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October 20, 2006

Getting Down To Business: YesNoMayB

Michael Arrington

43 comments »

We’ve covered the best new dating sites, and even the most popular gay male dating sites, here on TechCrunch. But none of these sites capture the speed and simplicity of speed dating, where you meet a bunch of potential mates in a short period of time. South Africa-based dating site YesNoMayB nailed it.

Forget all the long, detailed profiles and complicated algorithms for figuring out who you might be compatible with. YesNoMayB shows you a bunch of pictures of potential matches based on search criteria (straight/gay and age range). You vote each picture with yes/no/maybe. If you say yes to a picture, your picture will be placed in their queue the next time they review pictures. If they say yes to you, too, then the site notifies both of you of the match, and you take it from there. This works in reverse, too. If someone likes your picture, their picture will be secretly shown to you at some point, too.

It’s very similar to HotOrNot’s MeetMe service (although less public). One difference is that YesNoMayB uses collaborative filtering to try and show you people who you will find attractive. So when someone who tends to vote the same way as you likes someone, they are more likely to be shown to you as well (similar to the netflix recommendation engine).

To try it out, see the demo here.

The basic service is free. A premium version is available with a bunch of additional features, including the ability to see new members right away (free accounts must wait five days to see new members). Premium accounts are $18/month.

This service gets five stars for friction reduction as a dating service. If looks are all that matter, this is the perfect dating site for you. And if you are a woman looking for a man, keep an eye out for my picture and don’t even think of clicking anything other than “yes.”

Update: I take back everything good I said about this company. Apparently the picture I submitted for my profile was not considered appropriate. :-)

Hi michael

Thank you for sending us your photo but unfortunately it is not suitable for use on facespinTM.

It was declined because we need to see a picture of you.

As this is largely a visual dating site, we have to maintain a certain quality standard of photographs in facespinTM. For insider tips on what to post and what not to post, please visit our photo tips page.

Please try again. We want your photo to work hard for you.

Regards

The yesnomayB.com Team

  • Sphere It

This entry was posted on Friday, October 20th, 2006 at 11:22 pm and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Comments

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  1. Ed

    October 20th, 2006 at 11:28 pm

    Sounds like a straight ripoff of Hotornot’s “meet me” service, which has been around in the same exact form for 3-4 years.

    Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose….

  2. Michael Arrington

    October 20th, 2006 at 11:36 pm

    that is an excellent point Ed. The key difference is the collaborative filtering. So just as netflix recommends movies to you based on what other people like you like, you’ll see potential matches on this site based on who others’ said were attractive.

  3. Brajeshwar

    October 20th, 2006 at 11:37 pm

    We have a way better, interactive and (also) easy to use one. We’re just stuck for the lack of funding for the same. ;-(

  4. Markus

    October 20th, 2006 at 11:42 pm

    looks like a pretty good clone of the hotornot idea, last thing I heard hotornot had close to 100,000 subscribers for the meetme section so it must work.

  5. dreadsword

    October 20th, 2006 at 11:43 pm

    Well - this seems like a natural spot to throw one of my projects out for consideration: http://simplematchingservice.com/

    Its a dating site that uses structured data in a user-built taxononmy to describe people by Interests, and then match them based on shared interests, proximity, and the usual physical characteristics.

    The taxonomies are more structured than tagging, more meaningful than textual descriptions and keyword searches, and more open than traditional structured approaches to catalogging interests.

    There’s also RSS feeds for people that have joined interests, or added themselves to a location, social features (you can add other members as friends), presence features (online status for Y!IM and AIM), unlimited photo uploading, AJAX interface elements, and lots of other 2.0 goodness.

    Anyway, the site hasn’t been promoted in any meaningful fashion and has only been public for a few days, so there’s not really anyone in there. Additionally, functionality is still being tweaked and added to, and obviously you’ll notice that the visual style is looking a little incomplete - all work in progress.

    All of that being said, I’m hoping to build a viable competitor in the 2.0 dating space - which is getting interesting with unique entries like YesNoMayB - cool stuff.

    –R

  6. Bjorn

    October 20th, 2006 at 11:54 pm

    why do you say this is based in South africa? It shouts Singapore to me…

  7. Michael Arrington

    October 20th, 2006 at 11:58 pm

    ’cause I spoke with someone at the company.

  8. dreadsword

    October 21st, 2006 at 12:08 am

    Err - for me its redirecting to .ca and is titled “Online Dating Canada” - are they parsing IP’s and redirecting to national level microsites?

  9. Bjorn

    October 21st, 2006 at 12:13 am

    looks like they are parsing the IPs indeed, altho their user search still scans across all countries

  10. lemon obrien

    October 21st, 2006 at 12:31 am

    all the chicks were hot…so its fake;

  11. $2 Million a Month

    October 21st, 2006 at 12:46 am

    Well .. I like the site and I think it is brilliant . I have never used Hot or Not .
    Saying that yesnomayb is a clone of hotornot is like saying Pepsi is a clone of coke . Who cares join whichever you want or better still join both . I like coke but I drink pepsi sometimes .

  12. erinc

    October 21st, 2006 at 3:54 am

    Seems a lot like okcupid’s quickmatch feature: http://www.okcupid.com/quickmatch

  13. John

    October 21st, 2006 at 8:27 am

    Nice but am I correct in that they are charging money! verbdate.com is growing and its free! Oh ya and daily scopes too ( some people like fiction) Hey Michael, you should add a tags pane to the comments then I could add; “skype, voip, presence, location, zodiac, verbster, verbdate ” now that would rock! :)
    Cheers from Vancity

  14. Patricia

    October 21st, 2006 at 2:47 pm

    There’s room for new players in this space, so i think it can do ok. eharmony and match.com creep me out, that eharmony guy in the commercials? oy.

    I can’t believe they declined your photo. hehe.

  15. Daniel

    October 21st, 2006 at 3:28 pm

    Right, $18/ month to look at models from all over the world, including Victoria-Secret?

  16. PabloC

    October 21st, 2006 at 7:09 pm

    If anyone is interested in buying SINOQUIZAS.COM (spanish translation from this domain) mail me at xfiles at gmail dot com, or go to my site :)

  17. James

    October 21st, 2006 at 7:14 pm

    saw this and it reminded me of the site that says it can help you get out of a bad date -whether they’re hot or just say they’re hot.

  18. James

    October 21st, 2006 at 7:15 pm

    the website was http://www.mobilealibi.com

  19. Nicolas

    October 21st, 2006 at 8:13 pm

    Heh, Online dating 2.0 & free… still cooking! [http://weeeh.com/](http://weeeh.com/)

  20. vanchau

    October 22nd, 2006 at 12:07 am

    this is a good feature. we also had this idea. we’ll probably build it by Christmas. we think its better to be a 100% free site though. :)

    http://www.justsayhi.com

  21. Thibaut

    October 22nd, 2006 at 4:28 am

    100% free covering 100% of the planet is even better

  22. Keith

    October 22nd, 2006 at 5:48 am

    Can’t today’s people get some real social life, than just dating through the Internet? It is just unbelievable human beings are becoming potato crouch.

  23. Yoni

    October 22nd, 2006 at 11:18 am

    Nice to see new players… goodluck guys! I like the UI very much but agree with some responders here that it’s not a new concept.

  24. Kama

    October 22nd, 2006 at 12:20 pm

    I think this concept resonates with profesionalism.

    Well done guys - most sites creep me out

    By the way - Plse charge to keep your site going it keeps all the scum out - Dont go free!

  25. Nick

    October 22nd, 2006 at 9:13 pm

    Michael
    Having reviewed the picture you sent them vs real pictures of yourself, I have to disagree with the guys at YesNoMayB. Both parties (yourself and their website) are better off with the picture of Laguna… :)

    just kidding

  26. Nick

    October 23rd, 2006 at 1:59 am

    Michael - It’s not just about looks but first IMPRESSION.

    Pretend you are walking into a really cool bar. You look at the girls/guys, but there’s always something that makes one stand out against the rest. We’re trying to do the same here. The science is in the background and is a massive helper (esp. when there are millions to choose from), but the user experience is JUST as important if not more so. Let’s face it dating is a game that we all play in one form or another.

    I’ll try to encourage you to post again but if you don’t want to you can still remain facespin-free and just contact anonymously if you like. Although you’ll get better responses if you have a great pic up there …

  27. Amanda

    October 26th, 2006 at 5:11 am

    Michael - did you tell your readers that the photo you sumbitted to yesnomayB was very sexy, drop dead gorgeous, big brown eyes…. but of a chocolate brown labridor… gorgeous as he may be - I dont think thats going to work for the girls.
    Sorry Michael - cant let you get away with that one!
    Amanda
    Co-founder yesnomayB.com

    PS: none of the profiles are knowingly fake ! As you can tell, we are really strict! No dogs (ahem) and no fake profiles

  28. Edwin

    November 6th, 2006 at 6:57 pm

    I think its a cool site. I like all the sites where you have an opportunity to meet others. I have a site myself that focuses not only meeting online but to meet face to face. Its http://www.OneKeyAway.com

  29. Matt

    December 21st, 2006 at 8:40 am

    Hey!

    Im looking to make the ultimate Dating site but with a Social Networking slant. Anyone that wants to help me run a new social networking site then let me know.

    All you need to do is get me a detailed flowchart of your ideas with a GUI design and written summary of all features and how they interact with the server and the end user.

    I will pay 100% of the development, server costs, marketing, etc.

    You get 25% ownership and named “Founder” 100% your idea so you get all the credit.

    Reason is we need 30 or 40 new and awesome Social Networking Sites for our new Network were building.

    Basically were building out a service that has all features found at any Social Networking Site such as YouTube/Myspace/Friendster/Facebook and about 100+ others basic5hosting.com/sns So once we complete the BETA (synergyhive.com anyone will have the opportunity to get their own social networking site with 50 GIG of space and unlimited bandwidth so you can design any idea you can think up.

    However for this first 30-40 key sites were looking for fresh and HOT ideas! So this is your chance to get your best idea out there! We cover all expenses and will design all your ideas! Ajax,PHP, MySQL, Python are the basics. First 30 best ideas get a 40+ person coding team and 20 person graphics team to make your dream Social Networking Site. Best Monetization ideas win!

    for more questions contact me at forestcall.com

    Thanks!

  30. Dave

    February 19th, 2007 at 1:23 am

    What a great idea! Different, might become painful if a lot of users join!

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