It's a match: AOL
launches new dating service
Looking for a little online love? America Online now
owns the rights. Wednesday AOL launched a free preview of its new
personals site, love.com, which is built around its AOL Instant Messenger
service. AOL hopes to attract some of the reported 80 percent of online
single adults who haven’t yet tried online dating, according to Jupiter
Research. Dating is a huge growth category for paid online content. AOL
hopes that because people will be able to chat with more potential mates
in real time than at traditional dating sites, love.com could very well
speed up the online dating meeting process. Users put up a profile and
choose a screen name that can be linked to any AIM screen name. They can
then search, see who’s online, and send IMs to people they’re
interested in. Those messages are forwarded to a recipient’s regular
instant-messaging account, and recipients receive alerts on their screen
saying someone wants to contact them. For the IM-weary, Love.com also has
an internal e-mail service available.
Kazaa
edges Britney as year's most searched
Web users may finally be more interested in listening
to Britney Spears’ music than looking at pictures of her. Kazaa, the
peer-to-peer file sharing network, nipped Spears for the most-searched of
term of the year when Terra Lycos released the 2003 Lycos 50 yesterday
based on user searches from Dec. 1, 2002, through Nov. 25, 2003. A
complete list of the top web searches and commentary can be found at
http://50.lycoms.com. The top 10 of the were Kazaa, Britney Spears,
Dragonball, Paris Hilton, the IRS, Kobe Bryant, Christmas, NFL,
Pamela Anderson and Brooke Burke. Last year Dragonball topped the
list.
Kid
who posted shooting spree plan nabbed
If you’re planning a secret killing spree, it’s
probably wisest not to announce it in a chat room. A 12-year-old
Pennsylvania boy was taken into custody on Tuesday after threatening to go
on a killing spree at school that day. Pittsburgh police were alerted
Monday after viewing a posting on the web site
www.horror.com
made by
Freddy Fan. The posting said the child was going to kill his teacher and
many others at his school. A second posting said horror movies had nothing
to do with it, and he would kill everybody who stands in his way. The
local authorities contacted the internet service provider and located the
address of the boy. The West Earl Police Department in Leola searched the
boy’s home, taking computer equipment and a knife that they discovered
in his backpack. The boy’s name and school he attends are yet to be
released.
Out-of-towners
biggest visitors to NBA.com
The National Basketball Association is receiving some
major international attention. More than half of all visits to NBA.com
came from fans living outside the United States during the first month of
the 2003-04 NBA season, a first for the web site. November brought a
record-breaking 30 million international visits, nearly doubling the
previous year’s total and representing more international traffic to
NBA.com than any competing U.S.-based sports web site. The NBA currently
has a record 71 international players, including last year’s No. 1 draft
pick, China’s Yao Ming. Not surprisingly, China is ranked as the top
country visiting NBA.com outside of the U.S.
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