Matchmaker.com is a famous Internet dating service. It was founded in 1986, making it the oldest of the current online dating sites. From 2000 to January 2006, it was run by Lycos. In January 2006, it was purchased by Avalanche, LLC.
Members would complete a questionnaire which includes several multiple-choice items in addition to some essay questions where one can fill in more specific details about yourself such as "What are your interests? " or "What can you ideal first date end up like? " When one looked for a potential match, matches were ranked based on the percentage of identical responses you need to the responses in another person's profile in the multiple-choice portion of the questionnaire. You may also sort your match list by distance out of your zip code to the zip code from the matches.
The original site were only available in 1986 was as a Dial-up Bulletin panel system. Each system catered to some geographic area (signal) allowing users to locate like interests. The original BBS dependent system only catered in order to local computer savvy users inside a local telephone area signal. However, exchange of e-mail between systems and information was later implemented utilizing sendmail and uuencoding producing uucp and, ultimately the web, the Matchmaker network anchor. The Matchmaker network was featured within the first edition of inch! %@:: a directory of email addressing and networks" among the larger email networks before the rise of the Web.
In late 1992, the ASCII BBS design was extended to also be considered a telnet-based service, allowing access from all over the world without the need for telephone long-distance charges. A year later on, the web-based front end was made. The first Matchmaker system to get the new version was the biggest of the communities at that time, "Christie's Matchmaker" (observe below). Other Matchmaker franchises quickly also adopted the net based front-end.
In the actual late 1990s, each from the franchisees agreed to combine, centralize, and combine their own resources. In 1998, Matchmaker incorporated and relocated all the Matchmaker servers to Bedford, Tx.
In the very beginning of the mainstream Web ('90-'97), Matchmaker.com had over 4 million users with up to 230 million page views per month. This explosive growth generated millions of dollars per annum. Unlike Internet companies of today, Matchmaker.com accomplished its substantial growth with revenues solely generated by the company and not infused or borrowed capital. Its rapidly growing network was in competition with today’s well-known companies such as; Match.com, AOL and Yahoo Personals. Even with this robust group of market competitors, Matchmaker.com became the number one singles and dating network on the Internet. While the company was growing, the "Internet Bubble" crash of 2000 took place. In spite of that crash, the company continued to garner serious financial respect. Matchmaker was purchased by Lycos for $44.5 million cash, and all Matchmaker related assets (including fourteen employees) were moved to Waltham, Massachusetts. Unfortunately, the site subsequently has declined in popularity (due in part to competition and a decrease in advertising following the acquisition.)
Within January 2006, the website was purchased by Influx, LLC. but the web site still uses the title Matchmaker.com.