.Dating

Adultfriendfinder (again)

2010-11-08T12:39:00.001-08:00

I never really followed through on adultfriendfinder 2 years ago, but I'm giving it another try now.

So far I've been contacted by women from the Philippines, Italy, the United States, Germany and Nigeria. Some of those women, to judge by their photos, are the same person, particularly since they not only look alike, they have the exact same profile picture.

Not a lot of real action so far, just spam, spam and more spam. We'll have to see how this one plays out.

Would like to meet: The truth about internet dating

2010-11-08T12:37:00.000-08:00

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/love-sex/romance-passion/would-like-to-meet-the-truth-about-internet-dating-2124529.html

Timewasters???

2008-05-24T01:21:00.000-07:00

One thing I see in a lot of profiles on dating sites: statements that 'time wasters' need not apply. Seems sensible. Who would want to waste their time? But then, who really considers themselves a time waster? Can you imagine the profile?

Hi, I'm a nice, decent guy. My hobbies are riding my bike, going to the movies and wasting people's time.

Get real people. No one tries to waste people's time. Most people start out with the best of intentions and then find they've made a mistake. And even when they haven't been exactly mistaken? Who among us has not had a rebound relationship. I can't imagine a bigger waste of the other person's time. But it happens. We tell ourselves it won't, we convince ourselves our intentions are pure, but they're not.

I guess I have two almost contradictory ideas here. On the one hand, no one tries to be a time waster and there is, in effect, no such thing. On the other, everyone actually is a time waster at least some of the time.

A Funny Thing

2008-05-05T09:16:00.000-07:00

Not sure exactly why, but my profile has suddenly begun to be viewed on match.com.

Now if I were a more paranoid person than I am, I might think that has something to do with the fact that I canceled my subscription a couple of weeks ago and am now letting it run out (I must have bought a special deal cause it runs till July).

But I also wrote a new profile and experimented with key word stuffing. I used the words love, lovely, relationship over and over again, I even explained that was what I was doing. Lo and behold, I moved up the ranks and suddenly a lot of people are viewing me.

I re-wrote it again and did not use the stuffing. I'll be interested to see if it drops a bit.

Must be Seen to Be Believed

2008-04-20T10:08:00.000-07:00

This is from the match.com faq:

Q. How do I purchase the Make Love Happen Guarantee program?
A. It's easy! Simply subscribe today and choose the six-month Love package. To learn more about the program, please read our program rules. If you have not met someone special after 6 months and followed all the program rules, you will qualify for the Love extension at no additional expense to you.

Q. What's included in the six-month Love package?

Q. What's included in the six-month Love package?
A. The six-month Love package provides all the benefits that Subscribers to the Match.com service receive as part of a six-month subscription. See Match.com Terms of Use for details. Additional features like MindFindBind™ and MatchTalk™ are available at an additional cost, and you will continue to be billed for any features you add to your subscription, even during a free extension of your subscription under the Make Love Happen program. See Match.com FAQ and How It Works for further details about additional features you can enjoy during your subscription.

MindFindBind???

Adult Dating Site

2008-04-16T12:41:00.000-07:00

I'm trying a new tack. Since last weekend I've been on Adult Friend Finder. I went on for a few different reasons. The most obvious one hardly bears mentioning. But I found some interesting things once I started reading the profiles. Quite a few just have a little textspeak essentially demanding shags like, NOW. But quite a few other people are looking for a wide variety of things. Relationships of one kind or another where sex is an important part, but not all and not just once or twice.

This is a big change from the marriage-driven approach you see on the dotdating corporate sites I've been looking at. Yes, in the end I expect to get some good no strings attached shagging out of this. But I may well find some other interesting experiences along the way.

I think at least that this site is more honest about what it offers. People looking to simply hook up. Interestingly, the fact that it drops all the corporate cleanliness means people's profiles are much more honest and liberated. And interesting to read. No more of the endless 'I like going out and staying in with a bottle of red wine and a DVD' lines.

Your Face May Tell People What Kind Of Relationship You Seek

2008-04-11T03:51:00.001-07:00

Your Face May Tell People What Kind Of Relationship You Seek

Whether you are looking for a long-term relationship or just a one-night stand may be written on your face for others to read, say researchers from Durham University (England), St. Andrews University (Scotland) and Aberdeen University (Scotland).

You can read about this study in Evolution and Human Behaviour.

Apparently, a man who has a large nose, small eyes and a square jaw gives out signals of being the type of person who would prefer a short-term encounter, rather than love. According to women, men with softer features are more likely to be after a long-term relationship.

Even though researchers found that men do seem able to identify women who are fancy-free, they could not specific which particular part of the face was responsible for this.

The study involved 700 young heterosexual adults, all in their twenties.

In one of the studies involving 153 people, 72% of them were able to identify accurately the sexual attitudes of men and women just by looking at photographs of their faces.

Women who seek short-term sexual relationships generally have wide eyes and large lips - men tend to find these types of women more attractive.

Men who give the appearance of preferring a long-term relationship are more sought after by women, the study found. The more 'masculine' a man is the less likely he is to be faithful and a good parent, women tend to think - this finding agrees with those of previous studies.

Surprisingly, both men and women generally go for people who are the opposite of themselves.

Team member, Dr. Lynda Bothered, Durham University, said that the initial impressions we get from looking at a person's face could be part of how we assess potential mates (or rivals) when we fist meet them. "These will then give way over time to more in-depth knowledge of that person as you get to know them better, and may change with age," Bothered added.

"Facial correlates of sociosexuality"
Lynda G. Boothroyd, Benedict C. Jones, D. Michael Burt, Lisa M. DeBruine, David I. Perrett
Evolution & Human Behavior - 27 March 2008 (10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2007.12.009)
Click here to view abstract online

Written by - Christian Nordqvist
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

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Cancellation Message on Match.com

2008-04-07T12:32:00.000-07:00

They asked for one, so I gave it. The question was, 'Can you suggest a way we can make it easier to find love?'

You can't. Finding love has never been easy and it has never been done in writing. Imagine Romeo and Juliet on match.com. Never would have happened. Romeo would have taken one look at her profile, figured she was from the family of his enemies and that would have been that. Of course he would have been better off....

The important things that happen between people do not involve words and can not be preceded by words, especially written ones. I suspect that the whole concept of online dating as it exists on these sites is either doomed to fail altogether or else likely to replace the old romantic notions of love with serial dating. Perhaps, like our online Romeo, we'll all be better off that way.

Anyway, the damn thing doesn't expire till July, so I guess I still have time to 'make love happen'.

Dot Dating Corporations

2008-04-06T05:38:00.001-07:00

Like any other business, dot dating corporations seek to capitalise on something. It would seem these guys capitalise on people's natural need to get together with partners, to get married in whatever form that takes. People desire that, the companies provide it.

Sometimes, though, I can't help feeling that actually they capitalise on people's hopes that the old way isn't fading out of existence.

The Written Intro

2008-04-06T03:37:00.000-07:00

Every corporate dot dating site provides you with a text field for entering a 'long' description of yourself the indexing, searching and ultimate reading of which is supposed to be superior to the 'old-fashioned' ways in which people used to meet each other.

I have found over the years that it is damn hard at best to meet people with these things. There are so many qualities that just don't come across in spoken words, much less written ones.

How many people do you meet at a party for example by exchanging what amounts to a knowing glance? I can think of several different times in my life when I just looked at a woman and somehow we knew something was going to happen because of the way she was simultaneously looking at me. And I don't just mean fucking here.

Now what is the written equivalent of that?

A Dating Site for Cheating Married People

2008-04-04T17:32:00.001-07:00

Studies indicate up to 30% of those people using on-line dating services are married. Why not join a site specifically designed for you? With marriedsecrets.com, there's:

No excuses
No explanations

... just great people waiting to meet you.

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Almost too painful to watch (but funny)

2008-03-30T07:34:00.000-07:00

If you've EVER done any online dating, you may find this as agonising as I did.

Scamski city, where online 'Russian brides' turn out to be Mafia conmen

2008-03-24T01:45:00.001-07:00

Scamski city, where online 'Russian brides' turn out to be Mafia conmen

One remote city and so many beautiful women, all desiring nothing more than to fire the passion of British men.

Our pictures below show some of the stunning Russian ladies who have offered themselves on dating and marriage websites recently.

All of them hail from the far-flung outpost of Yoshkar-Ola, close to the Ural Mountains.

One willowy beauty is a hard-up nurse who is desperate to leave her impoverished homeland and start a new life with a man in the West.

Russian doll: Stolen pictures of pop star Alsou were used by the conmen

Another is a medical student, though she more closely resembles a nymph-like model from the pages of a glossy magazine.

And a third is a glamorous 23-year-old who calls herself "Anna Safina".

In an email to one British man, Anna wrote: "I wish I could be with you. I'm sure that together we will have a lot of fun and spend great time!

"I'm very caring person and loving, I will do for you everything to make you feel good.

"I want to wake up in the morning early and prepare food for you. I want to meet you in the evening when you come from your work and kiss you tender, to hold you and to show you all my love."

It sounded just too good to be true and, of course, it was. In reality, "Anna" was part of a scam masterminded in Yoshkar-Ola, the scale of which was revealed last week to The Mail on Sunday by the FSB, the Russian secret service, after a series of raids.

Thousands of people, including many lonely and gullible British men, have lost large amounts of money after entering into correspondence with women on websites, naively beguiled by their warm words, suggestive chat and the sexy pictures they attach to their emails.

When they were asked to send money, which the women claimed was needed for British visas or to buy tickets for travel to Britain, the men readily agreed.

They never saw the money or heard from the women again.

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Swoop: Internet scam suspects held during a Russian secret service raid in Yoshkar-Ola

In a final humiliating twist, they found out, usually far too late, that many of the sensuous "women" with whom they had been corresponding were actually men - part of one of the many sinister Russian mafia rings making a fortune out of such scams.

In one case, a member of a gang posed as a nurse using a photograph of the world-famous Bolshoi Ballet dancer Anastasia Volochkova.

One professional British man was so taken with the photograph that he sent "her" several thousand pounds, spurred on by a sob story from the nurse about her disabled mother who needed nursing care while she came to visit him in Britain.

When he discovered the truth, he was too embarrassed to contact the police.

According to investigators, the same photograph was also used to ensnare a 45-year-old German construction worker called Friedrich Deichmann, who eventually parted with €26,000 (£21,500).

In this case, the gang used a team of female students, fluent in English, to write to him and even chat on the phone, pretending to be besotted with him.

Two of the men behind this particular scam - Sergey Chetverikov, 22, and Oleg Yelsukov, 24 - have now been brought to justice and are serving three years in prison.

But with the returns that can be made on these scams, the pair are likely to be back at work as soon as they get parole.

No other business pays as well in this grim backwater.

Volochkova herself, who left the Bolshoi Ballet in 2003, is now happily married in Moscow and horrified at her pictures being used by the scammers.

Fantasy: Glamorous 23-year-old 'Anna Safina' promises 'to do everything to make you feel good'. Really 'she' was conman Oleg Yelsukov, below, now in jail. The photo was actually of Alsou, a Russian pop star and daughter of an oil tycoon

"I was enraged that my photograph served the rotten purposes of these swindlers," she said.

"I wanted to take action myself at first when I discovered the scam.

"But then I realised our law-enforcement bodies could do it far better than me.

"This is my advice: those who prefer virtual romances should be much more prudent. You simply can't be as unsuspecting as some of these men.

"This sordid business has recently seen a rapid growth in our country, with a great number of fake sites appearing on the web.

"People are striving to find their 'other half' and these crooks are like parasites on their feelings and hopes.

"I'm glad these swindlers were arrested. First of all, €26,000 is a lot of money.

"Second, I can easily imagine how upset the man, who transferred the money was. He had certain hopes which were ruined in the lowest way."

Another photograph used by the scammers was that of the Russian singer Alsou, the daughter of a wealthy oil tycoon, who has a penthouse in London and is also happily married.

Her pictures were simply ripped off and she was dubbed "Anna Safina".

The capital of the Mari-El republic, Yoshkar-Ola, is 500 miles east of Moscow and is still suffering from the collapse of its manufacturing industry after the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991.

Today it is estimated that as many as one in 100 residents in the city is involved in dating scams.

No wonder this new industry is said to be worth an incredible £40-£ 50 million a year to the city.

One fraudster, who poses as an attractive blonde called Anna Ivanova, said: "The average salary in my city is £75 a month.

"The choice here is simple - either poverty or larceny. Now I earn £3,000 a month.

"People are fools if they want to find a wife on the internet.

"It is not real. I correspond with a whole division of Westerners - and they are all idiots.

"And I am quite successful in the business. I can wait to be noble and honest in my next life."

In one case, a dozen British men were fooled by a picture of a model talking on the telephone while sitting on a bed.

One of the names she was given was "Natasha Ivanova".

After complaints to the police, they discovered to their shame that they were being sweet-talked on the web by a beefy, 6ft 4in Cameroonian medical student named Nde Saninong.

The 28-year-old was earning some extra money for his classes at university in Russia.

After the matter was reported to Russian police, he was jailed.

One 45-year-old from London, who wanted to remain anonymous, explained how he fell into the trap.

"I met a woman through the internet. She had a lovely photo, which I now know was taken from a modelling agency brochure.

"I later found they were using the same pictures under a number of different aliases.

"I wrote back a few times, she gradually became warmer and eventually announced she wanted to come over and see me.

"Foolishly, I sent her money for a visa and an air fare and I never heard from her again."

The story is amazingly common.

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Fantasy: A beautiful blonde nurse looking for love in the West. Actually 'her' suitors were sending love notes to mafia thug Sergey Chetverikov, below. The girl in the photo is actually ballerina AnastasiaVolochkova

Matt Collins, a 46-year-old detective constable, explained candidly how he had sought a relationship on the internet but quickly became suspicious of a young woman who took a sudden interest in him. Her name was "Kristina Budrjashowa".

"I subscribe to a dating website and in January I received an email from 'Kristina' claiming we had made contact on the site," he said.

"I had no recollection of this contact. She stated she was in the process of seeking to come to England and looking for someone to have a meaningful relationship with.

"Three pictures of a stunning girl accompanied this message."

Although at times her grasp of English was shaky, her enthusiasm could not be faulted: "I'm a lucky girl to meet such good man as you in internet!" she cooed.

"Almost all Russian men are like bears! They are so rude, they can't be nice and polite, they don't want to have a family. I think you are not like them."

She asked if she could stay with him when she came to Britain.

The tacky pattern of conversation is used over and over again by the gangs, often changing nothing more than the name of the man they're conning.

Yet it works, repeatedly, and the money keeps rolling in.

"I have a question," asked Kristina suggestively. "Is it normal if we will like each other may be it is possible to live together?

"Of course if you or somebody doesn't mind. Do you have a big wide bed? (joke)."

Collins said: "I played along with her continued correspondence, through the pretence of her last day at work in Russia, her making plans to travel to England and her telling her family and friends what a wonderful man I was.

"Five days after she first made contact with me, she said she was on her way to Moscow in order to sort out her travel documents.

"She said she planned to fly to England and would be in touch the next day to pass on her travel plans.

"At this stage she had asked for nothing from me, but I guessed what was about to happen."

Surfing through the multitude of dating sites, Collins had found the same woman on another site, but with a different name.

"This 'Kristina Budrjashowa' was even pictured clutching the same cuddly toy as a woman called 'Karina Zoubayrowa,'" he said.

"I was just waiting for the request for the money. I didn't have to wait long. It arrived later the same day."

Wisely, Collins sent "Kristina" a fake reference number to use at a Western Union transfer office.

Kristina never received a penny and broke off contact with him completely.

In another case a Heathrow security worker was forced to barricade himself into his Russian holiday apartment as furious gang members demanded he pay up.

Basil Dalrymple, a 32-year-old from Lewisham, South-East London, had been seduced online by blonde and blue-eyed Irina Zenchenko after paying £70 to an agency called Euro-contacts. He even travelled to Yoshkar-Ola to meet her.

Surprisingly perhaps, this Irina really did exist - but her intentions were far from honourable.

Soon after Dalrymple arrived, she demanded he pay £500 for a trip to Sochi on the Black Sea coast.

"I wouldn't hand over the money," said Dalrymple.

"Eventually these men turned up at my holiday apartment banging on the door and demanding in Russian that I pay up.

"Then her father came back on his own and was shouting through the door. I got out of there as fast as I could."

At any one time it is estimated that Yoshkar-Ola has up to 500 scamming "offices" - mostly situated in rented flats fitted with banks of computers and a satellite link for high-speed internet connections.

Scroll down for more...

The fantasy: 'Natasha Ivanova' promises love in return for a ticket to London. But in reality 'she' was 6ft 4in medical student from Cameroon. The picture was stolen from an advert

"There's a good atmosphere, like in any office where we're fighting to get as many deals as we can to raise the commission payments," said Pyotr, a brash 29-year-old who supports two children from his income.

"In my office there is me and another guy directing it, and we have three girls, all students, who put the emails into good English.

"There are another couple of girls who help with the run to pick up the money when it's sent by Western Union or Moneygram.

"They're not well paid but it's better than any other job round here.

"We use their names on the sites so that they can collect the cash when it's sent, showing their passports at the bank.

"My office turns round about £15,000 a month, and we're all on commission from our bosses.

"I won't talk about them but, yes, you could say that they're mafia."

Pyotr refused to say whether, as is widely rumoured, such gangs have "friends" in the police and local government which enable them to work freely.

"The place is comfortable. We have beds and a Jacuzzi.

"Because of the time differences to Britain and the States, it makes sense for us to work through the night - but you can have breaks. We like to relax, too."

Unlike many of his fellow scammers, Pyotr avoids using celebrity pictures to lure his victims.

Instead, he copies anonymous images he finds on the internet or in glossy magazines.

"Our main targets are men from their late 30s to 50s. We offer them women in their 20s, who may hint about sex but say they're desperate for a family, but don't trust Russian men.

"They claim they're decent and religious but need to get on in their life, and this is their only chance to get to the West."

Does he feel any guilt about what he does?

"Why? These British and American men think they can exploit our women.

"Do they really think that after you've known a girl for a couple of days on the web that she's going to be lusting after you and truthfully saying, 'I love you' and 'Can I come to your bed?'

"They're pot-bellied, middle-aged fools. If they're ready to send their money, they deserve all they get."

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No romance: The grim city of Yoshkar-Ola, where date-scamming is a £50-million-a-year industry run by the Russian mafia

Natasha, 21, who speaks English and pays her way through university as a scammer, said: "It's the only work. I suppose it's not nice to fool people, but they think they can take advantage of poor Russian girls."

It seems as if everyone in this seedy city is trying to get a share of the scamming action.

Even pensioner Olga Mikhailova has joined in.

"I rent my apartment to scammers," she boasted. "They are nice guys and always pay good rent.

"Yes, it is true, our city is the capital of scammers," said Andrei, another gang member.

"Other cities have some scammers too, but we have more.

"There are so many that it is almost a legitimate business."

In one raid, staged recently by the FSB, more than 200 people were arrested, including 30 ringleaders.

They were raking in around £250,000 a month.

But despite the raid, many other gangs continue to operate, raising suspicions that the police have turned a blind eye.

"At the moment, 14 men are charged, and the investigation is still in progress," said one FSB source.

"The case is expected to go for trial this summer.

"Very often, the investigation of such cases happens after the police get a complaint from a cheated foreigner in Britain or elsewhere.

"They check the email address and arrest its owner who almost certainly turns out to be a cog in the wheel, small fry.

"Meanwhile, the arrest alerts the bosses who have time to hide all the traces of the bigger scams.

"This time we waited in order to gather more information and catch the bigger group."

Last night, the British Embassy in Moscow said that it receives at least one complaint a week from British men ripped off by marriage and dating scams in Russia.

However, it is acknowledged that the complaints are just the tip of the iceberg.

Some estimates suggest that only one man in 50 complains about the loss of money. Most are just too embarrassed to do so.

"We recorded 58 such cases last year. All were from British males who developed an internet 'relationship' with a Russian 'female'," said an embassy source.

"During the course of this online relationship, photographs would be sent and arrangements made for the female to visit the UK.

"This is when the issue of money arises, first for the visa, then for the flight, bogus Customs clearance and other spurious reasons."

British men also contact the embassy to check the validity of visas scanned and emailed by the women as proof that they are preparing to travel to the UK.

They are usually bogus.

Other men employ private detectives to check the backgrounds of women with whom they have been corresponding.

One such detective is Elena Garrett, a Russian woman who, ironically, is married to an American.

She said: "The client gives us her name, age and everything, and we come back in three days and we say, 'There is no such girl. Such girl does not exist.'"

All in all, it doesn't have much to do with love.

Additional reporting: Adam Luck in London.

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Match.com add, wouldn't it be great to be dogs

2008-03-23T09:52:00.000-07:00

Match.com, the source of very strange ads comes out with this strange wish to be dogs. Is match.com saying using the site reduces you to the level of animals in heat? Sure looks like it.

In the online dating wars human love is being reduced to a commodity for sale. Which is probably what it always was.

Rednecks talk about online dating

2008-03-23T09:49:00.001-07:00

Wise rednecks on online dating

Top 5 Internet Dating Tips for Geeks

2008-03-23T09:45:00.001-07:00

Plenty of fish for web dating mogul

2008-03-22T13:59:00.001-07:00

Plenty of fish for web dating mogul

He works two hours a day and makes as much as $10 million a year.

That's why Markus Frind is already considered a dot com legend at the ripe old age of 29.

Frind is the sole owner of PlentyOfFish.com, one of the most popular online dating sites in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K.

Running his matchmaking business from his 83-square-metre apartment in downtown Vancouver, Frind is a one-man show in a business many thought was impossible to do solo.

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On the other hand....

2008-03-22T13:28:00.000-07:00

Not so sure about online dating any more, but then, I'm the one who's actually been doing it. There's no disputing the advantages Bob listed in his post, after all, many of them led me to the dating sites myself. And yet....

These days, when I log on, and I do still log on, I can't escape the feeling that I'm looking at shelves full of ipods: this one has 80GB, this one has a nice screen, this one costs less. Since when do we 'find love' based on features? Or maybe a better way to put it: since when do we really know what we are looking for?

For ages we've assumed that love was the most non-rational thing we did: there was no accounting for it, it just happened. Think of Romeo and Juliet. Now imagine them meeting on a dating site. Romeo would have taken one look at the profile, seen she was from the family of his enemies, and that would have been that. Arguably he would have been better off, but he also would not have fallen in love and, worse still, we wouldn't have much of a play.

Online dating sites would have us believe that love is more rational, more a matter of choice. Something we size up through comparison shopping before making a purchase.

And then there is the attitude of many of the people on the sites. Read the profiles. One after another talks about finding Mr. right, about only wanting serious relationships, not being interested in 'time wasters'. That last one is a favourite of mine. What is a 'time waster'? Presumably someone who dates you for a while and then doesn't make a commitment. But who can know? We may all start out with 'good' (read: serious) intentions. But as you get to know someone, things don't work out. So are you now a time waster?

Think about the mentality that is behind such profiles. You look at each person through one single binary prism: are they partner material?

Don't we lose something here? Aren't there other kinds of relationships that are also possible? And to the extent that one does want a partner, does it really increase the odds if we segment ourselves in one area and zero in on that one thing?

Full disclosure here: I used to think more or less that way myself. The results were painful at the time, though they strike me as kind of funny now. I remember a conversation I had with a woman I met on a site whom I ended up dating for about 6 months. Early in the relationship she asked me what I was looking for. Turned out we were both looking for the same thing: a partner. Hey great, we thought. There's a lot of work done. Now all we have to do is sit back and let nature take its course. Six months later we broke up. If we hadn't had that conversation, we probably wouldn't even have lasted that long.

6 Advantages Of Internet Dating Revealed

2008-03-22T04:31:00.001-07:00

6 Advantages Of Internet Dating Revealed

Andrew Johnstone
March 16, 2008
We live in a very busy world these days and that probably won't be changing anytime soon. Time is precious and people have less patience than ever before and tend to want everything NOW. So how do we get on when we are single, lonely and desperate to find a partner? This is where internet dating comes into its own. There are many advantages of internet dating over more conventional ways of meeting women. Let's take a look at some advantages here…

1. The biggest advantage of all is that you save heaps of time. Once you've got a good system in place, where you have a good profile and picture, it silently works behind the scenes to bring you emails from interested women. The only time that you will need to allocate each day, is enough to reply to some emails, and to send out a few emails to women that you are interested in.

2. Meeting women online costs very little or is even free, so you save money right away. Just imagine if you were going out to bars and clubs every week, spending loads of money on your drinks AND the potential date's drinks, plus dinner in some cases, you would be spending a small fortune. You can screen potential dates online and narrow it down to the ones that you really want to go out with and spend your time and money on.

3. Most men have a fear of approaching women (which actually is a fear of rejection), but when you "approach" women online it becomes a non-issue, because you have that "safety net" that the internet offers.

4. All the initial contacts that you have with women can be done with your computer, and internet connection, from the comfort of your own home. There's no need to leave your house at all until you are ready to go out on the first date with the women you have met online.

5. People are becoming more and more cautious these days and will strive to protect their privacy at all costs. This is the beauty of online dating in that you can maintain your privacy until you trust and get to know the other person. If you're generally a shy person, you can get to know women online first and become comfortable with them before you ever meet up with them in person.

6. With internet dating, you can meet many more women online than you could ever hope to achieve at a bar, club, gym or the mall and you can interact with them all at the same time. This is a numbers game, so the more women you can talk to online, the more you can date, and the sooner you'll find the "right one" (if that's your goal).

It's pretty obvious that the advantages of internet dating over conventional dating, make it a clear winner. So what's holding you back from giving it a go? Is it the fear of ridicule from family and friends, or the stigma that still surrounds online dating? Once you learn how to do online dating effectively, you'll never look back.

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Tips To Secure Your Online Dating Safety

2007-02-20T04:19:00.000-08:00

Good read for anyone online dating

Those liars who know its wrong

2007-02-19T10:12:00.000-08:00

Research we have covered tells us that 25% of the community thinks telling "white lies" is okay online, but about 50% do it.

Hard to say where to come down on this. It is wrong to lie on an internet dating site. But a lot of people are lonely and desperate and likely feel they need to lie. Seeing on the women on match.com and datingdirect.com who flattly say "no bald guys" I would imagine shallowness and lies run in both directions.

Generally lies about physical size will soon enough be resolved if the two parties ever meet. From talking with friends I know that most experienced online daters have had a size shock, but its something that's clear. If I made a profile listing my weight as 145 pounds you would not be able to hold your dinner down on meeting me.

But we can only think about the big lies that are going on: marriage status, number of children, and other lies that get told later but are not on a profile like HIV status or last HIV test.

But we do live in a world of lies

Liar Liar

2007-02-19T10:08:00.000-08:00

Summary: In this article we learn that that other person is probably shorter if they are a guy, almost certainly heavier, but most likely the age their profiel says.

Online Dating Persona Differs From Reality
Source

By Therese LahlouhFeb 16 2007
Skeptical about looking for love online? A new study by Prof. Jeffrey Hancock, communication and information science, and Catalina Toma grad lays out the truths and misconceptions about online dating.

Toma and Hancock decided to try a new research technique to match up the daters’ profiles to their actual appearances: they weighed them, measured their height and obtained their age from their driver’s licenses. This method differs from earlier studies because the researchers are actually taking the measurements themselves, instead of asking the participants to come clean about their measurements — or their lies.

“You can never tell if someone is telling the truth about their lies,” Hancock said.Collecting the data proved to be no easy task. It took nearly six months to recruit 80 participants from the New York City area who used the online websites Match.com, Yahoo Personals, American Singles and Webdate. Toma then had to persuade participants to get on a scale and take part in a two-hour meeting. The incentive was $30.They found that 52.6 percent of men and 39 percent of women lied about their height. In terms of weight, 64.1 percent of women and 60.5 percent of men altered reality for the virtual dating scene. Age was less of an issue, with 24.3 percent of the men and 13.1 percent of the women providing incorrect information.

“People lied a lot, but that means they lied often but not by much,” Hancock said.In most cases, height was rounded up by half an inch, and weight was rounded down between five to ten pounds. The further a person deviated from an average weight for their height, the larger the person’s lie tended to be.

Toma and Hancock discovered that while people were obviously lying to appear more appealing to the opposite sex, they also needed to be relatively honest because they expect a face-to-face meeting. The daters needed to strike a delicate balance between these two concerns in order to succeed in the online dating world.

The reasoning behind the fibs was explained in part by Toma, who defined the two main trains of thought surrounding this behavior. People want to present themselves as well as they can in order to appeal to the opposite sex. However, they are also seeking unconditional acceptance and want to be loved for who they really are.

“They are forced to balance these ideals by lying marginally, but frequently,” Toma said.The need to lie is stimulated by evolutionary behavior, according to Toma and Hancock. For example, women naturally seek the strongest man who will be able to protect and provide for the family, so taller, wealthier men are more attractive. Both men and women are in tune to the subliminal desires of the opposite sex, and alter their profiles to appeal to this primal instinct, according to Hancock.

When asked how much they had lied, “people were relatively up front about it,” Hancock said. Often there are publicized cases of gross exaggerations in online profiles, but in the long run, most of the daters’ motives were good, according to Toma.
Does this mean that online dating should be sworn off as a collection of deceptive traps? Not necessarily. When asked if he would participate in online dating after conducting this research, Hancock replied with no hesitation, “Yes, definitely.”

Still Not Everywhere

2007-02-04T13:54:00.000-08:00

In a pub in Salsiburry this week I meet a girl who said to her friends that tehy shouldn't not let on that a woman they were going to meet had meet her new boyfriend on the internet.

Thats just so 2006.

Bob Hooker

Vision of a Perfect Dating Site

2007-01-09T03:04:00.000-08:00

Things we noticed that should make a perfect site.

Firstly you want to date people near you. This site should model people by where they live, where they work and how far they travel.

Honesty should be promoted. We suspect many of the people on the dating sites looking for partners are just looking for quick fucks. I like Plenty of Fish ability to search a large body of users by specific interests. So if you want a one night stand in Plenty of Fish you can just say it.

So by applying filters one can be searching those looking for soul mates who will take 6 months to kiss, or for a one night stand. Our site would allow filters for a wide set of bonding from just friends for fast fucks, in a professional fashion. This should promote honesty since you can find people who are open and up front about what they want, and keep people with different goals away from each other.

The site would have a lot of community spaces for chats and also allow users to develop games to interact. This would promote community discovery of partners.

With a system based on collaboration and discovery, and not forms matching. This system would have less forms, which are just places to lie anyways.

Probably 5 photo requirements. Photos should be dated with a digital signature, so it would be nice if everyone had a digital camera and uploaded via that.

The site would not direct people to put in their idea match. Rather they would answer some questions which would provide a profile, not fill out fields. They would then express their goals in going on the site. From there the site would guide the users to collaborative spaces of chat rooms, online games, photosharing, and other things that would promote discovery.

So if anyone wants to hire me as an online consulting just leave a comment

Bob Hooker

More on the wine and companies and open source

2007-01-09T02:41:00.000-08:00

Looking through plenty of fish I was able to do searches on wine. The plenty of fish community at this point is perhaps a little more raunchy than say Match.com, but our experience is that pay services communities tend to be too cautious and conservative so its a wash there.

So is there any reason for a wine lovers dating service? Well granted the wine lovers service has a lot more information about wine on it, with lots of articles, and lots of money on advertising and it looks nice. Perhaps its a bit over designed, you might just want to search wine on a dating site?

It comes down to corporate efforts to keep the subscriptions coming in to these services. A site like plenty of fish makes its creator a million of so dollars a year through google ads, which would be nothing compared to the massive companies that are merging around dating services which collect maybe $300 a year from member just in usage fees, and then ads, and then the ability to sell the information to marketing firms.

Of course everything on Plenty of Fish is right there for Google and Yahoo to collect. People who don't marry live shorter lives than people who do, would you want your insurance company collecting a record of your online dating over say 20 years when making a life insurance policy? Of course they can aske are you married already, but I suspect patterns of dating posts will establish a great deal more about someone that could be used to predict life span and sickness history.

But lets put the issue of data security aside.

Essentially if everyone was on something like plenty of fish, if people used tags and tag searching, and took precautions they should take with any dating site there would probably be no need for specialized sites or even pay sites. As of today I see nothing that the pay sites offer to make them worth their money AND since they are directing to the more cautious market segment with more money they tend to be full of old people who couldn't make it work in the real world for 20 years. (No offense I hope)

Chemistry.com claims to have some anthropological information to help more advance pair discovery but we can't see it yet. You have to answer a lot of questions.

The thing about plenty of fish is that it just feels low class, real low class. I am looking for open source free online dating sites that have skinned themselves a bit better and allow users to make ad on functions. Also more FILTERS. There is a need for community policing and removing of cons.

I think massive sites with tags and community areas that allow people to browse and discover are better than forms based matching sites. I am also becoming more and more suspect about how motivated professional sites are to actually developing working relationships.

But right now to be honest plenty of fish looks awful, is full on non-pictures, most of the pictures are clearly not of the people or not from this century, and the tool is not very personal. By that I mean it does not keep state information about you. For example if you search on the UK it should probably keep a state variable that you are looking to date in the UK unless told otherwise. But when you click a tag on a person it takes you to the tag poll for the entire global community. Real useful. Search is suppose to allow fine tuning, but this keeps taking you back to the top.

It also is always sending you to the US by default, the entire US. Maybe in 50 people will be dating globally but it is not happening right now.

Merger Madness Hits Online Dating

2007-01-09T02:02:00.000-08:00

As online dating becomes bigger and bigger business very rapidly this story shows just how much of a business online dating now is.

PARIS (Reuters) - Continental Europe's leading online dating agency Meetic said on Monday it was close to concluding a friendly takeover of British peer, DatingDirect.

"This accord should be finalised in the course of January 2007, following the lifting of the last suspensive clauses," Meetic, which is based near Paris, said in a statement.

Meetic founder and chairman Marc Simoncini said the takeover would allow the company to enter the U.K. market without the need for an expensive

"Thanks to this acquisition we will have conquered in less than five years the leading position on most of the international markets on which we operate," Simoncini said in a statement.

The group, already present in 14 European countries and China and Brazil, planned to expand further in 2007, he added.
SOURCE

The big story in online dating is not going to be take on, and its not going to be about how unhappy people become happy via online dating, or how love and marriage is changed via the Internet. 2007 will be the year that large corporations, people like GE and Microsof start to take over the business of dating.

Maybe its time to go back to the bar.

Even ever a case for open source free dating sites could be made, its the fairly disturbing concept that MBAs from massive companies could be deciding how people are paired up soon.

technorati tags:Online, dating, DatingDirect, Merger

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Our New Mission

2007-01-05T08:03:00.000-08:00

When we starting .dating online dating was still rather new, after all it was about 8 months ago, ages and ages on the Internet.

Our interest was as much to promote what I saw as a valid new social activity that promised to help build community as anything, certainly that was a bigger gain than any money made via adsense.

The site has been fun watching something start out small suddenly become an established part of life, and from the perspective of this blog I got to watch it happen.

But now that 25,000,000 Americans a year visit online dating sites the issue is not getting it going, its monitoring the good, bad and ugly.

So we are extending our mission to look more and more at negatives of online. When we started the negatives were simple:

1. It might not work.
2. I will meet freaks and losers.
3. Everyone will think I'm a freak or loser.

Safety was the greatest issue, as it remains so today. But new dangers are emerging:

1. Online dating sites may work to built more shallow short term relationships with the promise of always someone new in the aim of extending subscriptions. You may become less likely to find love.
2. Companies may use online dating services to collect marketing data or promote products, specifically alcohol and tobacco consumption.
3. Dating by matching does not work, we need to discover someone who has things we didn't even know we wanted. People have to learn what they are looking for in the process of meeting people, they don't just get matched up on the print out.
4. Online dating could be a form of government, business, and other jerks getting to know sensitive information about you.
5. I like Microsoft, but I don't see why companies that big have an interest in online dating.

With online dating established I am going to be a bit more critical of the trends that are going on, more social studies and less cheerleading. Online dating is here to stay, it does not need promoting but watching.

WineLoversMeet.com - A Free Dating Site for People Who Enjoy Wine

2007-01-05T07:49:00.000-08:00

LINK

About WineLoversMeet.com:

WineLoversMeet.com is a new concept in online dating designed specifically for people who enjoy wine. You don't have to be a wine connoisseur to become a member. Just as long as you have some general enthusiasm for the great taste of wine. What does wine have to do with dating? As you know, people enjoy associating with others who share the same common interests. Some wine enthusiasts tend to be fanatical about their passion for wine which is why this site was created. Another great advantage to this concept is that wine lovers usually tend to be among the most classy and sophisticated individuals within society. It's hard enough to connect with singles that you're compatible with. They've just narrowed the playing field a bit.

The site claims to be the fasted growing relationship site on the Internet, which means it has started small recently.

The trend to more specialists dating sites may please those few people who want a relationship with someone based on some combined interest. Though I would generally consider this to be politics, art, outdoors activities, veganism, religion, or area. Generally online sites match people on items, so a site dedicated to only people with a certain interest is not really gaining you over searching a larger site for people of that interest. Of course this site is free, but I would imagine the information collected is being sold to alcohol distribution companies, so its far from free when its being used to find out about couple who drink too much.

Frankly this site looks fishy. You could search say match.com or any of the free sites for people with wine as an interest. This site looks like it is trying to collect data about wine drinking and then track their social interactions with aim of marketing and potentially influencing people.

It is my experience that wine drinkers can be major problem alcoholics, mostly because wine drinking can be a vice passing itself off as a high class activity. This site smell like a effort to promote this. I frankly don't see how a smokers dating service would be any different.

Oh by the way the smokers online dating services I know about are
Datingforsmokers.com
Smoking Passions

There are also a lot of subsites that are free for smokers on other of the thousands of dating sites out there.

These all look like advertising and marketing hiding as online dating. Many people quit smoking or drinking when they start dating someone who does not and its certainly in many companies best interest to get like vices together.

In my opinion avoid them all.

Robert Hooker

Pay vs Free

2007-01-05T07:45:00.000-08:00

qagtuirErick Shipmon makes the case for a pay service

Google adsense has given an economic incentive to create free online dating sites. With MySQL and PHP along with all the Open Source stuff out there it is not actually very hard to create a simple social network, and online dating sites are rather simple social networks.

You need is a profile. A picture uploader. A database for storing contacts and email notification. I think it would take 3 coders working with .NET may 4 months to develop a dating site with all the features of the best present ones, and a total hardware software cost of may $10,000. That is two people with some time on their can probably get something from download share ware on a Tomcat machine with PHP and MySQL in a couple of months for hundreds of dollars.

Don't mind if you don't understand the technology, the point is online dating sites are pretty simple, adsense means they can be profitable without charging and their are a lot of advertisers who want to get at the online dating community.

So why pay?

This article clearly is trying to convince one to pay, and it makes two points, one valid and one not.

Shipmon makes the point that online dating sites are somehow better policed. The point that people who pay are going to behave themselves better makes some sense, but the idea that paid sites will provide better filters and service simply does not hold up. Free sites need to have traffic to get adsense revenue and have as much reason to place word filter on them. And frankly 3 nerds with PHP are probably in a far better position to design such software than a company that has purchased the system from a start up.

In short, though lots of free sites are probably small time projects over time big free sites will have as much reason to police their sites and impose policies.

Shipmon's other point is that payment is a block to membership. Oddly now it is having less members rather than more. Considering that more single people are young in lower earner income you can see this as simply saying that the pay sites will be full of older people who can afford the subscriptions while college students probably wont.

In our opinion right now its probably only a matter of time until online dating is free. Young people are figuring how to use online communities which are free, like facebook, bibo, and MySpace as online dating sites anyways and dating is best done in a larger social contact of interaction, so specialists online dating sites probably have a short life span and will have to be folded in to larger online communities that provide services for free.

People in their teens and twenties simply are not going to pay these rates when they know other ways to fin people online.

If the pay for services hope to survive at all they will need to provide much higher levels of service that help people discover potential partners. The present model of form matching is not enough. Online dating sites should make it fun to interact with people who one might date with, make winks and flirts far more interesting. Allow people to interact on line more like Second Life with games and other interactions.

Also more intelligent matching along the lines of chemistry make sense.

In the big picture, perhaps sites run for free by groups of volunteers have one major advantage: they have no motivation to stop you from getting married. Face the facts, the online dating services lose a customer when someone gets married. They want you using their service for years, maybe a life time, since a married person will, for some time, stop their subscription.

A free service without add run by volunteers along the line of Wikipedia could be motivated in helping people find love, not make profits.

So how does Pay vs. Free stand up: in our opinion you can trust pay more than free right now for the obvious reasons presented in the article, but you should not ignore free, especially if you are younger.

Robert Hooker

1 in 4 say little white lies okay in online dating

2007-01-05T01:41:00.000-08:00

Silicon Valley: Singles surfing the internet for relationships may need to be a little wary with a new poll showing that a quarter of them believe it is acceptable to tell a little white lie while dating online.

source

We have always been strong in our belief that to make online dating work, that is to make it provide happiness to the humans who look for love on it, that it has to accept open mindedness, honesty, respect, and fun.

Sadly the acceptance of little white lies shows how far from this the industry is moving. Pushed by the new d0t coms the businesses are only concerned about volume, and lots of failed relationships is more money than not a lot.

But the consumers seem to have adopted a rather sad perspective. In the old days, when you meet a human being first and then a date grew out of a human relationship, the natural moral rules that have evolved to govern human to human contact aided in opening many of our minds. Perhaps if asked we would say we didn't want to fall in love with some poor, or Jewish, or fat, or short, or without money; but then we would meet someone who was against everything we imagined we wanted only to find they were everything we ever wanted.

My wife is certainly not the person I imagined I would marry just 6 months before.

But on online dating it is pathetic has materialists and inflexible people become. Frankly the number of women who say essentially "no thin haired men need apply" is disturbing.

People new to the service imagine the vast quantity of members provides them the ability to be selective. But I would point out that today we have much greater options to buy things in stores than our grandparents, but our grandparents had many things much better than us, like furniture. Volume does not equal quality.

The acceptance of little white lies is understandable in a dating seen where most players will not even have coffee with someone because they are bald or fat or have a grown child or any other set of check lists people create for dating.

Truthfulness may be the ideal, but many online daters seem to feel it is both necessary and acceptable to express little white lies," said Joelle Kaufman, Vice President of The Experience at Engage.com.

And there is the problem, people feel they need to lie about income, height, weight and relationship goal because too many users reduce online dating to a search engine composed of and statements. Because they can find respondents who are the right income, the right size, the right height, the right desire they will only look at them; even when most likely the person is the wrong person.

A little heads up to people out there, we don't understand why we fall in love. That is why we have psychologists. That is why people fall in abusive relationships. That is why soon a majority will live outside of relationships, because we don't understand what makes love.

Online dating needs to evolve beyond forms based input on logical search to help aid the user in the discovery of people, not the search of perfect matches. Even the names "match" present everything wrong. People need to find others who fulfil them in a way they didn't understand. You can't map out the right other and just have them made as a robot. True love is finding someone who shows you the you you didn't know you were before you meet them.

Little white lies, forms based search and indexing, and purely text and graphic web sites will only become sites for easy sex or endless neurotic relationships. That is why we are very interested in efforts to expand the collaboration between people. Second Life and MySpace, web2.0 system that build social networks have more promise than the current dating sites, which are based on library search theory and not a sound understanding of how people find each other.

Robert Hooker

Online Dating Getting Very Big

2007-01-04T15:17:00.000-08:00

Piece on the New Big Business of Online Dating from the IT Perspective

Online dating firm finds itself attracted to storage area network	Vintacom's properties include "Meet for Coffee"

		Vintacom consolidates four systems to one cluster to boost performance

Superman does Online dating

2006-06-30T05:16:00.000-07:00

Online Dating coaches

2006-06-29T13:13:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it. People (at least in America) hire coaches to help them with online dating. More to the point, there are already people making money off this stuff on a second level. First the dating sites themselves, now the advisors.

Online Dating Stats

2006-06-28T05:45:00.000-07:00

match.com has over 3,000,000 active users
75% of datingdirect.com members are looking for a life changing relationship
Plenty.com is free, and yet the owner claims to make $3,000,000,0000.00 a year in adSense. (a bit better than .Dating in that)
Between 30-50 million people are doing online dating globally.

RSS Feed for Dating Sites

2006-06-28T05:41:00.000-07:00

Online Dating - Singles, Personals and Dating Sites Directory

RSS LINK

High Failure Rate

2006-06-28T03:20:00.000-07:00

LINK

"Some reports estimate that 50% of online singles are unsatisfied with their online dating results. Others indicate as many as 97% of paying members cancel their online dating accounts within 3 months due mostly to a lack of response from other members. "

Though this is an interesting article .Dating asks what benchmarks are to be used to judge online dating. Are people active in Internet dating more likely to date and find a partner than people who do not, the same or less?

It is our judgement that for many people, particually professional or people in minorities, who may be living far from their home towns and families, and who may not work in a fixed location with a set of known people, Internet dating is the ONLY option.

Any effort to improve it is good, but Internet dating is here to stay, and if it is failing than dating will more and more be failing.

Internet Dating Expert Reveals Sizzling Summer Photo Tips

2006-06-28T03:17:00.000-07:00

LINK

(PRWEB) June 28, 2006 -- Internet daters are receiving ten times more responses online with a great photo. Just in time for the summer photo season, Liz Kelly, Dating Coach, Author and Photographer, reveals Sizzling Summer Photo Tips in the new release of her dating book, Smart Man Hunting: The Fast-Track Dating Guide for Finding Mr. Right.

With 50 million singles scanning through internet dating profiles, Liz advises singles how to put their best face online. She explains, "One of my dating coaching clients reported being asked out by 7 new guys, who also interested her, the week after posting new photos online."

The Big Business of Internet Dating

2006-06-25T10:06:00.000-07:00

LINK

Click on this site and looking at how big the business of online dating has become. Now its guys in ties.

Online Data Quiz

2006-06-25T09:57:00.000-07:00

Take the Online Dating Quiz

Silly Question

2006-06-25T09:55:00.000-07:00

Q ONE of my work colleagues is constantly surfing internet dating sites when he should be helping me with a joint project. What should I do? - Alex, Dundee.

Read the answer

Team Online Dating

2006-06-25T09:51:00.000-07:00

LINK

By the time the 33-year-old Los Angeles resident actually met the women, though, the pressure to enjoy himself was too intense. And there were dates who looked nothing like their photos.

"I don't have enough time as it is," said Roberson, a medical sales account executive. "I'd get moody after spending all of that time e-mailing someone, and then not have fun on the date."

Then he heard of TeamDating.com, a new site that puts groups of friends together. "This sounded fun," he said.

Even People Not Interested in Sex

2006-06-24T10:39:00.000-07:00

With all the news about sites being used for sexual adventures and many sites opening up to married swingers this story shows the true scope of Online dating.

Link

This article brings up an interesting point, that Online dating sites are becoming more and more specialised, and therefore breaking people in to smaller and smaller groups.

Perhaps it is that people see how effective Online dating is, and how many people are making money at it, and want in the action.

Even Conservatives Notice

2006-06-24T10:35:00.000-07:00

Even the very conservative US Fox News is running a story on Online Dating.

LINK

We at .Dating have noticed a major change over the last 2 months of the number of scope of stories we track on Online dating. 4 months ago most stories were repeated over and over again in smaller local media, but now major news outlets from all over the world are not afraid to talk about Online dating. In 8 months it has gone from a fringe thing people were ashamed to admit to towards a everyday part of international life.

In a years time people will probably not be able to remember how we all used to find dates.

New Republic Joins Other Old Media with Online Dating Story

2006-06-24T10:31:00.000-07:00

LINK

When even the New Republic runs stories about Online Dating you know it has arrived.

We have a duty to be respectful and truthful

2006-06-19T22:18:00.000-07:00

LINK

"Why did you let the relationship go? I'll bet it was because you felt that the person did not respect you. You may have enjoyed the same hobbies, had fun together or even shared a long history, but if you believed the other person did not respect you, there was no basis for a worthwhile relationship. The ethical principle of respect for others is a fundamental component to all relationships, personal as well as professional, and one of the most important ways we honor this principle is by telling the truth."

Ethic extending to Internet Dating

More Internet Dating Tips

2006-06-18T13:15:00.000-07:00

Everyone has a set of tips

Microsoft in with Match.com

2006-06-18T13:08:00.000-07:00

For anyone who questioned that Internet dating is for real here is a story about Microsoft's partnership with Match.com.

Flickr.com

2006-06-18T09:40:00.000-07:00

We here at .Dating have taken a little time to learn a new online community service, flickr.com from yahoo is an excellent community site around photos. And a great place to meet people.

2006-06-18T09:35:00.000-07:00

Everybody is blond and skinny in cyberspace. And that can be a problem. Just consider the number of marriages ending because one of the parties just met their one true love through Yahoo Personals. As one divorce lawyer recently told Lawyers USA: "A client will come in -- man or woman -- and say there's someone across the country I want to marry. When I ask them, 'Have you met at all?' the answer is, 'No, I just know this is my soul mate.' "

LINK

Online Personals Watch Interview - Nate Elliott, Jupiter Research

2006-06-18T09:32:00.000-07:00

Link

The ones that are successful today in terms of revenue and users, and I respect that they’ll continue to be very successful, are Match.com and Meetic.

Online Dating Safety Tips: 8 Essential Steps to Successful Internet Dating.

2006-06-18T09:29:00.000-07:00

Link

It is the old truth that the picture is worth a thousand words. Ask the people you are writing to for their photos and send them yours.

When you feel comfortable with your communication, you can give them your personal email address. Register a separate email account for this purpose, and only use it for your personal correspondence.

Only meet in a public place for the first date, and preferably, set up a time limit for the date. For example, you can say you only have half an hour before a business appointment; this will help if the date does not go as you hoped for. A 'coffee date' is a safe bet.

Bad Press

2006-06-08T21:17:00.000-07:00

We have noted a number of negative stories about online dating in the press. Really they have always been there. First it was not going to work, now that its working we get horror stories from the dating scene.

A recent search of Google on Online Dating found these stories

Online Dating Regulation Update

Online hookup sites see thefts, assaults

There is certainly a need to use these sites in a responsible way, ie, to arrange meeting with individuals in public places. Sex related crimes are far from anything new.

But we are sad that the press seems to want to make this a negative story, no matter how it turns out. There are risks involved with any new technology and change in society and it is our opinion that Online Dating is working and improving people's lives, in some cases very significantly.

Just remember to be safe.

PlentyOfFish makes plenty of Cash

2006-06-08T21:03:00.000-07:00

LINK

"I sometimes wonder if i'm crazy for not going paid, and passing up 100's of millions a year in revenue. But i created this site to change the world, and make money at the same time. I may not make $20 million a month like the other sites my size but google pays me good money My effective CPM (under $1.00) may be very very low, but when you have a site this huge it really ads up. (My girlfriend is holding up the cheque, its for 2 months as googles EFT bounced.)"

Online Dating Attracts A New Crowd

2006-06-07T02:05:00.000-07:00

Been a while since we've updated. Both the dotdating staff and I have been a bit distracted by job stuff of late.

Here is an article about fraudsters who are starting to pop up on internet dating sites in the United States (it also appeared here).

Naturally our first instinct here is to warn all you internet daters out there to stay vigilant. We believe that online dating is quite safe and secure, but like everywhere else in the world, there are a few rotten apples who see it as a source of easy scams.

In a sense this is testimony to the success of online dating. Scammers only go where they think they can make money. Obviously they have seen how many people are using these sites too.

Online Dating Practices Change the Face of Romance

2006-05-27T05:37:00.000-07:00

LINK

Internet market research firm ComScore Media Metrix says each month, roughly 23 million people in the U.S. use the Internet to find a date. Web sites such as Yahoo!-Personals and Match.com are leading the pack. Match.com has 15 million members in 240 countries and local country sites in 18 different languages.

According to Match's Web site, more than 60,000 new people register each day - people such as Ashley.

Internet Dating Conference

2006-05-25T09:56:00.000-07:00

News and registration on the Internet Dating Conference

Preserving Cultures through online dating.

2006-05-25T04:54:00.000-07:00

We at .Dating are excited about the possibilities that online dating are opening to minority groups which may be facing cultural extinction because of the difficulty of forming marriages and creating families in the culture.

We believe that perhaps the highest mission on online dating is the ability for people who want to raise a marry and create a family in the context of their pressed traditions. We have examined some online sites for different ethnic minorities and cultures, and present a list here. Take a look if you think online dating is just for stressed professionals in bid cities.

rezfox.com also for aboriginal people.
Native American Singles Dating & Matchmaking Service
We would call this new age

10 Steps to winning online

2006-05-23T09:32:00.000-07:00

Since we at dotDating are not entirely sure how to guarantee that you will enjouy online dating, we have followed the times and outsourced the effort to Daily India in this story:

(Comment: some of these seem a little vague to us.)

"If you follow these 10 simple steps, I guarantee that your online dating experience will be a successful and emotionally rewarding one:

"1. Complete your profile.
"2. Choose an appealing username.
"3. Don't be modest.
"4. Sound interesting.
"5. Omit the negatives.
"6. No sexual innuendo.
"7. Upload a photo.
"8. Be proactive.
"9. Write great emails.
"10. Log-in regularly. "

So thank you Jon White founder of http://www.CupidNights.com here in London, and thank you Daily India for again helping England communicate with itself via Dehli and Banglore.

Why Internet Dating is Empowering For Women

2006-05-22T01:16:00.000-07:00

LINK

"When I tell people I met my husband over the Internet, one of the first things I’m asked is whether I was scared to go about the process. The answer of course, is yes. The Internet is a bit of an unknown, and the unknown is always a scary thing at first.

"But it only took me a few dates to realize something else about the Internet: it’s an empowering thing for women."

TeamDating.com

2006-05-21T10:44:00.000-07:00

LINK

Six months ago, Ray Doustdar, 33, and a friend launched TeamDating.com, where teams of friends could register online and meet with other groups for dinner, drinks, a movie or a ballgame. The site's membership -- consisting primarily of 25- to 35-year-olds -- didn't start to grow until about three months ago. Doustdar says they now have 7,500 members, mostly in the Los Angeles area.

Dating Tips for Workaholics

2006-05-21T02:40:00.000-07:00

LINK

1) First Determine If You Are a Workaholic

Any kind of “aholic” works to fill an inner-need by filling it up with something else, and the first step is admitting you have a problem. If you are truly a workaholic you’re probably putting aside your friends and potential mates in favor of work. Or, have you simply fallen into a pattern of working long hours? Did you wind up with a demanding boss and equally demanding clients and can’t find enough hours in the day to satisfy them? Or are you working towards a promotion, and once you get it you’ll be able to slow down? Or maybe you just like being busy. Once you determine the root of the issue you can work to correct it. If you feel like your boss doesn’t understand maybe you’ll have to get a new job. Or maybe you just need to learn to say “no” once in a while.

2) It’s All About Priorities

I’ve heard it said that when someone tells you they are too busy to call, they are really telling you they don’t have a priority to call you. As harsh as that may seem, it rings true as we get older and our lives become busier. Maybe you really don’t need to work the hours you do, but you find it a good excuse to put off potential dates. If you don’t want to meet a particular date, do you use work as your standby excuse? Do you find that you really do have time to do certain things and not others? Sure, work emergencies come up, but you need to realize that you are in control of your life. Not your boss.

3) Make Sure Your Attention Is On Your Date When You’re With Them

Even if you have a demanding job, you’re going to have to learn to balance your work and home life. And if you don’t get this concept down, you won’t have a home life to balance. So when you are with your date, pay attention. Listen. Acknowledge things they say and respond to them. Use the time you are with them to truly get to know them, instead of thinking of what you have to do back at work. Turn off that super-busy switch in your head and relax so they can get to know the real you. When you are at the office, take time during the day to email them and let them know you are thinking of them. Call them. In short, communicate. Yes, it will take effort on your part but all relationships do. And it’s worth it.

4) Take Some Tips From Your Married Cohorts

If you’re single you’ve probably noticed that sometimes married folks have a better deal when it comes to business emergencies. If a project required working late, my married coworkers would have real, honest-to-goodness obligations – picking up their kids from daycare, have to put dinner on, etc. Inevitably I would have to work late while I watched them leave on time each day. Was it fair? The married folks would probably say yes, but consider this – is your life less important? It can be hard to tell employers no when you don’t have to pick up kids from childcare but just really need to get home and do wash. But don’t be afraid to say no. You don’t need to give an explanation, you can simply say, “I’m not available.” Your time is just as valuable as the next person’s.

5) Start Developing Your Life Outside of Work

If the majority of your friends are at work, you need to get out. (This goes double if the majority of your ex’s are people you’ve met at the office.) Spend some time engaging in your hobbies (or finding some, if you’ve really been cooped up at the office.) Hanging out with non-work folks will broaden your horizons and help you to converse about things other than work. Don’t you hate it when someone drones on and on about their job and can’t talk about anything else? You might even meet someone cute and fun that you’ll end up dating.

China; Land of Internet Dating

2006-05-21T02:37:00.000-07:00

LINK

"BEIJING, May 20 (Xinhua) -- China's online dating market is expected to reach 653 million yuan (about 81 million U.S. dollars ) by 2008, with an annual growth rate of 60 percent, according to a recent iResearch report.

"The report values the online dating market at 37 million yuan (some 4.5 million dollars) for 2004 and 91 million yuan (11.2 million dollars) for 2005 and predicts it will grow to 653 million yuan, 4.8 percent of the entire dating market in China."

China joins the Internet Dating club.

Look Who is Internet Dating

2006-05-19T07:17:00.000-07:00

For those who think that only losers are in to Internet Dating, look at whoes in to Internet dating. Super star Charlier Sheen.

Love and Friends Prices

2006-05-19T04:54:00.000-07:00

Costs as of October 2005, as listed on site are:

1 month - £16.95
3 months £34.95
12 months £95.95

Other points, good community with a lot of response, but the site seems to be having a lot of bugs on our .Mac on OSX running Firefox.

Love and Friends

2006-05-19T04:05:00.000-07:00

I finally got round to a more serious look at Love and Friends online dating offering. For the most part, I am very impressed. The technical look and feel of the site is fairly simple, a lot less flashy and 'finished' than Match or Dating Direct. But the quality of women on the site, and presumably men as well, is really something. They work hard to ensure that they have professional people. It may also be that their search engine does a better job of matching. Whatever the case, I see a higher percentage of women who look compatible to me -- a highly educated, high earning professional in London, than I do on Match or Dating Direct.

The biggest problem I see on Love and Friends is that there are a few bugs. For example, I got a message from someone today and used the link from the email to go to the login page. After typing in my username and password, I hit enter and it failed to log me in. I only got in when I clicked the login button. Also, when they show a person has more than one photo, often what I will see is several copies of the exact same shot. I had some problems with this when I was uploading my photos. I sorted it out, but it would be easy to miss and judging by how many profiles I have seen with this problem, it occurs a lot.

10 Million Americans have tried on line dating.

2006-05-19T04:03:00.000-07:00

LINK

"CUYAHOGA FALLS -- More than 10 million Americans have tried on line dating. Thousands of couples that met on line are now married.

"It's become so popular, even celebrities like Halle Barry and Joan Rivers have admitted to dabbling online.

"But with so many success stories out there, why are some folks embarrassed to admit to online dating?"

Social Change from Online Dating

2006-05-19T01:45:00.000-07:00

Article on the social changes the Internet is bringing to internet dating, changing the very nature of dating.
by Annabel Lee - May 18, 2006

"If, as I once did, you view dating as the grimly serious business of trying to find a mate, you are sadly behind the times. Companies like Match.com, owned by Time Warner, are intent on turning dating into a fun weekend activity like windsurfing, only less so. Is this because, as the Mouseketeers used to shout, they ¨like you¨? "

Tips for Online Dating Mothers

2006-05-17T03:27:00.000-07:00

LINK

Tips for Online dating for the single mothers.

Online dating craze

2006-05-16T07:21:00.000-07:00

Link

By Blanca Torres
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

Monthly prices for online dating sites range from $12.99 to $59.99. The industry is apparently booming, with some sites boasting millions of members and thousands of happy couples.

New On-line Dating Site Targets Singles Globally

2006-05-16T06:59:00.000-07:00

Link

One World Singles is part of the world's largest networks of integrated online dating sites. It helps singles to meet nice people from around the world and all walks of life and provides the opportunity for singles of all races, ages(18+) and lifestyles to gather in a safe, comfortable and fun environment.

Answer to our TXT Prayers

2006-05-15T09:22:00.000-07:00

No sooner than we posted our desire for a better txt mobile dating service than we learn about connect2cupid.co.uk

Just txt Cupid to 81400. We look forward to learning more about this service in the future.

Costs are 20p for message sent and 60p for message recieved. Its hard to compare these prices to standard rates on line, but we are interested!

Dating for Parents

2006-05-15T07:21:00.000-07:00

Dating for Parents offers a service for single parents. It is our experience that children are the most difficult issue on dating sites and we like the idea of a parent site. A large number of single people do not want children, but many might.

We would like to see more people being open minded about children, how do you know that the love of your life does not have a little child who you can fall in love with along with the mother or father?

But for those tired of being rejected because many people do not want to find out datingforparents.com offers a good looking service at the following prices:

WEEKLY £5.99
MONTHLY £19.99
THREE MONTHLY ONLY £29.99

Match.com and DatingDirect.com bring in the numbers

2006-05-15T06:58:00.000-07:00

Match.com and DatingDirect.com bring in good numbers in our tests.

In our testing of Match.com we look for women in Greater London Area between ages 32-40 looking for men David’s test returned over 500 responses.

DatingDirect.com has also provided over 500 responses on the same search. So both sites provide plenty of opportunity for middle aged men living in London.

In contrast the Telegraphs free service still only returns about 100 women in that age range for all of the UK, but it is a free service so there is no risk in trying it.

We have not conducted tests outside of London for females. .Dating will not place false people on the Internet to test sites so if you are living in another part of the UK or US or looking for another profile please leave a comment.

Interactivity vs. Browsing

2006-05-14T17:09:00.000-07:00

I've started to notice two trends in online dating sites. I'm giving them the broad labels of interactivity and browsing. Browsing sites are something like static web sites. You go in, run a search and view people's profiles. If there is someone you like you have a number of different ways to get in touch with them. Generally contact is held to a minimum until or unless both of you decide to get in touch.

Interactive sites are ones on which your activity is more public. For example, other people who are looking for your type (i.e. women if you are a straight male, etc.) can see if you are online when they are and they come across your profile. If so, they can wink at you or even start an instant message chat. Also, when you look at someone's profile, they can see that you have viewed them.

The two models offer different advantages. Browsing sites offer a lot of privacy. I would definitely recommend them for people who want that kind of thing. You can take your time, shop around and not contact anyone until you are ready. Interactive sites are a little more lifelike. Think about this. If you are out in public and you look at someone, they can tell. Having a record of who has viewed your profile, being able to see when people are online and contact them, these make dating sites more like being in a public space with people.

I'm not certain that either model is the best. So far, the browsing model has worked for me, but the interactive one was just coming into its own when I went off the market 18 months ago. Now I'm finding myself gravitating to the interactive model. Wanting to socialise a bit and get noticed in a variety of ways. Of course from a technical standpoint, there is a learning curve. I still don't know how to do a lot of this as I have just started to notice it. And there are no doubt tons of strategies for how to maximise your presence. As I find them, I will share them here.

It's All Politics

2006-05-14T12:40:00.000-07:00

Recently I came across a woman on one of the dating sites who said she loves to discuss and argue about politics. I love that as well so I wrote in and told her so. Next thing I knew, I had a request to state my politics. In writing.

I was flummoxed. Not that I have any problem stating political views. More that I never thought about how to 'define' my politics in any succinct way. In the end, this is what I wrote: Anti Bush, Anti-Blair, pro-free trade, anti-nationalism, pro-Europe, anti-drug laws, pro-drug regulation, anti-car, pro public transport (and bicycle), pro-globalisation.

Pocado prices

2006-05-14T12:27:00.000-07:00

Pocado.com prices a bit hard to find. To really use the services you will spend:

WEEKLY £5.99
MONTHLY £15.99
THREE MONTHLY £29.99
TWELVE MONTHLY £59.99

These a good prices for a year membership. They are also open to a wide range of different interests, from friends to relationships of all kinds.

Note that these rates may change and .Dating has no relationship with any of the sites we investigate.

Dating at the telegraph

2006-05-14T12:15:00.000-07:00

The Telegraph as KindredSpirits
which promises a fuilly free service for the UK. The site has a good mixture of people of different ages and the only cost is a registration. But their don't seem to be a lot of members, with only about 100 women between 35 to 55 years of age in all of England showing up.

We will keep our eyes on it, since its free worth a try. We like the details details, though do people really know what they want in such detail?

Japan's Mobile Phone Dating

2006-05-14T11:58:00.000-07:00

.Dating has called on better mobile phone dating services. That is why this story about Japan's booming mobile phone dating services was very interesting.

Lets face facts, most single people are busy and as we become more mobile we have less time to go online in our homes, a service that fits on your mobile phone sounds like a great idea to us, after our tests on blackberry's we would like to see US and UK dating services launch similar services.

Stacée L. Hardiman, M.A.

2006-05-14T11:47:00.000-07:00

Stacée L. Hardiman, M.A. has developed a reputation as a leading expert on internet dating. In this interview she discusses the creation of her new site MatingCallers.com.

Mardiman's site focuses on black professionals in the United States.

Link

Hardiman: MatingCallers.com is not just about online dating. Many people use online dating as a way to enlarge their circle of friends or to locate pen pals. Thousands of people have joined the site; some just for a Date, some are seeking Friends and others go on to meet a Mate, and start a relationship.

.Dating likes her focus on promoting friendship without pressue.

Her rates are excellent:
1 month $9.95
6 months $39.95
Lifetime Member $99.95

.Dating likes the idea of a lifetime membership for a flat rate of less than 100 USD$

Online dating via the Mobile

2006-05-12T04:49:00.000-07:00

Just got back from business in France. My hotel had a dodgy wifi connection so I could not put my laptop online. What better excuse to test online dating via the mobile? In my case, the device in question was a Blackberry 8700 which is an excellent browser for web sites. I tried my two main sites first. Datingdirect was, I can report, excellent. There was not one single thing I could do on a PC that did not work just as well on the Blackberry. In fact I even managed to exchange some messages with one woman.

Match was more shaky. I got lots of javascript errors if I tried to look at anyone's profile. Match advertise a mobile based service, though there appears to be a fee for signing up to use it. Perhaps that is why their main site does not work well in mobiles.

Truth is, the time is rapidly approaching when part of the judgement of quality of any internet site, not just dating sites, will be how well it handles multiple devices. PC-only browsing is becoming a thing of the past, if it is not already so. In this respect, I have to give a firm edge to dating direct.

I'm getting ready to join some more sites and will carry out this same evaluation of them. Stay tuned....

Glasgow, City of Internet Love

2006-05-11T02:59:00.000-07:00

GLASGOW is the number one city in the UK for online dating, according to a new poll.
LINK

Glasgow also came top for people finding longer-lasting romance thanks to the internet.
Around 68% of men and 71% of women said they had had at least one serious relationship after meeting someone online.

Edinburgh also rated highly, with 51% of men and 68% admitting the same thing.
In Leeds just 44% of men and 48% have been successful.

The poll of 1600 adults, conducted by Gumtree.com found that 77% of Glasgow men and 33% of women feel most comfortable meeting a new person for a relationship on the internet rather than the workplace or the pub.

Sophy Silver, of Gumtree.com, said: "The figures show what we've suspected all along - the internet is the simplest and most reliable way to find a new partner - and everybody's at it.
"People are using it to find and search for partners knowing that they'll be someone in their local area who'll be looking for the same thing whether it's for long walks and a cuddle to blindfolds and feather dusters at the other extreme."

Relate, the relationship counsellors, has confirmed the internet is increasingly the way people are looking for a partner. A spokeswoman said: "The stigma from dating agencies seems to have gone.

"Doing it online allows people quite a lot of privacy as well, because they can do a bit of quiet research and look around in their own home.

"You don't have to meet a middleman or go to an actual dating agency office, which takes a lot of courage."

The Gift of Love

2006-05-11T02:57:00.000-07:00

Know anyone who really could benefit from Internet Online dating but who just won't bring themselves to do it?

Well here may be the answer. Yahoo! personals allows you to give some a membership as a gif t.

Yahoo! Personals Personals Service Review

2006-05-11T02:35:00.000-07:00

With the name Yahoo! behind it is certainly got the largest brand name. One thing impressive of them is that they post their prices fairly easy to find before you even start. This is something that .Dating calls on all Internet and Online dating sites to do. When signing up for Yahoo! Personals it is hard to be confused about what its going to cost you or the conditions, its not hidden in a FAQ someone, its on the top of Free trial page. They offer a 7-Day free trial but this automatically leads to a monthly charge which is more expensive than just going in for a 6 month.

Yahoo claims to have millions of personals on database, but they do collect for Europe, America and much of Asia including China so how many people it may have in your area is a good question. You can give the 7-Day free trail a go but be sure that if you don’t like it to cancel it before you are billed at the high rate, and if you like it to purchase a longer term contract to reduce your costs.

Yahoo! Personals pricing structure as of May 2006 was listed as follows (prices in USD$):

Standard:

$12.49/mo purchase over 6 months
$16.65/mo purchase over 3 months
$24.95/mo purchased a month at a time (and what you will get automatically by using the free trial.)

Premium (provides ranking and match by computer):

$20.82/mo for 6 months
$28.32/mo for 3 months
$39.95/mo for 1 month

There is no arguing that these are good prices, someone in the UK will probably need pay £13 a month. The extra money just to have a computer sorting your contacts seems a little high, but with Yahoo! Brand it is likely to be very popular.

2006-05-09T13:05:00.000-07:00

AnotherFriend.com, Ireland's No: 1 online dating site, today launches a Mobile Dating Service for its members.

Leave it to the Irish to innovate mobile dating.

So which one is it?

2006-05-09T12:51:00.000-07:00

Susan Reinhardt of the Gainesville Times writes:

"Old dating rules broken in the wake of Internet"

While Stacée L. Hardiman of the American Chronicle writes, on the same day:

"Online Dating is simply a New approach to an Old tradition."

Well we at .Dating note that there are some changes from Internet dating.

1. You can now meet hundreds of people in your area who might want to date you.
2. You can safely get to know the person via email for some extended time before meeting.
3. You can still date even though you are new to an area, over 35 years old, and working long hours.

But somethings remain the same, you have to be nice to the person, you have to have a good mix of common interest and also differences so you are interesting to each other, and you have to get to know each other and be honest.

So we think that Internet dating has just made an old process easier and faster.

.Dating Staff Finds List of Make Out Music

2006-05-09T11:57:00.000-07:00

So you are having an Inter date you like over, someone you have meet a few times after montsh of emails, someone you really like and want to form a relationship with, so what do you download from iTunes? Thankfully Scott G owner of G-Man Music & Marketing Miracles had produced a list of the top 10 most romantic songs of all times. They are listed by the G-Man in the order of their release.

"Someone to Watch Over Me," George and Ira Gershwin, 1926. (Timeless classic)
"Night and Day," by Cole Porter, 1932. (.Dating Staff's personal favorite)
(Night and day has been released by almost every singer so you can select just the right one from U2 to Billy Holiday, we like Tony Bennet here)
"Unchained Melody," Alex North and Hy Zaret, 1936. (This is Elvis Presely singing his heart out "I need your love!", you know it and it will melt anyone's heart)
"First Time Ever I Saw Your Face," by Ewan MacColl, 1957. (Probably the ultimate make out song, in our opinion Roberta Flack owns this song)
"Cherish," by Terry Kirkman, 1966.
"God Only Knows," by Brian Wilson, 1966. (Pet Sound's masterpiece, this song is actually too good to make out to)
"Your Song," by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, 1967. (By now you will be picking names for your kids)
"I Will Always Love You," by Dolly Parton, 1974. (It takes all kinds)
"Heaven," by Jim Vallance and Bryan Adams, 1983. (The staff at .Dating warns that we found this song actually grounds for breaking up a relationship)
"In Your Eyes," by Peter Gabriel, 1986. (Probably the best love song in 20 years, the So album is full of great make-out songs but none seem to be in a row.)

All these songs can be purchased at iTunes, some of the earlier ones by various artists. It it the opinion of .Dating that the older ones are more romantic than the newer ones. So before your big date you may want to make a Playlist with them running from newer to older. We also can't support Cherish, I Will Always Love You, or Heavan. Can we recommend "Un Coin Tout Bleu" by Edith Piaf, "Mama Call" by Manu Chao, and the "Brokeback Mountain" themes by Gustavo Santaolalla.

Scott G owns G-Man Music & Radical Radio, where he makes radio commercials and composes music for radio/TV commercials. As The G-Man, he has 5 albums on iTunes and distributed by Delvian Records. Contact him at www.gmanmusic.com.

Love on the Run

2006-05-09T03:29:00.000-07:00

For those so busy that they need to access the Internet via Blackberry the .Dating staff has just finished our first round of blackberry readiness testing. Note that we used a BlackBerry 8700 for the test provided by O2. Other versions of blackberry or providers may provide different service. Also notice we used the web browser given with blackberry and not another like the Browser from Opera, which does not work on our network.

Match.com had problems in our tests. No recommendation on blackberry, highly recommended on the web.
DatingDirect worked very well and can be used on a blackberry. Recommended by us.
PlenyofFish has a working mobile phone site, but it is a bit hard to work with. The site is a bit more 'wild and open' then most, with a lot of swingers and people just out for a good time, and not ashamed to show it. For these reasons we can not make a recommendation on Blackberry or the Internet for those looking for a relationship. Site seems more dominated by fast action dating heros.
Love and Friends so far seems to work on blackberry.

Oddly enough blogger.com works poorly on our blackberry, but MSN Spaces works fine.

In closing, lets get all those sites out there mobile device ready!

A-Z online dating directory

2006-05-08T04:06:00.000-07:00

A highly recommended online dating directory from the BBC. This dating directory is the A-Z of links to dating websites.

BBC Relationships Resource Site

2006-05-08T03:56:00.000-07:00

This is a very useful all purpose online dating site. Includes helpful tips and strategies from the BBC for online dating. Also links to online dating communities and dating sites.

Date.co.uk Price Looks Good

2006-05-08T03:11:00.000-07:00

Date.co.uk

Rates: The current rates offered by Date.co.uk are:

Initial Subscription Term Initial Cost *

5 Months £ 49.50 The Guaranteed Monthly Renewal Rate £ 9.90
3 Months £ 44.70 The Guaranteed Monthly Renewal Rate £ 14.90
1 Month £ 19.90 The Guaranteed Monthly Renewal Rate £ 19.90

* The Guaranteed Monthly Renewal Rate is applicable only if you used a credit card and will kick in after the expiration of your initial Subscription Term. (see the Additional Terms and Conditions)

Source: Date.co.uk website

.Dating has not reviewed this site and can make no judgement as to its quality, prices just presented from web site for information.

Love and Friends 'Internet Dating for Thinking People'

2006-05-07T09:41:00.000-07:00

We're called Love and friends for a reason -. although most of our members are single professionals looking for dating, romance and a long term partner, you don't have to be looking for a romantic relationship to join us.

Love and Friends is an interesting site promising to be both a dating service, and social meeting site for professionals in the UK. Extending the online community beyond just dating to an area where people with shared interest and lifestyles can meet friends.

Love and Friends allows people who may not be ready to date but would like to make friends participate. This will encourage those who are unsure about actually entering in to an online relationship to meet friends first and date later.

Costs as of October 2005, as listed on site are:

1 month - £16.95
3 months £34.95
12 months £95.95

Internet Users Currently Spend More on Online Dating Than Music

2006-05-07T01:48:00.000-07:00

Growth in acceptance of Internet Dating: Between 2002 and 2003 online dating service revenue increased 49%

News Item

In 2003, online dating sites created $450 million in revenues, according to a May 2004 Online Publishers Association report, up 49 percent over 2002.

Are you surfing the internet for a life partner, romance and friendship? If yes then think atleast a hundred times. Don’t be conventional, instead be contemporary while using the most favourite online systems – a common phenomenon these days which is helping billions of people across the world to date, romance and find partners.

That’s more money than people spent on online music and video sites or online adult entertainment, says Jupiter Research. Jupiter, an online journal, predicts online dating will top $640 million in 2008. So it’s also becoming a new industry: Industry of info-tech marriages and romance.

Two Free Online Dating Sites

2006-05-03T22:44:00.000-07:00

Bepenfriends.com has recently begun, but we don't feel its time to evaluate yet. It promises to be truly free.

Plentyoffish.com is free and has US and UK members. It has a rather basic interface but lots of users. In our test we were able to find dozen of women or men in our selected target for London on the site.

Both sites run on the same method, searching and then registering an identify to contact a person. Bepenfriend.com is not presently finished, with few members having photos at time of writing, so we recommend you use Plentyoffish.com of the two right now.

With all free sites you don't have the benefit of knowing the person on the other side is old enough to have a credit card with money in it, but no direct information about you is given and both work on older online dating systems.

Match.com looking pretty good

2006-05-03T12:46:00.000-07:00

Just re-joined Match.com after about a year's hiatus. Boy have they come along. You can have up to 12 photos, which they show on the side of your profile. The site is full of colour and they allow a lot more information than dating direct. I made some changes to update the profile and they were approved within 15 minutes!! I have changes on Dating Direct that were made 4 days ago that still haven't changed. It's still early days, but I'm really impressed.

The Right Way to Do Things

2006-05-03T11:45:00.000-07:00

Here is the online dating site run by SpeedDater. This looks very promising. First off, the site looks professional and serious. Second, and we can't emphasise this enough, they give you a pretty full look at the site without requiring that you join.

Ok, they do engage in that annoying practise of advertising a 'free' membership and generally trying to muscle information out of you before they hit you with the real price. But, a small amount of persistence on the FAQ page and you can see their price list:

3 days £ 4.97
7 days £ 9.67
1 month auto-renewal £16.97 per month
3 months auto-renewal (for £9.67 a month) £ 28.99
6 months auto-renewal (for £8.97 per month) £53.79
12 months auto-renewal (for £6.97 per month) £83.64

These are pretty reasonable terms. We will need to do more research on this one....

RSS Dating Feed

2006-05-03T11:41:00.000-07:00

TruDating has provided an RSS feed.

Don't Trust 'Free' Registrations

2006-05-03T11:37:00.000-07:00

Looking at some new sites. CupidNights at least looks professional, but they don't let you look at the profiles before you go into the site. This, in our experience, is a bad sign. Different sites attract different kinds of people and you need a chance to look at these people before you actually give over any information. These guys want a 'free' registration before they will let you see anything. Once you do that, they've got your email.

Buyer Be Ware

2006-05-03T11:22:00.000-07:00

New users to dynamic world of Internet dating should be aware of a few things.

Firstly in almost all sites we have seen the subscription payment you agree to will be renewed until you cancel the service. This is a fairly standard Web Bunsiness model, imagine having to renew your Internet contract every six months our your online banking services. But it is good to be aware that you will almost certainly have to take steps to stop being charged.

If you don't like a site t is essential that you send an email cancellation on your account, which might mean you will need remember you login and usernames, or to login in a good to a section where you can cancel.

Information of this kind can be always found on on either the faq link or the or the terms of use link at the bottom of the front page. Remember too always look through what is on the bottom of the page before deciding to give it a try.

If you can not find the prices listed or the means for ending the service after taking a good long search you should consider not using the service.

Price check Dating Direct vs Match.com

2006-05-02T14:45:00.000-07:00

Dating Direct Memberships.

6 Months (180 days) £59.99
3 Months (90 days) £39.99
1 Month (30 days) £19.99
7 Days £9.99
3 Days £4.99

Match.com Memberships.

6 months £69.12
3 months £48.36
1 month£24.15

Rates were does taken from the web sites on 2 May 2006, sites offer a free plan and prices are only subscriptions, prices may change over time.

Match.com Offers a Guarantee in the UK

2006-05-02T14:00:00.000-07:00

In the feedback we get here at .Dating we often hear doubts about the chances of finding anyone on an online dating site.

That is why we were happy to see Match.com off a guarantee in the UK. If you do no meet someone special in 6 months, they guarantee to provide another 6 months free.

But the guarantee has terms attached. The first term is a great condition and one we greatly support, the user must produce a truthful profile with picture and keep it open to the public. This will promote honesty and we are very happy about.

Also to be eligible for the 6 free months if you fail you must respond to or initiate communication with 5 or more people each month. That is 30 tries. It’s our experience that it never takes 30 attempts to find an interesting date on the internet.

The one thing the conditions don’t define is what Match.com means by “someone special”, but given that you will have to try with 30 people over 6 months its hard to imagine that you won’t, if you try, find someone special.

So perhaps it’s not much of a guarantee technically. But if it encourage people to try and keep trying it may do a great deal to increase acceptance of internet dating.

This offer ends June 30 2006.

Match.com has at present a three level pricing system. You must buy Match.com 6 month subscription of £11.52 a month billed at once. Match.com also has 3 months for £16.12 a month and one month for £24.15 a month.