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The Editor's Top Pick - Innovative Award is designed to showcase a dating service which has implemented a feature that has expanded the user's online dating experience in an innovative way. This year's recipient is Date.com for their excellent new web browser toolbar application.

The Date.com toolbar allows you to stay logged into Date.com even while you surf other web sites. The toolbar keeps you updated on all sort of information like the number of member's currently online and it gives you easy navigation to your mail messages and other areas of Date.com. You will even receive notification when your favorite singles or friends log into Date.com.

The other great advantage of the toolbar is it enables a greater number of singles to stay online, even while not actively searching for singles or using the other dating features of the service. Whenever someone views your profile or sees your profile summary in a search result, it is indicated you are online. This gives you a much greater chance for being contacted in a number of ways including interests (same as winks) and instant messaging. As soon as a request for contact has been made, you will be automatically notified through the toolbar with a link to either view the message and reply or to start a private chat. Plus, since you are online you also appear higher in the search results of similar singles which also increases your chance for success.

Read our review of Date.com for more information about this dating service.

This Years Runner Ups for this award include (in no particular order): Match.com and FriendFinder.

Consideration for the Editor's Top Pick - Match System award came down to the big 3 dating services who proclaim their matching system and dating service as the best for singles who are serious about finding a relationship. Those 3 services are eHarmony with their "Compatibility Matching System based on 29 crucial dimensions", PerfectMatch.com and their Duet Total Compatibility System and Chemistry with their "chemistry-inspired" matching system. In the end we choose PerfectMatch.com as the winner of this award.

PerfectMatch.com's profile creation was very detailed and does take a little while to fill out, but it is worth it in the end. Not only does it help in matching compatible members together but you definitely get a few insights about yourself. Dr. Pepper Schwartz is the woman behind the Duet Total Compatibility System. She has over 30 years of relationship experience which has prompted show like Oprah, The Today Show and Good Morning America to call on her services as a relationship expert. With these third party endorsements, this gives Dr. Pepper Schwartz more clout as an expert than the other dating services matching system designers. TV shows like Oprah, would make sure their guest experts have the credentials and knowledge needed to offer true advice.

With Duet, you not only receive matches that have singles with compatible elements of their profile but elements and traits that will complement you. Plus, unlike some of the other dating sites which where considered for this award, PerfectMatch.com still allows you too search for your own match as well. These extras made the Duet matching system more complete to me. User reviews on the internet seem to be split. I could find both positive and negative reviews for all of the matching systems considered but the reviews for PerfectMatch came out on top.

Read our review of PerfectMatch.com for more information about this dating service.

This Years Runner Ups for this award include (in no particular order): Chemistry and eHarmony.

A new PerfectMatch.com CEO interview is available on Online Personals Watch, this is (I believe) Mark Brooks second interview with Duane Dahl. In it they discuss PerfectMatch's matching process, instant messaging and other features of the site. One interesting point which was made is PerfectMatch.com core member base is with singles in their 30s and 40s, but lately they have been making strides into the 50s demographic.

Mark also asks Duane about comparisons with their rival dating service, eHarmony. Among other things they brought up the fact that PerfectMatch allows members to still search for singles instead of completely relying on just the matching process, the way eHarmony does. This reason alone IMO, makes PerfectMatch dating service a much better choice than eHarmony.

Read the full interview with Duane Dahl - CEO PerfectMatch.com

Date.com has just released their first version of a dating toolbar. This interactive toolbar lets Date.com members find dates whenever they are connected to the internet. It allows singles to appear online at Date.com even when they are visiting other websites. When a member on Date.com attempts to contact you, your Toolbar will let you know right away. Features of the Date.com Toolbar includes:

• Receive emails and Interest Alerts.
• Send and receive instant messages.
• Direct access to online chatting.
• Search profiles.
• Favorites list access.
• Statistics on members online and the number of times your profile has been viewed.
• Advice and news headlines from Date.info
• Searching the web, provided by Yahoo.

Creating a toolbar for a dating service is an excellent idea. It allows members to be accessed instantly even when they are not actively using the site at the moment. This increases there chance of meeting someone new. Most singles when they use a dating service are probably online only an hour or two at any one time. They then are off doing other things on the computer like emailing friends and family or just surfing websites. Now this "other" internet time and not just when they have logged into Date.com can be used to be alerted to requests for instant messaging, etc.

Date.com's Toolbar is available to both free and paid members of Date.com. For more information about this dating service, read our review of Date.com.

According to the New York Times, True has a huge advertising bill from the last six months which they have not paid. In March True.com was ranked as the number one most visited dating site according to Hitwise. Since then it has fallen too number six and the main reason for this most likely is only a few True dating ads can be found on the net now. True's big advertising push most likely got them in financial troubles with ad spending out pacing paid members sign ups.

Perfectmatch.com sent out a press release today announcing that it has teamed up with NBC to launch a TV dating special called "Science of Love: A Modern Dating Experiment". This show is scheduled to air on Monday, June 25th, 2007 at 10:00 pm ET. It should be an interesting show to watch for all of us online dating enthusiasts. Science of Love takes a look at the following question:

Can science make a better love connections than instinct?

For the contestant, NFL football player Adam Johnson chooses a candidate for his first of two dates based on his own experiences and instincts. Perfectmatch.com's Duet Total Compatibility System is then used to make a match for the second date. From here the show follow's Adam on his dates and to the ultimate conclusion where he picks which date works out the best for him.

3 Ball Productions is producing "Science of Love". Other shows they have produced includes "The Biggest Loser", another widely popular show on NBC.