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It looks like Facebook has decided to get into the online dating business by in part funding the dating site Thread.com. This dating site is unique in a few ways. First of all, it is built on the Facebook platform. This means if you have a Facebook account you can login right away to Thread and once you have given Thread permission to access your Facebook information, you can begin using the dating service. This brings me to the second unique point of Thread, it allows you to meet your friends of friends. Other Facebook dating applications allow you to search for Facebook members who are using the app, not Thread. Thread gives you easy search access to all of your friend's friends. So the first thing you have to do when you join Thread is to get at least a few of your friends to join as well or you will have nobody to search for. On average (if I remember correctly) a typical diehard Facebook member has about 200 friends. This means if you invite 5 of your friends to join Thread (and they accept), you potentially have 1000 singles to search for in your social circle.

I think the idea of searching your friends of friends for a date is smart, as each person is known by someone you already know and who can vouch for them. This virtually eliminates the scammer and fake dating profile problem that plagues other online dating sites.

Thread first launched in early September 2009, so it is not very old. Two weeks into launch they had 4000 registrations and the site continues to grow. The Thread software developers are busy coding new features for the site so expect a number of updates in the near future. Everything on Thread is currently free, including messaging (which is handled by Facebook). They do plan to offer some premium products though. Some potential examples include paying for information to see who has viewed you, find out which of your photos received the most clicks, and virtual gifts. Paying for endorsement badges may also be a possibility which will allow your friends to endorse you as a great match.

The one major thing I would change about Thread is I think they should allow you the option to search for other Thread members as possible matches. I am not saying to search the friends of these members (as I am sure this would violate Facebook privacy terms), but just them. This way members have more access to people who are single. Plus, you would have access to members you can search for right away since you don't have to wait for your friends to approve your Thread invite request.

For more on this story, including an interview with CEO of Thread, Brian Phillips, visit VatorNews. You can also find the Thread.com website here.

For a list of other Facebook dating services, you can checkout our Facebook Dating category.

The Times Online UK took a look at what they called Quickie Dating Websites recently. When I think of a quickie I assumed they were referring to an adult dating site where people go looking for casual sex. I was only partly right. They were talking about Affair / Infidelity dating sites for married people. On this side of the Atlantic, the most popular dating site for people looking to have an affair is Ashley Madison, where it is even guaranteed. In the Times article they took a look at Forget Dinner (ForgetDinner.co.uk) which is very popular in London. It is not advertised really as an affair dating site but most people on the service seem to be married. Profiles tend to be straight to the point and a lot of the photos contain nudity. There appears to be about 10 men for every 1 woman on the dating site.

Here are some infidelity related figures for the UK. In 2008, there was 115,200 divorces granted and 29 percent of these divorces were the result of adulterous behavior. According to a Grant Thornton UK Survey (2009), 9 percent of women would cheat on their partner as long as there was no way to be found out. In comparison, 24 percent of men said they would cheat. In the same survey 20 percent of men admitted to having an actual affair where only 10 percent of women did.

In the United Kingdom every month 7 million people visit online dating sites. This is a 27 percent increase over last year, whereas the percentage of the UK population that used the internet only grew by 4 percent.

For more on this story, and to get a couple of men's and one woman's experience on Forget Dinner read Times Online.

Élan Relationships has been around for 18 years now and claims to be Chicago's premiere personal introduction service. At least one woman disagrees. Sheena Finnegan signed up last May for $3,500 with the hopes of meeting her soul mate. Élan Relationships allegedly promised her:

... to find her “genuine, high caliber, professional” matches by setting her up with six “qualified introductions” in a six-month period ...

According to Finnegan all she got was heartache, frustration and disappointment.

By the end of June Sheena had only been on two dates with men she felt did not suit her. She also had been scheduled for 3 other dates which were all cancelled, and not by her. Since Sheena had a number of cancelled dates, she did get her membership extended by one month. After some more dates and two more cancellations Finnegan had had enough. She found that none of the men were what was promised to her. She contacted Élan Relationships and asked for a refund and was refused. According to Sheena Finnegan:

the company’s contract was “misleading…false…fraudulent” and did not make any favorable matches for her.

In her lawsuit Sheena is asking for an unspecified amount of money in damages and an injunction to prevent Élan from continuing to practice the alleged deceitful business techniques.

Élan Relationships is a member of the Better Business Bureau and they have been a BBB Accredited business since November 2006. They currently hold a BBB Rating of B. According to the BBB, the company Élan Relationships has had only a few complaints filed against them, with most of them either being Resolved or Administratively Closed due to a fair offer being made.

For a list of other personal matchmakers, try our Matchmaking Services category.

An interesting press release went out claiming that the Chinese dating site Zhenai.com is now the largest in the world. Zhenai first started 11 years ago, in May of 1998 as a free dating site called 96333.com. In 2005 they rebranded as Zhenai.com (which means "cherished love") and now has about 20 million registered members and claims that daily, another 40,000 singles signup. Zhenai's largest demographic are singles who are 25 to 45 years old, who live in an urban area, and are white-collar professionals. More than 85% of these members have a bachelor's, master's or doctoral diploma. Zehnai expects its number of registered members to hit 30 million by the end of the first quarter of 2010.

Zhenai claims to be the world's largest dating site by surpassing Match.com which had 15,000,000 registered members and a daily increment of 60,000 new members in May of 2009 (Note: Match.com now claims 20,000 new members a day). The problem is Zhenai switched a few of Match.com's numbers around. Match.com actually claims to have had more than 100 million registered users between 2000 and 2008 (see Press Release). That doesn't even include the profiles registered in the 5 years from when Match.com first launched in 1995. In the Zehnai press release, they are using Match.com current number of members which accounts for 15 million. I believe Match.com defines a current member as someone who has logged in at least once during the last year. I have a feeling that Zhenai is including all registered members since the launch of their dating site and only used the lower Match.com current registered members numbers to highlight their claim that they are the largest dating site.

CheckedProfile.com is a new service designed to allow people to have their photo's and email address verified. They soon plan to have 5 levels of verification which will allow people to verify Name, Age, Country, Phone, Address and Net Worth. Only the first level is available now and prices range from free to $99.99 USD for all levels of service. CheckedProfile is aimed at people who use dating sites and social networks. The problem of profile and photo dishonesty is not new and there are already several other companies offering similar services which we have talked about before (see Story).

The way CheckedProfile works (at least for the level 1 photo verification) is you create an account an upload the photo you want verified. The service then gives you a custom alphanumeric code which is unique to your picture. You then need to put the code on a piece of paper and take a picture of yourself holding the paper. This new photo then is uploaded to CheckedProfile. Once verified (by an actual person) you will then get your original photo back with a verified stamp integrated into it along with a code. People interested in you, can now visit CheckedProfile.com to type in the code from the photo to verify that the photo has indeed been verified (along with any other information).

As with most of these type of services there are a few holes in the verification process that if people wanted to, they could circumvent. For one thing, a scammer could just steal someone else's photo that already has been verified and pass it off as his own. A scammer could also mock up a photo with the verified information, it may not pass the test when someone checks it on the website but I bet not everyone will understand that they need to do this. The last problem I see is, someone could just get their good looking friend to do the process for them. While CheckedProfile's verification process is not 100 percent it is a step in the right direction. If they improve on the verification methods maybe it will become one I would recommend.

Visit CheckedProfile.com directly and for more services designed to help you succeed in dating, take a look at our Dating Profile Help category.

The dating sites BlackSingles.com and HurryDate (both part of Spark Networks) have partnered with Eizzil Entertainment in a marketing campaign for the movie "SPEED-DATING". The movie is slated for a 2010 release and is a feature length romantic comedy starring Mekita Faiye and co-starring Clint Howard and Chris Elliott (among others). As part of a combined U.S. national promotion tour, Spark Networks and Eizzil Entertainment will present BlackSingles.com and HurryDate events in 12 major cities across the country.

For the full press release, visit SOA World Magazine and for more information on the movie, visit the SPEED-DATING website (including a full cast list). To find further details about the dating service for African-Americans mentioned in this post, read our review of BlackSingles.com.