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eHarmony has announced it's closing the doors on its short-lived sister site, Jazzed.com. Jazzed will be no more on September 18, two years after its launch in 2010.

Years ago, Match.com introduced Chemistry.com, its algorithm-based answer to eHarmony. eHarmony responded with Jazzed, a more casual site that allowed users to freely contact other members instead of connecting only with matches provided by the site. eHarmony hoped Jazzed would be a strong competitor for Match's massive market share, but alas - it seems their dream was not to be.

Jazzed barely managed to get off the ground, despite eHarmony's efforts. The site launched a photo-sharing app last year and was featured on a dating television show called "Excused," but that was the extent of its popularity. After the initial excitement over the site wore off, it never returned to the public's radar.

If you're a Jazzed member, you now have three options:

• Take no immediate action, and continue to use the site until it shuts down on September 18.
• Cancel your subscription before the site closes, and receive a prorated refund for the remaining portion of your subscription. (Users who do not cancel their subscriptions will be issued a prorated refund after the date of closure.)
• Sign up for eHarmony instead, which is offering a discount to former Jazzed users. Use the promo code JAZZEDEH to receive a special rate of $9.95/mo for three months. The offer expires on September 20 at 11:59 pm PST, after which your account will automatically renew at a rate of $29.95/mo.

Upon closure, Jazzed members will not be able to view or edit profile information on the site or access their Jazzed mailboxes. "Any data associated with your account will be deleted shortly after the closure," says Jazzed, "provided that we may archive certain information for record keeping integrity, fraud prevention, enforcement of our terms, or to the extent it relates to a pending dispute."

Unfortunately, that last bit raises a lot of questions for Jazzed users. Exactly what does "shortly" mean? How can data be both "deleted" and "archived?" Does it still exist or not? And if it still exists, what's going to happen to it? How can a site that's no longer active enforce its terms?

What's going to happen to Jazzed profiles? Will the URLs remain active? Will they be sold to other companies? Will they be merged with the eHarmony database? Will the database go offline?

Right now Jazzed seems to be creating more questions than it's answering. I advise all users to keep a close watch over their privacy and data, and monitor the progress of this story as Jazzed shuts down.

2 years ago eHarmony launched a dating site called Jazzed. When it launched Jazzed was free for a time before it eventually went pay (I am not sure when). Back in 2010 we found Jazzed to be a lot like Match.com. The Jazzed dating profile contained about the same amount of information and members could search for their own matches. Unfortunately the Jazzed dating site will be closing next Tuesday September 18th, 2012.

Why are they closing? They never did get the site off the ground and I think very little money was spent in marketing. The site was on our radar to do a full fledge review but we just never got around to it since our visitors never asked about it. I also never saw many ads for the service so we kind of forgot about it (which is saying something since that is all we do around here is talk about online dating. 😉

Overall from a technical point of view Jazzed was a good dating site. It had a solid interface and offered the right tools for finding your match. They even had mobile apps on the iPhone and Android. Maybe if they had marketed the site more this would be a different story, but they didn’t. As a lot of dating site owners know marketing is the hardest part of running a dating site (I imagine this is true for most online services).

To find out more details about the closure you can read the Jazzed FAQ which includes information on refunds if you have an active subscription.

If you are looking for information on another dating site to try please take a look at the reviews on these popular services:

• eHarmony
• Match.com
• OkCupid
• Plenty of Fish

I have never been the most romantic of gals. I never fantasized about being swept off my feet by Prince Charming or a knight in shining amour. I always found the idea that there's only ONE person out there for each of us - a soulmate - to be a little silly (and, frankly, far too limiting). And the idea of "love at first sight" seems more than a little corny to me.

Now a new dating service is trying to make those of us who are romantic realists change our minds. 1iDreamofU is a new online social dating site that allows members to visually create an image of the person they would like to meet, making "love at first sight" a reality.

So it's like The Sims for my love life? I'm totally in.

After a user creates the image of their perfect match, the IDOU software compares the image, along with responses to questions on demographics and relationships, to other members on the site to make the match. Joe Schwinger, President of eXcelaweb, the company responsible for IDOU's custom software, says "The software associated with IDOU's creation leverages a unique algorithm which allows users to custom select and compile every asset of the person they want to create. The compiled assets, the image of a person, are shared via social networks to crowdsource that perfect match."

New users can create their dream guy or girl from the ground up, customizing every detail - from ethnicity, to facial structure, to eye, nose, mouth, and hair shapes - or chose from "Almost Famous" faces or already-created base faces. After the Dream has been built, users rank their chosen features from most to least important.

Following the creation of the Dream, users answer typical dating site questions about relationship status, religious and political beliefs, occupation, and education. Other questions ask users to describe their "Actual Saturday" and their "Ideal Saturday," and to go into more detail about themselves and the date they're looking for. You can create as many Dreams as you want in search of your perfect match.

Once the Dream is created and your profile has been completed, hit the Search button to receive your matches. You can use advanced search features to filter the results, and can organize matches by adding them to your favorites, connecting with them, or blocking them. To initiate a conversation, send a message (you can even use a pre-made subject headline) and start talking! You can also ask your friends to help you find your Dream by sharing it on Facebook and Twitter.

Karen Howard, President of KLEA, Inc., the owner of the IDOU brand, says this of the new site: "IDOU is fun and entertaining in that you can create a person just for the experience or in the hopes of meeting the person you've built. That you can share the person you created with friends through social media is an added bonus."

A lot of travel stories are about bad in-flight meals, sub-par hostel accommodations, and confusing cultural mix ups. But this travel story is about a couple who joined MissTravel.com, met for the first time in Cabo San Lucas, and fell in love.

Their story was featured on ABC 20/20's "Vacation Confidential" segment, alongside an interview with the site's founder and CEO, Brandon Wade. ABC is the first to document one of "the newest and wackiest vacation trends" via a reality travel dating show that isn't too far off from its travel-and-romance hits "The Bachelor" and "The Bachelorette."

MissTravel.com claims to be the first online dating site to blend travel with romance, by bringing together generous singles looking for travel companions with attractive singles who cannot afford to travel alone. The idea is proving to be a popular one: more than 100,000 members have joined and over 50,000 trips have been planned in the 3 months the site has been live.

MissTravel.com has stirred up its share of controversy with critics who have compared it to a travel escort agency, but Brandon Wade is on the defensive. "Most people are uncomfortable with the idea of taking any kind of risk," he said during his interview with ABC, "so they choose to look at all the things that could go wrong with MissTravel.com, meanwhile ignoring all its potential for greatness."

Sibel and Steven, the couple featured in the segment, are bound to agree. Sibel is a 27-year-old from New York who signed up for MissTravel.com with minimal expectations. Shortly after joining, she received a message for Steven, a 31-year-old financial planner from San Diego who was looking for company on his upcoming trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

Sibel says she found the idea of joining a man she'd never met on a trip abroad daunting, but decided to give it a go after days of talks on Skype and over the phone. They met for the first time at Villa Marcella, a beachside mansion Steven rented out for a whopping $2500 a night. It was a weekend full of indulgences - dips in the Jacuzzi, fine dining, a private yacht, snorkeling, horseback riding, massages - and when it came to a close, Sibel and Steven kissed each other goodbye and returned to their homes.

A few weeks later, Steve traveled to New York to visit Sibel, and a few weeks after that, she traveled to San Diego to spend a weekend with him. The first success story of MissTravel.com is still being written: Sibel and Steve found what they were looking for on MissTravel.com, and the couple is still dating.

Facebook dating sounds like an idea with a lot of potential, but so far no one has found the perfect way to capitalize on the social network's massive dating potential. Who wants their dating history plastered all over their Timeline? No one. A little privacy, please!

That's where theComplete.me comes in, a new dating service that promises "private Facebook dating" in which "nothing is shared with your friends and nothing is posted to your wall." Users have complete privacy control over who sees what and when, and can choose whether they prefer to lay all their cards on the table or remain anonymous. The mission of theComplete.me, says Founder and CEO Brian Bowman, is to "socialize online dating with real identities, comprehensive privacy controls and matching through shared interests and mutual friends."

Bowman has recruited key online dating industry executives to form a team that has caught the eyes of quite a few investors. theComplete.me recently announced a $1.2 million seed round which includes Intel Capital, PlentyOfFish, CrunchFund, and a string of prominent angel investors. The funding will be used to develop the service by supporting customer acquisition efforts, building key site features, launching a mobile version of the product, and expanding the startup's team.

Here's a glimpse at what's getting all those investors so excited...

• Users sign in using their Facebook identity.
• A profile is automatically created in 5-minutes from the data gathered from your social networks.
• Your profile data is organized as pinned frames - called "fraMEs" - that show categories such as "Liked" Facebook pages.
• fraMEs can be edited to go beyond pre-populated Facebook data.
• Potential matches are arranged as a row of thumbnails across the top of the screen.
• Matches are based on behavioral data like who you view, who people like you view, who you correspond with, and shared interests.
• After logging in, you can also connect you profile to LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, Photobucket, Flickr, Foursquare, GoodReads, and Instagram for even more tailored matches.

And here's the real game-changer: users can provide the IDs to their profiles on other sites, like Match.com, eHarmony, and Zoosk. Clicking the "Dating Sites" link in the app will aggregate the results from all of the linked dating sites, giving you direct, free access to the users of those sites. Just message them through the app on Facebook, and you can avoid any fees charged by the original dating sites.

How's that for destroying the competition?

CBS new late-night dating show called "Excused" started last week on Monday September 12th at 11pm. The thing that differentiates this show from other dating shows like "The Dating Game" or "Blind Date" (same creators) is that at the shows core there is an online dating site. The dating site is Jazzed.com. This year old service was launched by eHarmony (see Story) to help them compete against the more general oriented dating sites which typically younger singles use.

So how does the show Excused make use of the dating site? Every contestant on the show will have an online dating profile on Jazzed.com. This profile and references to the information on the profile will be used throughout the show to help match up the contestants. The twist here which Jazzed.com and TV executives hope brings in a large audience is that viewers will be able to go online and view the contestants profiles as well. Just like any other profile, viewers (who become members) will then be able to send emails or instant messages to the contestant if they choose and even potentially date if the attraction is reciprocated.

For more on the story you can read Ad Age and for more details on one of the online dating sites mentioned, please check out our review of eHarmony.