What’s the longest you’ve gone without sleep?” Helpful for matching, sure, but I would bet these questions are used more for banter on the site than anything else.

Overall Impressions:

As a whole, Zoosk.com seems to be a fun, casual place to meet people in my area. I have less confidence in its ability to actually match me meaningfully than I do with other sites, but it certainly offers what others don’t in terms of sheer numbers. The interface was easy to use, but at times even too simple, seeming a bit cartoonish in its design.

Like any of the major dating sites, the cost of membership on Zoosk goes down as your membership length goes up, ranging from around $12 per month up to $30. Additional costs include gifts and coins, all of which enhance the overall site experience.

I don’t think I’ll be finding love on Zoosk anytime soon, but really, who ever knows? I definitely saw some attractive guys and some hilarious fodder for girl’s night while I was digging around. The profile questions, while not deep, were fun and engaging enough to make me excited to log back on and see what was new. I like that Zoosk’s on the cutting edge of mobile and the online dating tech scene – it makes me feel like I won’t miss out on a thing, even when I’m away from my computer. Because I needed one more reason to be obnoxiously glued to my laptop. Thanks, Zoosk.

When I first arrived at Match.com, a pop-up greeted me, prompting me to search for singles in my demographic with the catchy headline “1 in 5 relationships start online. More of them start on Match.com.”  Intrigued, I tried to click off of the pop-up onto the homepage only to find…more pop-ups! After filling in the requisite information – my email address (I made sure to opt-out of the “affiliate” emails and match dating updates), my birthday, and my zip code – I was allowed on to the homepage.

I’ll be honest and say that I was expecting a bit more out of the basic interface…the site is merely a Memory-esque selection of photos and stats with a navigation bar on the left for me to fill out additional info to narrow my results. In order, the specifications I could choose were: height, body type, and, I kid you not…marital status. Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but shouldn’t Match.com set a “single” default or something? I’m having a hard time imagining who stumbles onto match.com, grateful for a “recently separated” option. But I digress.

After filling out a few more qualifications in hopes of narrowing down the selection-o-men, I searched again, back to the pseudo-boring homepage photo layout. Scrolling through the selection, I notice that Match doesn’t give you a whole lot of info off the bat, just a small thumbnail photo, a username,  an age, and a location of the men I was shown. Not a lot to go off of, but proving once again that usernames are of utmost importance when trying to date online. “HankAppleButter” didn’t make the cut, unfortunately.

Under each photo were a few communication options like emailing or, my personal favorite, “WINK for free!” Reminiscent of Facebook’s awkward poke feature, I suppose this is a good way to make the first move without actually having to make the first move. The photos shown looked realistic in that they were the type of guys I would expect to see at the grocery store or the dog park as opposed to the type I’d see on a runway in Milan or, say, The Jerry Springer Show.

After perusing the offerings, I decided it was time to check out my profile options. Clicking through, the questions turned out to be what I’d expect on any dating site, with the addition of some seemingly eHarmony inspired personality brain teasers like “What would you do if you got a huge bonus?” One thing I noticed was that every time Match asked a deep or difficult question (“what’s your faith”) it followed it up with something fluffy and harmless (“what’s your favorite type of movie? Comedy? Drama?!”) None of the queries were too hard hitting and I can see how anyone trying to avoid divulging too much or say something incriminating could easily answer less than truthfully. All questions were allowed to be skipped.

A slew of personal questions later, I got to the section where I was able to tell match.com what I was looking for in a potential mate. Choices included everything from salary to smoking-status, and left room for me to be undecided on any particular issue. The end of the profile was a bit scarier as I was asked to describe myself and come up with a “dating headline.” I wasn’t sure whether to put “I’m lonely and am worried that I’ll soon be eating Ramen alone with my 6 cats” or something closer to “Beach loving blonde adores puppies and rainbows and strolls before sunset!” Personal call, really.

It was interesting to note that Match.com and Chemistry.com are linked, and clicking (or, rather, neglecting to unclick) a box on the survey posts my profile on both sites. Not knowing a lot about Chemistry.com, I declined, but this service could be of great use for those trying to maximize their time spent online.

Other interesting features offered by Match include the “Daily 5,” which appears to be a daily email from the site highlighting your five best matches of the day, as determined by their scientifically unscientific matching algorithms. There’s also a messaging section that works similarly to an email account and allows you to communicate with other users without actually having to give away your email address. Another interesting nugget I came across was the “See Who’s Viewing Me” feature, which allows you literally see who’s viewed your profile. Stalker-ish? Yes. Useful? Double yes.

The service offers a multitude of price points, starting at around $19.99 per month (for 6 months). The price goes up as the term of your membership goes down. The additional features cannot be accessed without a membership, and really, the site’s not all that fun without them.

Overall, this Match.com review found that the site isn’t quite as geared toward long-term, mushy gushy love as sites like eHarmony(review) tend to be. Match wants you to find a “connection,” whether that be vague and non-committal or leading to the altar. A great site for those who want sheer volume in the numbers of matches they’re presented, Match.com is one of the oldest and most-used dating services available today, for good reason. A logical first stop for those new to or scared of online dating, Match is unintimidating, easy to venture into casually, and simple in its approach. If you like Facebook, you’ll probably like Match.com, and, well, that pretty much includes everyone in the Western Hemisphere.

Match.com® Official Site

1. Digg 4 is Faster

   Not just because it is built on the same database modelling as Facebook, Twitter and Reddit, but because Digg 4 is all about speed and efficiency. The cleverly engineered minimalist user interface, keep-it-simple-stupid functionality, and stripped down features mean faster load times and less drag on server resources. Who needs burdensome social media gimmicks anyway?

2. No more “Digg Effect”

   Does your website get traffic from Digg, so much that it crashes your server? The “Digg effect” became a badge of honor to some bloggers, but most did not cherish picking up the pieces after making the Digg front page. It turns out that the Digg 4 effect is not the same as the Digg effect. With Digg 4′s new traffic mitigating architecture, you don’t have to worry about large numbers of Digg visitors rushing to your site. This means you can cut your site operating budget. Purchase cheap web hosting and still sleep well at night. You don’t need VPS hosting, a dedicated server or trendy cloud hosting. You can even remove those cache plugins from your WordPress installation.

3. More Friends

   No more policing your submissions to see if your digg friends are really your friends. It doesn’t matter. Everyone is your friend on Digg 4. Add everyone as friends. Do it now!

4. Digg 4 is Honest

   What if there was actually something that wasn’t Bush’s fault? Would anyone have the courage to say so? From BP ads to “there is a x% chance that this is programmer Doe’s fault” errors, Digg 4 has some of the most honest messaging in all of social media. I challenge anyone to show me a site with more unabashed, straightforward admissions.

5. Freedom from Burynoia

   Don’t you hate it when you submit a great story that 99% of Digg users think sucks only to have your dream narrative tossed six feet underground in the same hole with Republican microsoft-loving spammers? Not in Digg 4. There are no bury brigades or left-wing smear campaigns.

6. Arrive Home Safely

   Are your Digg relationships so important that you scratch your friends’ backs via the Digg mobile app in traffic? Worry no more. The digg iPhone app doesn’t work (oops, now it seems to wo–)

7. No More Lost Password Worries

   Misplace your Digg 4 password? No problem. Take a deep breath. Wait it out. No need to panic. Digg 4 will be there exactly as it was before you got locked out.

8. Liberation from Powerusers

   Do you dislike with a passion how the poweruser elites take advantage of you by submitting stories from your favorite site BEFORE you? Never worry about rushing out to find good sources of news to submit before MrBabyMan gets his hands on your story and takes credit for it. With Digg 4, you don’t even have to worry about submitting. Just sit back in your chair, grab some popcorn and coke and watch the autosubmissions.

9. Better RSS

   Some people like living on the edge. Does the ability to manage your RSS feeds from your favorite sites give you a thrill that words cannot describe? Make you feel young again? You’re in luck because Digg 4 does an excellent job with displaying near real-time data from sites that YOU choose. You’ll never be forced to view the submissions of others with Digg 4.

10. Reduced Bannings

    Violate the Digg terms of service? Not violate the Digg terms of service? Yes, I know you’ve worried about being banned either way. Digg 4 makes getting banned less likely.

11. Programmers Can Move On

    You know that tool based on the Digg API that you put hundreds of hours of your time into building? It and the Digg API are “deprecated.”

12. Popularity Contests Ended

    You know you want to be the most popular user on Digg, right? You want the celebrity status. Admit it. It’s driving you crazy and you’re making bad submissions as a result. You can’t think clearly. Your significant other is asking you why you are staring at your Digg statistics all day long. With Digg 4, you won’t develop OCD over whether or not the story you worked hard to find and submit went popular. A story is a story after all, right? And, by the same token, a submitter is a submitter, is he not? Be confident that by design, all submitters are equal in the perfect social world of Digg 4.

13. No Training Required

    Confused about how to use the new Digg? Me too. I usually just sit there and stare for a while, then try and find an old friend or a story I like. Digg something. Feel confused. Leave. Come back. Rinse. Repeat. Some are saying that training would help. But why complicate things? Fortunately, there is absolutely no training required or even available to imply that you do anything you may not want to do. Digg 4 is about freedom.

14. Digg 4 Has a Sense of Humor

    Tired of seeing the common attempts at 404 error pages that scrub sites offer? Can’t access a digg.com page? The Digg 4 errors will leave you rolling in the dirt laughing.

You can see that the new shovel-ready Digg 4 relieves the daily stress that comes from interacting in social media. Digg 4 provides you more time to spend with people in the real world whether you want to or not. Digg 4 gives you more time for working, playing, sleeping or whatever you want to do. In short, Digg 4 makes your life more efficient.

Alexa is not a guaranteed accurate measure site traffic for less popular sites. For sites that get a large number of visits like Digg.com, it can be a useful indicator. No one knows for certain what the traffic loss has been since Digg 3 was abandoned, but Alexa says pageviews are down 26% one week after Digg 4.

Looking further and listening to blog and Twitter responses didn’t offer a thing in the way of encouragement. There is no way I can even begin to go into the details of what elements are missing and what elements might come back or come halfway back. There are plenty of Digg 4 fix lists being blogged about. Let’s just say that I found that most of the core elements that create enthusiasm were aborted. There is so much criticism out there, too much to keep track of. But, I found a few gems among some who share my sentiments about the Digg 4 failure.

YouTube user 93riven:

digg has become an rss reader with corporate crap and ADVERTS. take a look at the ‘top news’ page. even funnier is how the comments look right now.

Fark’s Drew Curtis had this to say:

Back when we were doing Fark TV, someone emailed in a complaint that I’ve never forgotten. They said they didn’t like the show because it was a sketch comedy show that had the name Fark stamped on top. There wasn’t really anything Fark about it. You can’t just stick the Fark name in there and expect the Fark community to just adopt it as their own, they said. Whoever sent that in was right.

Digg just made the same mistake. They just scrapped their existing site, replaced it with a new one, and told everyone it was Digg. That’s what everyone’s angry about: it’s not Digg, and they really resent being repeatedly told that it is.

Most criticisms seem to stem from oversights in these areas:

• Design – users aren’t rewarded for taking actions
• Corporate/publisher influence replacing user influence
• Functionality – automation and broken stuff
• Blame Bush - it is the Digg Patriots‘ fault for forcing the removal of the bury feature

How much oil has the squeaky wagon wheel on the fail trail received? Not much. Kevin Rose responded with a bug fix punch list and a tweet or two about most of the Digg 3 features coming back. Most of my friends are kind of hanging back like myself in the hopes that the Digg we all knew and loved will return. Perhaps this is a Sacha Baron Cohen/Eminem MTV Movie awards publicity stunt or new Coke moment. Many Digg 3 users are reported to be moving to Reddit, a frequently featured publisher site on the Digg 4 front page now.

Digg users received the above “We’ve Created A Monster – The New Digg Is Here” email promotion on September 1st, so they must think that they are finished or at least have something good enough to warrant a call to action.

I became attracted to Digg years ago for some of the same reasons I am attracted to SEO. The little guy has a chance to win. Digg is like a game–Digg has always been a place where one could achieve popularity by sheer force of will. If you work hard and the determination is there, you might even find yourself a Digg poweruser who frequently gets stories to the front page and commands lots of votes and social popularity. The best example of a Digg poweruser is the number one user based on Digg 3 statistics, the famed MrBabyMan. Apparently statistics have been removed from Digg 4.

Powerusers on Digg or any other social media site are the influences, the cavalry, the frequent flyers, the people who enjoy promoting your service for free. Several of them even have created their own webcast shows. Take away bits of their power as Digg has done previously? Okay. Ban powerusers who violate the terms of service? Sure. But, remove their ability to influence front page stories and you have a revolt on your hands.

I am not a top 100 poweruser but I have had a number of news stories make the front page thanks to my friends’ diggs. I’ve never experienced anything quite like this Digg change. I invested time in developing friendships, virtual backscratching, voting, commenting, etc and it-the thing I came there for-goes away. And, by the hand of the owner and creator of it all. This masochistic, self-destructive tendency has always bothered me about the site I invested so much time in.

Why not just go somewhere else? Facebook will always be there. StumbleUpon for the 2 seconds of boredom while a program loads. Twitter is there. I don’t like/get Reddit. Mixx is okay. No matter how good your Pligg site is, it can’t hold a shovel to Digg 3. There was nothing like it.