Things come in waves, they say. The latest wave is dating and privacy. Close on the heels of TalkPlus’ announcement Monday, Match.com rolled out a new service, today, called MatchTalk. MatchTalk allows prospective couples to talk with each other without ever exchanging their REAL phone numbers — just a match number. Whitelabeled from the Jangl team, the service works like this:
- When you find someone you want to talk with, click on the Talk to Her/Him button on your match’s profile.
- Enter your phone number in the form. It must be a phone that supports caller ID, as the system uses your caller ID to recognize who’s calling.
- The other person will receive an email with your request to talk.
- If the recipient accepts, MatchTalk creates a new phone number unique to your connection together.
- You will each then receive emails with your unique MatchTalk number.
- Through this new number, you can call each other anytime, just as would with a normal phone number. Your personal numbers remain concealed. Incoming calls will be routed to the private numbers you originally specified.
Remind you of another model? Yep… Rebtel! Except that the appeal here isn’t cheap long distance, but rather anonymity.Â
It’s an old idea, long talked about, but its time has apparently come. Not a moment too soon, it would seem, as online predators seem become increasingly common.Â
Congratulations to the Jangl Team on this win.Â
Alec Saunders is the Vice President of Developer Relations for BlackBerry maker Research in Motion. This is his personal blog, with his personal viewpoints. Prior to this Alec was the CEO and co-founder of Calliflower — the easiest way to hold a meeting, online, on a conference call, or on the go. A double-decade veteran of product management and marketing, he spent nine years at Microsoft where he helped launch Windows 95, the first two versions of Internet Explorer, the Universal Plug and Play initiative, the push into home markets, opt-in email marketing and what might well go down in history as the very first direct email list ever.
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hmm look at http://www.lets101.com they are already doing this.
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