Match Group

Recipient
PlentyOfFish.com

The 2011 Dating Sites Reviews Single's Choice Award poll launched October 1st, 2011. By January we had almost 1000 votes cast beating the previous year by just under 200 votes. For the last 3 years we have asked our visitors to recommend the best free dating site. We consider a free dating site one that allows members to create a profile, search for members and communicate with any member by mail messages. A free dating site in our poll may offer paid features but the basic dating features one would need to actually find and communicate with someone must be available to all members for free.

The 2011 Single's Choice Award for a Free Dating Site goes to Plenty Of Fish (POF). This dating site continues to win this award year after year. They received over 39 percent of the vote in 2011 with 388 votes. This is an increase of 6 percent when compared to 2010.

Here are the final results of the poll:

1. Plenty Of Fish (POF)
2. OkCupid
3. Craigslist
4. DateHookUp.com
5. BookOfMatches
6. Matchdoctor.com
7. Mingle 2

OkCupid came in second this year with almost a quarter of all votes (237), followed by Craigslist with just under 10 percent of the vote. Craigslist fell by one position this year but it was almost two since DateHookup.com had only one vote less than Craigslist at 95 votes. This was all followed closely by BookOfMatches with just over 8 percent of the vote, which is 80 votes. Finally Matchdoctor.com and Mingle 2 brought up the rear with 49 votes and 42 votes respectively (under 5% each).

Read our review of PlentyOfFish.com.com for more information about this online dating service or visit Plenty of Fish directly.

Recipient
PlentyOfFish.com

The dating site Plenty Of Fish or POF.com as they like to be called now is the recipient of the Editor's Top Pick - Free Award. The site has millions of members and has on average 30,000 new people joining every day. It is by far the largest free dating site on the internet and the amount of different types of single people you can meet on this service is huge.

2011 was a big year for POF. One of the main complaints about the service before was the look and feel of the website. Well this changed in 2011 with a completely redesign site. While the colors did not change much the new layout portrays POF as a much more modern and professional service. The instant messaging service was also retooled and reintroduced in 2011 (the chat system was dropped surprisingly in 2009 for some reason). Plenty of Fish also is now available in 4 languages. Besides English, French, Spanish and German versions is offered. Finally the POF dating app received a number of updates throughout the year and is now available not only for the iOS, but Android and Windows 7 now.

The one dating site everyone checks out is POF.com. It offers enough free features that members can browse, connect and communicate with other members without paying a cent (there are additional paid features available). If you are new to the world of online dating, you should definitely check them out.

Read our review of Plenty Of Fish for more information about this online dating service or visit Plenty of Fish directly.

This Year's Runner Up for this award is: OkCupid

POF reported on their blog that it was a good year for the dating site. They said that it nearly double in size (I am assuming here that they mean the number of members in their database) and that they hit a record of 50 thousand signups in a single day earlier this month.

Other big moments in 2011 for POF were:

• POF is now available in multiple languages
• Hired Administrators and a Tech Team
• Created a new POF chat system (designed in house)
• Name changed from Plenty of Fish to POF
• Site Redesigned
• New POF Apps for Mobile

For more information you can check out the POF blog and to find out more about this dating service you can read our POF review.

Recipient
Match.com UK

The Editor's Top Pick - United Kingdom Award for 2011 goes to Match.com UK. According to a recent blind survey Match.com is responsible for more relationships and marriages in the United Kingdom than any other online dating service.

Match.com in the UK allows members to connect online in more ways. Besides through the Match.com web site on your computer or mobile phones internet browser they support 4 different mobile dating applications. Match.com dating apps are available for the iPhone, Android, Windows Phone and Nokia & Symbian. These apps offer most features of the website including creating/updating your profile, searching, search by location, browsing members, viewing photos, and sending winks. If you are a paid subscriber you can also send and receive messages.

It is free to look on Match.com so if you are single and from the UK, why don't you create your own profile and find other people interested in starting a relationship in your area.

Read our review of Match.com UK for more information about this dating service or visit Match UK directly.

This Year's Runner Up for this award is: eHarmony UK

2012 is upon us, and so is an annual rush to join online dating sites in the new year.

It's known as the Holiday Effect - the 15 to 20 percent increase in online daters from December to February. Every year online dating sites experience a surge in membership over the holiday season, as singles who didn't have someone to kiss under the mistletoe or at midnight on New Year's Eve turn to the Internet for a fresh start in the new year.

There are a number of reasons that January has become such a busy month for online dating. New Years resolutions are on everyone's mind, focusing many people's attention on improving their current relationships or finding a partner if they're single. The idea of making a fresh start for the new year is also a strong motivator that draws traffic to online dating sites, as is the pressure from family and friends to settle down that singles often experience during the holidays.

"There is also the anticipated Valentines Day event which many single people dread more than any other day of the year," says Penny Russell, a spokesperson for a single parent dating site, "and this often spurs them into action and a determination to seek out a new partner before that day arrives."

Doree Lewak, author of The Panic Years: A Guide to Surviving Smug Married Friends, Bad Taffeta and Life on the Wrong Side of 25 Without a Ring, believes that the pressure to be attached during this time of year is especially strong on women. "Women still feel huge pressure around the holidays," she told USA Today, "and certainly exacerbated by New Year's - to have a date. I don't think that moment has passed."

Dating sites all across the Web experience the Holiday Effect from both men and women, from Match.com who say that their busiest season is December 26 to February 14, to PlentyOfFish.com who report a 15% spike in sign ups and a 20% increase in activity from current users during that period.

And it's not just the dating sites themselves that benefit from the Holiday Effect. As more and more members join the sites, the pool of potential dates increases dramatically, improving everyone's chance of finding love in the new year. Many dating sites respond to this trend by offering special rates around the holiday season, so if you're in the market for a membership take advantage of their holiday gift and start the new year off right.

If you are interested in finding a service to join this year, you should take a look at our list of reviewed dating sites or try our dating site search tool.

Recipient
Match.com

The recipient of the Editor's Top Pick - Over All Award for 2011 is Match.com. This dating site year after year continues to be in our opinion one of the best choices for singles who wish to find a date through an online service.

What more could you ask for in a dating site? The service has lots of members, a 6 month guarantee, mobile apps for all types of phones, a robust and easy to use interface and, lots of dating tools to help you to find your match. Match.com is designed for all types of singles. Whether you’re a senior just getting back into dating and discovering you can now do it online, to a busy professional whose time is short and knows what they want in a relationship.

For over 10 years Match.com has been the leader in online dating and in 2011 it was no different. They continued to refine the online dating process by improving their matching algorithms and adding such features for communication as filtering your email by attributes of the senders profile, and VIP mail. We were also introduced to DateSpark which helps members interested in each other, to take that first step and meet in person. DateSpark allows members to suggest on their profile their ideal first date. If another member finds the date interesting they can comment on it which not only helps break the ice but has them already planning the first date.

Read our review of Match.com for more information about this online dating service or visit Match directly.

This Year's Runner Up for this award is: eHarmony