Matt Coddington

Although it’s impossible to know for sure, I would assume Date.com’s glorified landing page that serves as its homepage is right up there at the top of the most profitable landing pages on the net. More profitable than Firefox’s little page?

So maybe the term “landing page” doesn’t really do Date.com justice. It’s much more than that. A lot of time and effort has been put into the inner workings of the site, and it has a lot of nifty little features. But when I arrive at their homepage, all I can see is a landing page.

Is this the best solution? Date.com must know what they’re doing. They’re over 10 years old and are still in business. In the internet world, that means something, right? I can’t help but to think, however, that such an in-your-face attempt to collect data on the user’s first load of the site might be a little too strong. What throws me off a bit more is that the actual introduction to the site and what they do is hidden below the fold in fairly small font. The message is essentially “Give us your information now. Oh and hi we’re a dating site.”

My knee-jerk reaction is to email Date.com and remind them that this is no longer 1997, when the site was founded. The web is changing has changed. People expect instant gratification, and why shouldn’t they? Social networking has taken the dating site to a whole new level - a dating site without being a dating site. Users can interact with each other and form relationships without the pressure of a dating site or the stigma of “having” to use a dating site to meet someone of the opposite sex. Myspace is used as much for hooking up now as it is for finding new bands. Facebook gifts allow you to tell that special someone that you “like like” them without all of the nasty embarrassment. And assuming you would actually prefer a traditional dating site to the newer methods available, what is stopping you from simply hitting up PlentyofFish or a similar dating site that gives you instant access to other member profiles?

And Date.com is still just a landing page.

Flaws aside, the landing page is obviously working. But with a domain like Date.com, what wouldn’t be?

So what’s the point of this post? Hell if I know. I guess if I had to sum it up into one sentence it would go something like this: landing pages work, but they’re not the future.

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