Before class tonight I had never explored a Web Dating Service. Of course I had heard the advertisements every now and then on TV of the millions of users who found their soul-mates through their web based date matching service. It occurred to me that Match.com really is an elaborate DSS!
The question, who am I compatible with, is one that has weighed heavily on the thirty year-olds of our nation. But unlike Managerial DSS' whose main concern is maximizing profitability, quality, efficiency and so on, Match.com's has not only to find compatible partners, but also make the user believe that the Web Site is trustworthy.
The opening page has this chick whose face looks very friendly. There are only a few blanks to be filled. No membership adds, no prices, just a few blanks to fill in some of your general info.
"I am a woman, looking for a man of the age 20 to 25, near 63974 zip code."
If the user gets this far than they are probably hooked. The criteria brings up a bunch of pictures of men who are in the market for like 3 seconds (to short to even read a name) but the a pop-up pops up and asks you to register... if you do then you are brought to an ENORMOUS we are talking about 223 check boxes that when checked correctly resemble very closely, your life. (or at least the life you think they want to see)
Is 223 descriptions really necessary? maybe. They claim to have 20 million members so perhaps a criteria of that amount is necessary. But I think it is more than that. I think that it is a psych tool to generate trust in the system. "This DSS truly understand me therefore it must be the best in the entire world!"
I got a kick out of their Platinum package. You can actually hire a professional matchmaker who will "weed through" all the potentials and hand pick the one who is the best choice.
Call me old fashioned, lucky, or whatever, but when I first became attracted to my wife when I was seventeen years old I simply held her hand in a scary movie... the rest was a breeze.
I already know what I am going to write on next time. "20 questions to find out if you are truly in love" Cosmo Magazine. just kidding
1 comment:
:-)
You provide an interesting perspective of the goals of the site. I assume you cannot evaluate the hundreds of criteria unless you register for the site? If not, what kind of things are included?
Suppose you could get all of the data ... how would you go about testing your theory? How would you test other factors of how efficient it is?
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