OmniDate Virtual Dating

OmniDate, the developer of a plug-and-play virtual dating application for dating sites, has added a plug-in chat to its offering.

“Our aim is to provide a complete solution of communication tools to dating sites,” explains Ravit Abelman, co-founder of OmniDate, “We want to make it easier for our clients to offer a range of dating options to their users.”

“Our members love the new chat,” says Shaun Wolfe, CEO of TangoWire, an online dating network of over 3,700 websites and millions of members, “We are very pleased to see OmniDate expand their offering. We were already using the virtual dating application, and replacing our existing chat with OmniDate’s new tool allowed us to bring all communication technology under one roof.”

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Ravit Abelman, Co-founder of OmniDate, interviews Shaun Wolfe, CEO of TangoWire, about virtual dating.  Shaun shares his thoughts on virtual dating from the business perspective.

TangoWire provides OmniDate’s virtual dating to millions of its members across its vast network of 3,700 dating sites.

Congratulations to TangoWire on a highly successful virtual dating event!

TangoWire ran a “Free vDate Thursday” event last week and saw its numbers go through the roof (see the Alexa graph below).

Members of the TangoWire community were able to go on an unlimited number of virtual dates without paying an additional fee. TangoWire’s purpose for running the “Free vDate Thursday” event was to encourage members to take control and initiate virtual dates for free with other singles, increasing their chance at finding love … and its members certainly took full advantage of the generous offer!

TangoWire is committed to providing an awesome online experience for its members and we are thrilled to be working with them.

It’s huge!

Check out these stats assembled by Online Schools from a number of sources, including Reuters and The Washington Post.

Does the choice of a virtual venue really make a difference?  It appears so.

We took a sample of 10,000 virtual dates and compared the duration of dates across various venues.

Surprisingly, some virtual dating venues appear to be consistently associated with longer “Time on Date” - and the difference can be quite substantial, as much as 40% in some cases - suggesting that the virtual dating ambiance can significantly impact the dating experience.

Also interesting to note that people tend to enjoy their “in-door” dating venues (e.g., a coffee shop) longer than the “out-door” venues (e.g., a park).  Hmmm, I wonder why.

So, where do you like to go on your virtual dates?

Check out our new product website at http://corp.omnidate.com.  It explains in greater details what virtual dating is and how to get it up-and-running on your dating or social networking site.  We are trying to make it super easy for sites to plug-in our virtual dating technology … btw, the last integration took less than 2 hrs start to finish!

Please visit our new site and let us know what you think.

The NY Daily News reports that giving people too many choices can backfire. Users of online dating Web sites actually experience a “cognitive overload” and make poorer decisions as a result. The article concludes that “Yet there is hope — at least in the online dating world. A new start-up company, called OmniDate, offers users the chance to interact with 3-D avatars in a virtual world, revealing information about themselves that may only come out through conversation.”

We agree: Virtual dating addresses a big gap in the online dating process and can effectively neutralize “cognitive overload.” (more…)

Virtual experiences are sometimes dismissed as unrelated to the real world.  However there is mounting evidence that virtual experiences are actually linked closely with our daily life.

For example, a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience earlier this year illustrates an effect of a virtual experience on people’s choices.  Volunteers who played a simple cycling game learned to favour one team’s jersey and avoid another’s.  Days later, most subjects were subconsciously drawn to one jersey and shunned the other in a real-world test.  Other studies have found that virtual experiences can influence our emotions, help treat post-traumatic stress disorder, and even trigger the same biological pathways as food and cocaine. (more…)

Virtual dating is proving to be a highly effective tool for improving online user experience and real life success, as well as increasing user activity, time on site, etc.

As this technology continues to evolve, an interesting question arises: How “real” should virtual dating be?

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