Piaras Kelly PR - Public Relations in Ireland

Just flicking through some of my comments a few minutes ago and I came across something from Liam Burke. The post in question was about the Irish Examiner, one of Ireland’s national newspapers, having an online dating site. Liam left a quick comment about how audio personals will be the next big thing. Of course, having a mind as dirty as mine I was going to tell him he can find those in the back of a number of tabloid newspapers. Then I clicked onto his site.

Basically Podato is a dating site that offers audio personals to your mp3 player. I don’t think the site is going to be a huge success, but it’s premise is quite interesting and will no doubt be ripped off by the bigger players.

Then when I thought about it I realised the big dating sites probably don’t incorporate any great ideas like offering audio personals to your iPod (PS great name for a porn site that offers erotic podcasts - iWhores :D).

But why stop at just podcasts? Online dating sites are in the enviable position of being able to tap into hundreds, if not thousands, of online communities by incorporating techniques like podcasting or services like Flickr.

Online dating sites would be able to offer a much better picture of your future potential spouse. Never mind the photo, you could now also listen to their voice via podcasts, get a sense of their personality via their blog or see how they interact with others on forums.

Mind you it probably sounds like a stalker’s wet dream, so I think a big warning sign would have to be stapled all over it. I’m not sure, but I’m think the anonymity of online dating is an appealing factor. Some companies don’t like their employees blogging. What worse than your boss discovering that you’re looking for love online than through the very medium he hates. The question is, would he lose all respect for you and sack you or would you be so ashamed that you’d quietly pack your bags and sulk out of the office?