Religion Press Release Services

For Immediate Release


Press Contact:
Caren Browning
The Morris + King Company
212-561-7464
caren.browning@morris-king.com

Kelley Podboy
Yahoo!, Inc.
408-349-5440
podboyk@yahoo-inc.com

NEW YORK and SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- November 2, 2006 - Beliefnet, Inc., the leading multi-faith, spirituality media company and online community, and Yahoo! Personals, the leading online dating service*, today announced a relationship that will create the largest and most active community of spiritual online daters. Beliefnet has selected Yahoo! Personals to power its popular Soulmatch dating site, providing existing Soulmatch customers with the ability to search the entire Yahoo! Personals database and sort matches by religious or spirituality preferences. Yahoo! Personals will also add Beliefnet spiritual relationship content to its site to form an online spiritual center, creating a meeting ground for daters who prioritize spirituality and faith-based compatibility.

The new Soulmatch dating site is available at http://soulmatch.personals.yahoo.com/.

"For so many people, finding a soul match means connecting on a deep level -- seeing what's on the inside as well as on the outside," said Steven Waldman, CEO and co-founder of Beliefnet. "We want to help people who believe that spiritual connection is an important part of building a great relationship."

The relationship draws on the expertise of both companies: Beliefnet offers its community of more than 9 million members a balance of inspirational and practical information on many different areas of spirituality, while Yahoo! Personals offers a dynamic dating site that attracts more than 5 million visitors per month**. Under the agreement, Yahoo! will host and operate the new version of the Soulmatch service, which will combine Yahoo's member database with Beliefnet's spiritual relationship content. Existing Soulmatch members will be automatically directed to the new site where they will have access to ten times as many profiles as before, improving their chances of finding their match. In addition, members will be able to enjoy spiritual content including expert relationship and dating advice through Yahoo! Personals, along with the support needed to seek out and build strong relationships.

"We believe a great spiritual dating site would offer a large community of daters, excellent search and matching tools, and superlative content about spiritual relationships," said Anna Zornosa, vice president and general manager for Yahoo! Personals. "Our partnership with Beliefnet will give us the opportunity to provide all three elements to customers seeking spiritual chemistry. The new dating site is a perfect example of how we are focused on enhancing the thriving community that Yahoo! Personals is today."

As always, Yahoo! is committed to its members' security and privacy.


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About Yahoo! Personals
Yahoo! Personals was first introduced in the U.S. in 1997 and has quickly grown to become one of the leading and most popular online dating services available. The service offers a large, dynamic dating scene where users can search for, meet and communicate with a variety of people. For more information, visit http://personals.yahoo.com.

About Beliefnet
Beliefnet is the largest spirituality online community, attracting more than 3.1 million unique visitors per month according to Media Metrix (August 2006). More than 9 million people subscribe to Beliefnet's daily email newsletters, accounting for more than 16.5 million subscriptions. The company is independent and not affiliated with a particular religion or spiritual movement. Beliefnet, Inc. is a privately held company funded by employees, individual investors, Softbank Capital and Blue Chip Venture Company. http://www.beliefnet.com


*Yahoo! Personals is the most visited online dating site, according to comScore Media Metrix, September 2006
**According to comScore Media Metrix, September 2006

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