NEW YORK, March 13, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- AYI is pleased to announce the implementation of an advanced search tool into its fast-growing social dating product.  The advanced search functionality enables users to search for and connect with other singles with mutual and related interests by leveraging AYI's scale of structured interest data.  The new advanced search can be found at:  https://www.ayi.com/index.php?action=PeopleSearch

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With over 1 billion interest data points to draw from, and approximately 1,000 real-time updates per minute to profiles, AYI continues its innovation in the social dating space by bringing mutual and related interests into the online dating search experience. Following last week's launch of providing its members with the ability to search for Friends of Friends, AYI's interest-based searching capabilities further establish it as an innovative leader in social dating. 

As a result of millions of Facebook connected profiles that update in real-time, AYI's scale of structured interest data uniquely positions it to offer singles a superior and differentiated experience to meet new people.  Connecting singles around common interests represents a time-honored way for singles to meet in person.  AYI's structured interest data provides the unique opportunity to bring that same experience online by allowing AYI users to search for and connect with members with similar and related interests.

The core of the AYI interest-based searching functionality is its structured interest data.  Structured interest data is data that is easily identifiable by various associated attributes which can be individually searched upon as well and used to identify relationships between the data.  For instance, when an AYI user searches for 'Basketball', the 'Basketball' data object is associated with various attributes including sports teams and basketball players.  Thus, when a user from New York City searches for 'Basketball', the results are now able to include singles who like 'Basketball' as well as the New York Knicks and other similar sports-related results, thus making it easier and more convenient for users to discover others with similar interests.   

Related interest searches using this structure data naturally have broad applications.  As another example, when a user searches for 'Billy Joel,' the structured nature of the data tells us that Billy Joel is a "piano rock musician," as one of its numerous other attributes.  Thus, when a user searches for members who like Billy Joel, AYI can also display users who like other piano rock musicians such as Elton John – a similar and related interest that is likely to appeal to the user conducting the search.

The AYI search algorithm is designed to continuously adapt in order to conduct more intelligent searches over time.  The algorithm detects search patterns in order to continually improve the search results delivered to AYI users.  AYI's combination of its scale of interests coupled with the structured format of the data enables it to provide users with a one-of-a-kind experience to meet singles with similar interests. 

AYI's interest-based matching differentiates AYI from other dating sites in multiple ways.  Because most AYI users have Facebook connected profiles, AYI users can easily import their likes and interests from their Facebook profile in just one click.  This seamless integration has allowed AYI to build up significant scale of interest data.  Here are some stats to demonstrate the magnitude of AYI's scale of interest data:

*Over 11 million AYI users have over 20 or more interests in their profile.
*Over 19 million AYI users have sync'd their interests to their Facebook profile.
*AYI Users have 68 interests in their profile on average.
*AYI users have amassed over 1 Billion interests in aggregation.
*AYI receives approximately 1,000 updates per minute from Facebook's real-time API.

This scale makes easy and convenient to meet people with similar or related interests, while also providing standard and familiar online dating search fields.  Furthermore, this interest data updates in real-time every time an AYI member "likes" something on their Facebook profile.  This means that AYI profiles are constantly evolving and growing with timely and relevant information.  The continuous updates provided by having such scale of Facebook Connected users further differentiates AYI from the typical online dating site where interest data on profiles is often infrequently updated and can therefore grow stale and boring.    

Fun Facts:    Here is a breakdown of the top interests and likes by category for users in the United States (broken down by Males and Females):

Top Likes (Male):  Family Guy (383,000+), Walmart, Pink Floyd
Top Likes (Female):  Walmart (293,000+), Family Guy, Eminem

Top Interest (Male):  Football (211,000+), Camping, God
Top Interest (Female): God (139,000+), Camping, Cooking

Top Movie (Male): The Godfather (148,000+), Star Wars, The Fast & the Furious
Top Movie (Female): Dirty Dancing (173,000+), Harry Potter, The Twilight Saga

Top Musician (Male): Pink Floyd (272,000+), Eminem, Metallica
Top Musician (Female): Eminem (203,000+), Rihanna, Lil Wayne

Top TV (Male):  Family Guy (381,000+), South Park, The Simpsons
Top TV (Female) Family Guy (215,000+), House, Criminal Minds

Top Sports (Male): Football (211,000+), Baseball, Bowling
Top Sports (Female): Basketball (113,000+), Swimming, Bowling

SNAP Interactive, Inc. develops, owns and operates a social dating application for social networking websites and mobile platforms.  SNAP's flagship brand, AYI is one of the largest social dating applications on the Internet with millions of monthly active users on the Facebook platform, and offers a completely integrated Facebook, iPhone, Android and Web application. SNAP was recently ranked the 36th Fastest Growing Company in North America on Deloitte's 2012 Technology Fast 500™. For more information, please visit http://www.snap-interactive.com, its blog at http://blog.ayi.com, on Facebook at facebook.com/SnapInteractiveInc and on Twitter at @SNAPInteractive.

The contents of our websites are not part of this press release, and you should not consider the contents of these websites in making an investment decision with respect to our common stock.

Facebook® is a registered trademark of Facebook Inc. iPhone® is a registered trademark of Apple Inc.  Are You Interested?® is a registered trademark of SNAP Interactive, Inc.

PR Contact:
Kayla Inserra
Kayla@specopscomm.com
919-601-2247

IR Contact:
Denise Garcia
IR@snap-interactive.com

SOURCE SNAP Interactive, Inc.