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Meet Potential Lovers Over a Drink with CrazyBlindDate

Sex and spontaneity are the two magic ingredients for a new startup called CrazyBlindDate, which launches today in Boston, New York City, and San Francisco after beta testing in Austin, Texas for over a month.

The idea behind CrazyBlindDate is to bring the scheme of blind dating to the web. Sign up, answer some personal questions (age, height, body type, what type of date you’re looking for, etc.), and indicate the times and neighborhoods you are available to go on a quick date, even if its on very short notice. The site will then use its algorithm to match you up with someone in your area who is available during one of your time slots. Both single and double date arrangements can be made, and you can bring a friend, too, if you’re overly nervous about meeting strangers on your own.

CrazyBlindDate is a dating site that cuts straight to the chase. Don’t expect to spend endless amounts of time filling out personality quizzes or browsing the profiles of potential mates. You won’t have much of a clue about how they look until you see them in person (although you can try your best at determining how attractive they are in an very blurred copy of the portrait they have uploaded). This business strategy is a gamble - it has to be seen whether many singles will be comfortable meeting up total strangers before knowing any more than their basic vital stats. CEO Sam Yagan admits that CrazyBlindDate could either become a runaway success or a dud depending on how adventurous people turn out to be.

The company behind CrazyBlindDate, which is also responsible for the free dating site OkCupid, has designed their new venture with safety and privacy in mind. The site will only put you on dates in public places like bars and cafes, so you won’t find yourself in any particularly dangerous situations. While the site’s notification and confirmation system is cell phone-based, it won’t needlessly give your number to strangers. When the site finds a match for you, it will ask you via SMS whether you want to confirm. Once you and the other person commit yourself to a date, you will only be able to contact each other 30 minutes prior to the date by texting a dedicated CrazyBlindDate number (CUPID, or 28743) that will then route your messages appropriately.

In an attempt to prevent tardiness and no-shows, the website incorporates a feedback system that allows users to report bad dates. Blow off your date or drag your feet and it’ll go on your record. Also, the feedback your date gives about you will help CrazyBlindDate determine who they should pair you up with next, so the system isn’t completely random.

See our coverage of SpeedDate.com and WooMe to learn how these other companies are bringing another dating method, the speed date, online.

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Source: TechCrunch

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NY Times Headline Says It All: “More Readers Trading Newspapers for Web Sites”

Readership of newspapers has continued to decline in the United States as more readers turn to online sources for news, according to the NY Times.

The Audit Bureau of Circulations figures show that newspaper readership dropped 3% compared with the year before.

Some newspapers fared better than others, with the US Today recording a 1% increase in circulation, along with the LA Times 0.5% and the Philadelphia Enquirer at 2.5%.

We’ve written about the decline in print media many times before. Most recently I noted that 2008 may well be the year we see big shut downs in magazines, and rightfully so: tech magazines in particular compete with online publications that print news when it happens, as opposed to 6-8 weeks later. However newspapers aren’t quite as doomed as some may suggest, with the World Association of Newspapers reporting that to February 2007 global newspaper circulation was up 9.95 percent over five years and 2.36 percent over twelve months.

The decline of print media isn’t an international story, it’s one that’s very much focused on the United States, and to a lesser extent the English speaking world. The problem today with print media in the United States is that it has yet to have undergone a massive market restructuring that has occurred in other countries. In Australia in the 1980s, early 1990’s the number of daily newspapers shrunk massively in a major round of market restructuring lead by News Corp. My native New South Wales (pop 6.8m) went from four local daily newspapers to two, excluding the national papers but published in Sydney The Australian (think USA Today) and The Australian Financial Review (think WSJ). Four of the six states in Australia (Queensland (pop 4.3m), Tasmania (not a lot), Western Australia (pop 2.2m) and South Australia (1.5m)) were left with only one local daily newspaper. Compare this to some similar US states; Massachusetts (6.4m pop) has 31 daily newspapers according to Newspaperlinks.com. Nevada (2.4m), with a similar population to Western Australia has 6 daily newspapers. The problem with newspapers isn’t the web alone, its excessive choice in a declining market. Newsprint has a future, but not in a cut throat marketplace that provides more choice than the market can consume.

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/180489513/

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Introducing The 2007 Crunchies

I am very happy to announce the first (of many, hopefully) annual Crunchies, a year-end startup competition and award ceremony/party that we are coordinating with three other blog networks - GigaOm, Read/WriteWeb and Venturebeat (click on the links to see their coverage).

More details will be coming soon, but the idea is to let the community decide who to nominate, and who wins, in a number of award categories. And the whole thing will be topped off with a big award ceremony and party in San Francisco. Who are the most compelling startups of the year? We’ll know soon.

There will be sponsors for this event (see the event page for details if you would like to participate). Big thanks to Sun Microsystems Business Analytics for stepping up to be the charter sponsor of the Crunchies.

On a side note, the four participating blogs will be sharing the decision making process and the economics of the event. This is what I love best about blogging - even though we all compete very hard, we recognize that there is a community around what we do, and sometimes it’s important that we band together as part of that community.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0