A Dating Site That Doesn't Need Its Own Site
from the all-about-Google dept
People are starting to realize that Google is more of a platform than just a search engine. With all the focus on social networks these days, Google still doesn't search in those networks. So, one company is trying to use the power of Google and public websites to build their own open social networking dating site. Basically, they get you to fill out a typical dating profile, which generates some metadata that you include on your own website. Then, they've apparently built out some sort of front-end that uses Google to search sites that include that metadata. What's unclear is how they make sure that Google will index the right sites that include the data. The business model for the company is to show Google's contextual ads along with the results. It's an interesting idea, but I wonder how comfortable some people are with putting that sort of info on the "publicly" available web. While it's really not all that different than on a dating site, a dating site at least is somewhat hidden behind a protective barrier, and lets the user hide some of their info. Update: Ugh. As is pointed out in the comments, the site is going a bit overboard in trying to fend off competitors by claiming they'll sue the pants off anyone who dares to use their metadata tags. If you're going to do that, why bother putting your content on the open internet? This just screams for someone else to create their own, truly open version.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Don't even THINK about competing with their ID sys
Warning to Copycats & Clones
SocialGrid has retained one of the top intellectual property law firms in America. Everything on this site is copyrighted and trademarked, including our search and coding system. Our patent application claims coverage on searches for all complex objects using Internet search engines. Our goal is to ensure a search system that will be free to our members and keep individuals and corporations from profiting by charging for searches. We will marginalize every profit margin. There is no money to made in creating another ID coding system. The world needs only one system. If necessary, we will give SocialGrid and the patent to Google to insure one standardized coding system. Any copycats and clones will have to answer to Google. Please be advised that any copyright, trademark, and patent infringement will result in legal action.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No Subject Given
The bigger issue here is their obvious pending patent that will essentially give them a monopoly on meta data. I find this very disturbing.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
still would beat match.com
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in chronology ]