Dating Services

Congratulations to ChristianMingle.com, which recently reached a major milestone: the site has now passed the 10 million member mark.

To commemorate the achievement, ChristianMingle launched a nationwide search for the most inspiring love story. All entrants must have met through ChristianMingle.com, and one lucky couple will receive a "second honeymoon" to an all-inclusive Club Med Resort on Columbus Isle in the Bahamas Archipelago of San Salvador.

Greg Liberman, CEO of Spark Networks, owner and operator of ChristianMingle, is justifiably proud of the company's success. "Cresting the 10 million member milestone, with most of those members joining in the past couple of years, is just another indicator of the impact ChristianMingle has on the Christian community," he says. "Our mission at Spark Networks is to create iconic, niche-focused brands that build and strengthen the communities they serve, and ChristianMingle's growth is a reflection of laser-focus on the needs and values of the Christian community."

There's sure to be many more milestones in ChristianMingle's future. According to the State of Dating in America report, 94% of Christian singles think online dating is a great way to meet people. ChristianMingle has certainly felt the boost from the Christian community's increasing acceptance of online dating:

• ChristianMingle members are now associated with 246,797 churches across the country.
• In 2012, California-based ChristianMingle visitors surpassed those of any other state.
• More than 2,500 different types of devices are used to access ChristianMingle each month.
• Every day, more than 200,000 messages are sent by ChristianMingle members.
• ChristianMingle users "smile" at each other nearly 100,000 times each day.
• More than 10,000 new subscribers join ChristianMingle on a daily basis.

ChristianMingle considers itself the premier online community for Christian singles looking to meet a match within their faith. The site's success can be chalked up to its targeted, laser-focused dating experience, based on the premise that Christianity is central to a person's identity and therefore should be an influential force in the choice of a partner.

To build on their mission to support and expand the Christian community, ChristianMingle plans to continue their expansion. "Our commitment to building and strengthening the Christian community is evident not only through ChristianMingle," says Liberman, "but also through our growing Gospel Media Group, a network of online destinations, which includes not only ChristianMingle.com, but also Believe.com, Faith.com, DailyBibleVerse.com, and ChristianCards.net."

For the contest, ChristianMingle announced on it's Facebook page the winning couple on July 15th. For more on this dating site you can read our review of ChristianMingle.

Everything is moving more mobile these days, but mobile dating is still plagued by one big problem: it's hookup central.

Location-based dating is clearly designed to lead to a meeting, but with that comes a swarm of users who aren't looking for anything more than a quick fling. On a Web-based dating site, users are searching for a totally different experience, one based on meeting vetted, strictly filtered dates that they get to know on the site before arranging future plans to meet in person.

The challenge that now faces the dating industry is to blend the immediacy of mobile with the success of online dating. "There's no effective app for hetero hookups," says Sam Yagan, one of OkCupid's four founders, in an article on Forbes.com. "Grindr is very popular in the gay space for males. But there isn't really a Grindr for straight people."

Still, Yagan thinks there's a future for mobile dating. He thinks the next incarnation of mobile dating will mean using a variety of dating apps: "One may be a I-just-want-to-have-a-beer-with-somebody-new-tonight app. Or I-want-to-look-for-Mr.-Right. Or I-want-to-look-for-Mr.-Right-right-now."

Another possibility for the future of mobile is the social graph. Tinder, a bright new star on the mobile dating scene, is breaking new ground for social dating. Tinder users sign in using their Facebook accounts and indicate their interest in a potential date by swiping to the left or right of their screen. With the recently introduced Matchmaker feature, users can now make introductions between any of their Facebook friends, whether or not they're already using the app.

Sean Rad, co-founder and CEO of Tinder, argues that what's important isn't the future of online dating - it's the future of dating in general. As people - especially young people - become more accustomed to interfacing with the world through their phones, dating will need to evolve into a new experience.

Rad thinks the key will be to move in the opposite direction of online dating. Once upon a time online dating was hailed for offering access to a significantly wider pool of potential dates than traditional dating. But the downside to that, Rad explains, is that online daters also end up experiencing a great deal more rejection.

Rad sees the future of dating as something very different. A smaller pool may solve some of the problems, but the rest is up to you. "Science can only go so far," he says. "You are the best arbiter." Mobile has a place in that future, and perhaps that place is righting the wrongs that online dating has created.

Starting this Thursday July 25th to Sunday July 28th eHarmony.ca and eHarmony.com are offering free communication for all members that includes email.

If you are thinking about giving eHarmony a try these free weekends are a good place to start since there is always a lot of activity with all of the new members. With communication included you will be able to almost fully partake in the entire eHarmony experience from creating your profile and answering the unique and informative Relationship Questionnaire, to reviewing your matches, trying out the guided communication process, and sending messages. The only things free communication events do not include are profile photos, secure call, or skip straight to email. There is not cost to participate and no credit card is required.

For more details on how eHarmony works you can read our in-depth review and read the user comments. There last free communication weekend happened in June just before Independence Day (see Story).

When I began venturing out into the untamed wilderness of online dating, Plenty Of Fish was one of the first dating sites I came across. Off I went to explore, but almost as soon as I signed on to POF, I was ready to sign off.

I know I'm far from alone when I say that POF seemed like the wasteland of online dating. It felt like all I could find was men looking for instant hookups, many of whom were more than twice my age. POF was many things, but none of them was the dating experience I was looking for.

On May 20, 2013, POF Founder and CEO Markus Frind sent out an email that could change the face of the site forever. He is giving POF a makeover, one that he hopes will steer the site away from hookups and towards daters who are looking for real relationships.

Frind recently shared his vision for a new Plenty of Fish in an interview with Elizabeth Denham of the Huffington Post. "We wanted to generate more relationships among women, and men for that matter," he said, "and the best way to do that was eliminate this kind of behavior."

The list of proposed changes includes:

• Automatically deleting first contact between users that contains sexual references
• Banning contact between users with more than a 14-year age difference
• Eliminating the "Intimate Encounters" category of dating

Frind has also implemented a photo policy that applies solely to male users on the site. "We blocked the ability of men to send photos to women because men were misbehaving in some photos," he explains. Women, however, can still send photos to men.

One reason for the focus on hookups could be POF users' move to mobile. POF went from 20% mobile to 70% mobile in a year and a half, a change that Frind believes is strongly responsible for the increase in hookups on the site. "It just makes you use it differently," he says of mobile dating. "It generates a different kind of perception, a different kind of feel."

On a site that reigned supreme because of the hookup culture it supported, the changes Frind has made are bound to make a big impact. He claims he's already seen dramatic differences in the way users write their profiles, and says he received 150,000 emails within 12 hours of announcing the changes, the majority of which were overwhelmingly supportive.

For more information on this free dating site you can read our POF.com review.

Is eHarmony the secret to a happy marriage?

eHarmony certainly thinks so.

We've been hearing a lot lately about the 'landmark' new study that says marriages that begin online are longer and more fulfilling than marriages that begin offline. We've also heard plenty about the source of the study's funding: eHarmony.

And here's another crazy coincidence: the eHarmony-funded study also found that eHarmony is the best online dating site for long-term relationships. How unexpected!

Ok, all joking aside, eHarmony swears it wasn't involved in any of the data analysis and all the findings are completely objective. A study is a study, and the scientific side of my brain can't resist the urge to take a look at the research (biased though it may be). So let's dive in...

Where are couples meeting these days?

• 16% use online dating.
• 14% work together.
• 12% meet through friends.
• Others meet through social networking sites, school, and social gatherings (7% each).

Where else do people meet?

• Offline, couples meet in bars or clubs, through family members, at places of worship, and on blind dates.
• Online, couples meet in chat rooms, through other online communities, by instant messaging, and while playing multiplayer online games.

Where should you meet if you're looking for a long-term relationship?

• eHarmony, of course, ranks number one.
• "All other dating" comes in second, followed by "All other online."
• "All other" comes in last place.

Which dating site is responsible for the most happy marriages?

• Surprise, surprise - eHarmony is #1 again with 25.04% of marriages.
• Match.com is a close second with 24.34%.
• An assortment of small sites are responsible for 24.64% of online marriages.
• 13.09% are unspecified.
• 7.21% come from Yahoo! Personals.
• 5.71% start on Plenty of Fish.

On the flip side, what's the rate of break-up and divorce among recent marriages?

• 7.70% of recently-ended relationships began offline.
• 6.89% started on a dating site that isn't eHarmony.
• 6.23% began elsewhere online.
• And - naturally - only 3.86% of recent break-ups and divorces began on eHarmony.

Why do eHarmony couples have such a leg up on the competition? They say it's because:

• We're in love.
• We trust each other.
• We are happy.
• We are compatible.
• We have chemistry.

And it totally has nothing to do with the fact that eHarmony paid for the study. At all. What could possibly have put a wacky idea like that into your head?

See the infographic here and to find out more about this service you can read our eHarmony review.

There are a lot of conflicting rules floating around about texting and dating - no wonder people find it so confusing. Do you text right away to show you're interested, or do you wait to show you're not so available? The answer is not always clear, so what should you do?

According to a recent study by Flirt.com, we shouldn't sweat it so much - and we shouldn't stick to the rules! Men and women view texting practices differently. And apparently, the men are much more open to the women they date reaching out to them.

Forty-nine percent of men and 39% of women will text a date the next day to let him/her know they had a nice time. However, 20% of women are still sticking to the old adage of waiting for him to text first (compared to only 5% of the guys).

Even though we don't have to worry about the three-day waiting period to call someone back, the study found it is good to be concerned about how frequently you're texting your date. Texting habits mean different things to each gender. For the women, if a guy sends more than ten texts a day she considers it to be creepy. Men on the other hand are more than happy to have her text - with almost half saying she should text as much as she wants.

Are you worried about looking too available? There's no need, ladies. A whopping 82% of men surveyed said they would be happy if after they suggested a date a woman let him know she was available to go out any night that week. Not so for the ladies. Thirty-eight percent of women said they'd be freaked out if a man made himself too available.

And how do you sign off? Is it too risky to add an "xo" to the end of a text, maybe as a flirtation? According to the study, 48% of men and 41% of women aren't afraid of signing off with a little kiss. But steer clear of being too "cutesy." Almost 25% of men think that smiley faces are childish.

And what about the biggest complication when it comes to texting - whether or not you should break up with someone over text? Apparently women are a little more cold-hearted. Seventeen percent of them would break up with someone over text, compared to just 13% of men.

Flirt.com surveyed over 2,000 of its members for the study.