The undisputed heavyweight of niche dating sites is planning a redesign. JDate, owned by Spark Networks, utilizes two main platforms for their niche sites. Most of their sites, like BlackSingles.com, BBWPersonalsPlus.com, etc., are on a platform that was born from their acquisition of MingleMatch and have seen several design makeovers over the years.
As for JDate, a Spark executive once told me that they prefer the platform inherited from MingleMatch, but due to fear of customer backlash, they’ve been coy vis-a-vis redesigns to their bread winner. Suffice it to say, Spark has had little appetite for messing with JDate; until now that is. Curious to see the redesign and how bold it will be.
FYI, it’s been rolled out to some members today.
thks jeff. why hype a redesign when so little has changed?
I haven’t looked at it too closely yet (was at the conference in Miami) but it seems to me a way to run more ads (for example, against the profiles).
the layout of some of the pages are messed up on firefox.
@theball: yes, absolutely right. the new layout is definitely going to increase page views and ad inventory. not sure if the previous layout counted profiles (which were pop ups) as page views.
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