Common Paradox Tech Blog

Valentine’s Day has passed, and now that we have sifted through the roses (and the heartbreak) of the year’s most love-obsessed holiday, it’s time to return to the real world and all of the dating that it involves.

Earlier this week in our Web Faceoff series, we asked you, the readers, to choose between two of the biggest online dating websites out there: Match.com vs. PlentyofFish.

Not only are the two online dating hubs among the biggest in the business, but they also represent two completely different models for finding true love via the web. PlentyofFish prides itself on being free to use and having a large pool of potential mates to meet, while Match.com utilizes heftier subscriptions to filter out the dating pool.

In the end though, PlentyofFish came out as the victor. In the Valentine’s Day edition of the Web Faceoff, PlentyofFish garnered 430 votes (45%) compared to Match.com’s 334 votes, or 35%. There were a lot of ties, though: 187 votes, or a full 20% of you.

Tomorrow we will start anew with yet another web faceoff. We promise it won’t involve roses or sappy V-Day cards.

Who would win in a fight: Match.com or PlentyofFish?(polls)

Faceoff Series: Overall Results

Week 1:

- Mozilla Firefox vs. Google Chrome

- WINNER: Firefox, 4600 votes (Chrome: 3310 votes, Tie: 911 votes)

Week 2:

- Tumblr vs. Posterous

- WINNER: Tumblr, 1809 votes (Posterous: 1496 votes, Tie: 256 votes)

Week 3:

- Pandora vs. Last.fm

- WINNER: Last.fm, 1187 votes (Pandora: 1156 votes, Tie: 122 votes)

Week 4:

- Twitter vs. Facebook

- WINNER: Facebook, 2484 votes (Twitter: 2061 votes, Tie: 588 votes)

Week 5:

- WordPress vs. Typepad

- WINNER: WordPress, 2714 votes (Typepad: 267 votes, Tie: 357 votes)

Week 6:

- Windows 7 vs. Snow Leopard

- WINNER: Windows 7, 3632 votes (Snow Leopard: 3278 votes, Tie: 121 votes)

Week 7:

- TweetDeck vs. Seesmic Desktop

- WINNER: TweetDeck, 3294 votes (Seesmic Desktop: 1055 votes, Tie: 260 votes)

Week 8:

- Microsoft Office vs. Google Docs

- WINNER: Microsoft Office, 1365 votes (Google Docs: 994 votes, Tie: 315 votes)

Week 9:

- Apple iPhone vs. Google Android

- WINNER: Google Android, 3323 votes (Apple iPhone: 1494 votes, Tie: 228 votes)

Week 10:

- AT&T vs. Verizon

- WINNER: Verizon, 1161 votes (AT&T: 538 votes, Tie: 118 votes)

Week 11:

- Google vs. Bing

- WINNER: Google, 2180 votes (Bing: 519 votes, Tie: 97 votes)

Week 12:

- iPod Touch/iPhone vs. Nintendo DS vs. Sony PSP

- WINNER: iPod Touch/iPhone, 704 votes (Sony PSP: 639 votes, Nintendo DS: 482 votes, Tie: 108 votes)

Week 13:

- Digg vs. Reddit vs. StumbleUpon

- WINNER: Digg, 14,762 votes (Reddit: 11,466 votes, StumbleUpon: 2507 votes, Tie: 1032 votes)

Week 14:

- Old versus new Twitter retweets

- WINNER: Old style retweets, 1625 votes (New style retweets: 699 votes, Tie: 227 votes)

Week 15:

- Gmail vs. Outlook

- WINNER: Gmail, 3684 votes (Outlook: 980 votes, Tie: 590 votes)

Week 16:

- Boxee vs. Hulu

- WINNER: Hulu, 626 votes (Boxee: 591 votes, Tie: 106 votes)

Week 17:

- Nexus One vs. iPhone 3GS

- WINNER: Nexus One, 6743 votes (iPhone 3GS: 2818 votes, Tie: 592 votes)

Week 18:

- Foursquare vs. Yelp vs. Gowalla

- WINNER: Foursquare, 1182 votes, (Yelp: 661 votes, Gowalla: 509 votes, Tie: 143 votes)

Week 19:

- AIM vs. GTalk vs. FbChat

- WINNER: GTalk, 2189 votes, (AIM: 1257 votes, FbChat: 511 votes, Tie: 203 votes)

Week 20:

- Music Ownership vs. Music Subscription

- WINNER: Ownership, 533 votes (Subscription: 299 votes, Tie: 237)

Tags: dating, Match, Match.com, online dating, plentyoffish, poll, web faceoff

Sexting may seem like a relatively recent phenomenon, but in truth it’s as old as mankind itself. Here’s a walk back through the illustrious history of the SMS booty call:

Marilyn Monroe to JFK
Pierre Curie to Marie Curie
Elizabeth Bennet to Mr. Darcy
Anon. to the Marquis de Sade
Romeo to Juliet
Guinevere to Lancelot
Marc Anthony to Cleopatra
Adam to Eve

Bad Valentine is our own special take on the beauty—and awkwardness—of geek love.

Megan Berry is an evangelist for Mobclix, the industry’s largest mobile ad exchange, working on social media and marketing. She also blogs at The Huffington Post and the Mobclix blog. You can follow her on Twitter as @meganberry, or through the @Mobclix handle.

Can your iPhone help your love life? I’ll have to admit I’ve found it’s more likely to lead to fights about whether it’s OK to check e-mail during dinner, but crafty iPhone developers have cooked up some great apps to turn your iPhone into a Valentine’s Day lifesaver.

These iPhone apps can impress your valentine, provide dating advice, send virtual flowers, or even help you work out your anti-Valentine’s Day resentment.

Romantic Love Note/Card

1. iWrite: Love Poems

iWrite features eight different Valentine’s-appropriate styles of poetry. For each one, it walks you through the process from brainstorming, to examples, to step-by-step guidance. If you really want to cop out, it’ll even generate your poem for you.

I have to admit I was skeptical that an app like this could be anything but hokey, but it’s actually great. I am not a poet at all, but in about one minute it helped me create a poem I’d actually like to share with my boyfriend.

For a less helpful, but more humorous version of this try the (free) Love Poem Generator.

Cost: $1.99

2. Valentine ~ Postage

This is a special Valentine’s Day edition of the Postage line of iPhone apps. This app has a lot of high quality e-card designs and lets you easily insert your own pictures into its templates. Customize your card with photo effects and your own message, then share it via e-mail or Facebook. A word of warning, it’s hard (read: impossible) for any e-card to be as personal as a nice hand-written one, but this is perfect for long-distance friends or relationships.

If you don’t believe you should pay to make an e-card, then try StickerJam Hearts – Free.

Cost: $1.99

For the Perfect Date

3. Creative Romantic Ideas

This app is more than a little cheesy, but it has some genuinely good ideas. It has everything from the obvious (heart locket) to the more creative (romantic crossword puzzle). I’d definitely recommend it for anyone trying to come up with the perfect Valentine’s surprise and in need of a little inspiration. The ideas are categorized by price and difficulty level and each idea breaks down what you’ll need.

Cost: $0.99

4. 20 Minute Meals – Jamie Oliver

A home cooked meal is often much more romantic than a dinner out. There’s no need to deal with traffic, reservations, or a crowded restaurant. This app opens up the possibility of a home cooked meal for those of us lacking talent in the cooking department.

Why this app? At $7.99, it’s pricey, but it promises and delivers on two key things: 20 minutes meals and easy to follow instructions. Really, what else could you ask for?

But if you’re still not convinced it’s worth the price tag try Allrecipes.com Dinner Spinner or Epicurious Recipes & Shopping List, both free.

Cost: $7.99

Virtual Gifts

5. Be Mine Hearts

Remember Sweethearts, that candy that was the number one choice for elementary school Valentines? Well, now you can send them in virtual form with the Be Mine Hearts app (we all know they didn’t taste that good anyway). Shake your iPhone to get a different heart (and message), add your own note at the bottom, then send it in e-mail. Not groundbreaking but very easy, and definitely cute.

Cost: Free

6. Send eFlowers

Flowers are a Valentine’s Day classic for a reason, and this app allows you to send virtual flowers to everyone you care about (or even people you don’t) with the touch of a finger. You can send via e-mail or MMS. It’s a nice touch, and I highly recommend it for sending to friends and family. However, if you send your girlfriend virtual flowers instead of real ones, don’t say I didn’t warn you. To send real flowers on the go use the 1800Flowers app.

Cost: $0.99

If You’re Single

7. iFlirt

iFlirt is “your fearless dating companion” and offers pickup lines and tips for dating. Definitely use it with a grain of salt, but it could be just the ticket for coming up with an icebreaker — or maybe just for realizing that you should stop staring at your iPhone and go talk to someone if you’re out.

If you’re feeling lucky, check out “Get Any Girl: The Ultimate Pickup and Dating Guide.” I’m pretty sure it’s just for laughs (and some might even find it mildly offensive), but there’s only way to find out…

Cost: $0.99

8. iXplode – Valentine’s Day

If you’re feeling a little bitter about the whole (admittedly over-commercialized) holiday, then iXplode may be just the app for you. Watch Valentine’s gifts such as candy, a teddy bear, or roses blow up. This app also allows you to send these videos as anti-Valentine’s Day cards and, luckily for your ex-girlfriend, it clearly labels it as an iXplode card before viewing.

Cost $0.99

More iPhone resources from Mashable:

- 9 Essential iPhone Apps for Cat Lovers

- 10 Best iPhone Apps for Dog Lovers

- 10 iPhone Apps to Avoid Work Disasters

- 10 Essential iPhone Apps to Avoid Dating Disasters

- 5 Fantastic iPhone Chargers to Keep You Juiced

- 5 Must-Have iPhone Apps for Wine Lovers

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, JoeBiafore

Tags: apple, apps, dating, Holiday, Holidays, iphone, iphone apps, Mobile 2.0, Valentine, Valentines

In honor of Valentine’s Day, we would like to give you a gift — the gift of Found Footage Festival, which is possibly the most amusing video site on the web. Why? Because it has tons of badass dating videos from the olden times. Check out our favorites after the jump.

Joe and Nick, the founders of the website and accompanying tour, started FFF after finding a McDonald’s training video in 1991 called “Inside and Outside Custodial Duties.” Ever since, they have been collecting oddball VHS tapes — and only VHS tapes, no YouTube videos — and sharing them with the world.

Every video is (unintentionally) funny, but those that have to do with love and romance take the proverbial cake. So whether you’re dining with your sig other at some fancy joint this Sunday or sitting at home with a bottle of … something, we would like to direct your attention to the following array of hilarity.

David Seeks Goddess

The Video Guide to Successful Seduction

The Art of Meeting a Man

Video Dating

Courtship vs. Dating

Reviews: YouTube

Tags: dating, online dating, viral video

It’s almost Valentine’s Day, so we thought we’d inject a little romance into this week’s Web Faceoff, our weekly poll series where we compare web services and have them compete for your vote.

Online dating is a big business — millions are made every year helping singles young and old connect through the filters that the web provides. There are also literally hundreds of dating sites to choose from: Yahoo Personals, eHarmony, SinglesNet, OKCupid, among others.

However, this week’s faceoff pits the two biggest dating websites against one another: PlentyofFish vs. Match.com.

PlentyofFish is the world’s largest free dating web service (although it now has a $5 “serious” option). Still, for most of its existence it has made millions solely through ads and a staff of fewer than five, led by the founder, Markus Frind. Match.com, on the other hand, has 20+ million users, hundreds of millions in revenue, and is owned by IAC, who also owns Chemistry.com, CollegeHumor, Citysearch, Ask.com and Vimeo.

A big part of the debate is simple: Which model is better? Is Match’s subscription service more effective at helping find true love, or does PlentyofFish provide the best chance at romance?

This is where we want you to weigh in. Vote in our poll and let us know what you think. Polls close on Valentine’s Day, 12:00 p.m. PT. Until then, vote and comment away. And Happy Valentine’s Day!

Who would win in a fight: Match.com or PlentyofFish?(polls)

Reviews: Vimeo

Tags: dating, okcupid, online dating, Plenty of Fish, web faceoff

If Dear Abby and your therapist just aren’t cutting it this Valentine’s Day, you can tweet at the world’s longest-married (living) couple, Herbert and Zelmyra Fisher, for the scoop on how to score and sustain love.

That’s right, while some of the older set just can’t wrap their heads around Twitter (unless it’s connected to a fax machine), the Fishers will be all up on the microblogging site this V-Day, dispensing pearls of wisdom to the younger set (for whom the sanctity of marriage has already been destroyed by Facebook). The whole project was dreamed up by blinkbox, which is an on-demand movie and TV website in the UK.

Herbert and Zelmyra — who were married in 1924 and are 104 and 102 years old respectively — are inviting us romantically bankrupt miscreants to visit their Twitter page, @longestmarried, from today until February 12. Simply tweet your question to the pair, who will select 14 questions that they will then answer on February 14.

The couple, who enjoy hanging on their front porch, watching trains pass by, counting cars and talking to their neighbors, are apparently the model of wedded bliss. They each have their own bedroom — so Herbert can stay up late watching baseball. Well, I guess distance does makes the heart grow fonder.

Tags: dating, online dating, twitter, valetine’s day

Dating site eHarmony has settled a lawsuit in California by agreeing to end the separation of its homosexual and heterosexual matchmaking services.

eHarmony agreed to open a site for gay and lesbian customers after another lawsuit in 2008, but it did not cross-promote or even link between the two sites, and it kept subscriptions separate.

A gay man from New Jersey named Eric McKinley filed suit against eHarmony in 2008 for not offering matchmaking for gays and lesbians. eHarmony settled by agreeing to launch a service for gay and lesbian customers called Compatible Partners. eHarmony’s launch of Compatible Partners was called a “shotgun wedding” by the Los Angeles Times, though. There wasn’t even a link to Compatible Partners at eharmony.com.

Furthermore, Compatible Partners had a completely different subscription system. Bisexuals had to pay two subscription fees to have access to both sexes.

The newer lawsuit was settled in California yesterday. eHarmony will add its name to Compatible Partners, link it from the main eHarmony website alongside its Jewish, black, Christian and senior portals, and unify subscriptions. The company will also pay out $500,000 to around 150 Californians to settle. That’s in addition to the $1.5 million it has spent defending itself in court.

[via The Next Web]

Tags: dating, eHarmony, online dating, politics

The dating arena can be a dangerous place. It’s a battleground out there, and you need every tool at your disposal. It’s not cheating — it’s just using the resources available to you.

Here we’ve hand-picked 10 iPhone apps that will help you navigate the dating minefield and avoid potential disasters. From asking that special someone out, to knowing what fork to use, to how to make a hasty escape if things don’t quite go according to plan, these apps should be part of every dater’s arsenal.

1. Awesome Pickup Lines

To get to the dating stage you’ve got to meet someone first. Imagine you’ve just seen the human of your dreams across the room but your mind’s gone utterly blank. There are tons of apps offering pickup lines on the App Store, with some even specializing in pirate, ninja, vampire or robot-themed conversation starters. But we like the “Awesome” offering as it serves up hundreds of tried and tested lines added by users — you know, real people like you.

Price: Free

2. Date Smart

You’ve aced the ask, but now need an amazing date idea to really make that crucial first impression. Based on your location or the input of a zip code, Date Smart will generate tons of ideas for what you could do on your outing. Categories include cultural, outdoors, adventurous, romantic and novel, with “first date” options offering suggestions for the yet-to-be-properly-acquainted.

Price: $1.99

3. Romantic Recipes For Dinner Dates

He/she has just taken you up on your casual suggestion, “Why not just have dinner at my place?” Now, assuming your noodle sandwich special is not going to impress, this app will provide you with particularly romantic dinner recipes, advice on creating a great atmosphere, as well as some random dating tips thrown in, which we’re less sure about, such as: “Women will ask questions about your prospects. Even if they pretend it isn’t important, it is”.

Price: $2.99

4. Fine Dining Etiquette – Mind Your Manners

You may have been dragged up rather than brought up, but your date doesn’t have to know this. Remember the scene in Pretty Woman with the silverware confusion? That will never happen to you with this handy app, as it will guide you through the pitfalls and perils of fine dining. There’s advice on how to order your meal, and that all-important section on “napkin usage.” Good manners are free, you know. Well, technically they’re 99 cents if you get them from this app.

Price: $0.99

5. Conversation Starter

When the small talk runs out and you’re a little tongue-tied from sitting across from such a stunning specimen, you may need a bit of assistance to keep the conversation moving forward. This app promises provoking, intriguing and challenging conversation starters that you can use to spice up the dialogue. Having topics readily at hand will also stop you from blurting out what should really be a third date revelation (”Did I mention I collect airline sick bags?”) just to avoid an awkward silence.

Price: $0.99

6. AnswerWiki

Everything’s going well, the conversation is flowing, but in your eagerness to match tastes, you’ve just found yourself agreeing that Bob Dylan is God’s gift to music. It’s not technically a lie, as you did own a Bob CD way back when, but the finer points of his huge catalog are lost on you. This sticky situation calls for AnswerWiki. Just excuse yourself for some digital brush up. In minutes you’ll be explaining why you’ve always loved Nashville Skyline, and who knows? In years to come you could both be laughing about it together.

Price: $0.99

7. Excuse Me

“Oh really, Robert/Roberta, I had no idea there were so many ways to preserve insects in formaldehyde. Oh, there’s five more methods? Oh, hang on, my phone, sorry… Hello, what’s that? Trapped in a well, you say? I’ll be there right away.”

Fake call apps are a dime a dozen, but this one lets you set a timer, displays the “slide to answer” screen and even offers an indistinguishable male or female voice. It’s ideal for those times when you absolutely, positively have to leave.

Price: $1.99

8. Taxi Magic

After a date’s gone well (or if it hasn’t, see #7 above) you want to make as smooth an exit as possible in order to maintain the positive impression. Avoid any awkward hanging around on street corners and get you and/or your date safely in a cab faster than you can say “back to my place for a drink?” Taxi Magic lets you book a cab with the tap of the iPhone’s screen, and offers live updates on where the cab is on a map.

Price: Free

9. Cover Up

You know how when you first meet someone you pretend you generate no gaseous bodily emissions? This app will help you keep up that polite pretense. Not to put too fine a point on it, a press of the screen and the app will generate socially acceptable bathroom noises (flushing toilet, running water, hand dryer) to mask any more unpleasant audio.

Price: Free $0.99

10. 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover

To use a cliche, breaking up can indeed be hard to do. If you really can’t think of the words, then this app offers you the proverbial 50 to get you out of an unwanted romantic entanglement. With audio clips (so you can hear how bad it sounds aloud, perhaps?) there’s letting-them-down-gently lines as well as harsher options, presumably for those that have done you wrong. If you’re still indecisive, then the “random” feature will present you with one option out of blue. That, or just slip out the back, Jack.

Price: $3.99

More iPhone resources from Mashable:

- iPhone TV: Top iPhone Apps for Live Streaming Television

- Top 10 iPhone Apps as Judged by Mashable Readers

- 7 iPhone Apps That Can Save Lives

- 5 Must-Have iPhone Apps for Wine Lovers

- 20 Creative Apps For Your iPhone

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, CREATISTA

Reviews: App Store, iStockphoto

Tags: dating, iphone apps, List, Lists

I’ve warned you about dating someone gadget-obsessed, but you just couldn’t help yourself and fell in love with one of us. Let’s talk about avoiding feeling like you’re in a ménage à trois with a person and some circuits.

Gadgetwise’s Jenna Wortham was forced to contemplate the hardship of loving someone who’s in lust with electronics when one of her readers wrote in with a desperate plea for advice:

My boyfriend is in love with his iPhone. He uses it all the time-during dinner, the movies and even in bed! I have an iPhone too, so I can understand his obsession, but at the same time it’s becoming enough of a distraction while we are together to be a problem. What should I do?

Jenna explained that, as any other relationship issue, you can resolve this one by talking with your partner. You need to set limits, figure out when it’s absolutely unacceptable to reach for the digital mistress and when the wandering attention can be excused. That’s it. It’s that simple. Whether your lover is obsessed with an iPhone, a BlackBerry, a printer, or tricked-out ottoman, communication is key. [NY Times]

Photo by Fe Ilya

I’m an iPhone user and not ashamed of that fact. What I am ashamed about is that a study done about iPhone users’ characteristics pretty much deems us a rotten, undatable bunch. And some of the results struck a chord.

A company called Retrevo did what they call a “Gadgetology study” to gather up information about the typical iPhone user. While it’s not exactly a flattering snapshot and the methodology behind the surveying process is a mystery, I’ll be damned if some of the details don’t hit home:

• One in three iPhone owners has texted or emailed their significant other to break up.

Yes, I’m a horrible person and have done this. I was even oh-so-sensitive and wrote “Let’s make like a city in Croatia and Split.” Suffice to say, it didn’t go over too well.

• One in four iPhone users has broken up with their partner because that person spent too much time on their mobile device.

While I can’t say that I’ve done this yet, it’s actually a persistent fear that it’ll happen to me because I’m the one who spends too much time with my phone.

• One in three iPhone owners say that, if their partner had out-of-date gadgets, it would be a turnoff.

At first I shook my head about this statistic, but then I recalled pleading with an ex that he accept a shiny, new phone as a gift because his was “so old that no one even makes apps for it.” Geez, this survey is making me feel horrid. So horrid that I think I’ll refrain from commenting about this last statistic, except to suggest that some of the “adult material” might come in the form of MMS messages or email attachments, but I, ahem, I wouldn’t know:

• One in five iPhone owners admits to frequently watching “adult material” on their iPhones. (Twice as many as BlackBerry owners).

The rest of the results are over on the Retrevo site, take a look and then let’s talk about what horrible, undatable people we are (or how you’re a far better person than I). [Retrevo via TUAW]