Online Dating

With the Memorial Day weekend almost upon us eHarmony let us know that they are celebrating the holiday by having a 5 day long free communication weekend (FCW) for new and existing members. It starts Thursday May 22nd and ends at midnight on Monday May 26th.

What would be better than to start the summer with a new relationship. eHarmony's free communication allows all members to use the guided communication process and send and receive email at no cost and with no credit card required. If you haven't tried eHarmony before, all you need to do is create a new membership account and complete the profile questionnaire on either the website or dating app (Android and iPhone both available). This process takes about 30-45 minutes and is free as well. Once complete you will then receive your first batch of high quality matches which you can review and communicate with if you so choose. FCW's does not include photos, secure call (phone call service), or skip straight to email.

eHarmony’s last free communication weekend happened 2 months ago in March. For more information on this premier dating service that is known for creating long-term relationships you can read our review of eHarmony. For those of you in the UK, here is our eHarmony.co.uk review.

Online dating has been around for a while. And plenty of couples met over a dating website years ago, got married, and now have children. So it makes sense that one of the most established of these - Match.com - might want to prep the new generation when they start online dating. Why not use Mom and Dad as an example for what really works when it comes to love?

It’s not surprising the company is marketing to a new generation of online daters, considering the growth of the online dating industry. Last year, a report came out from a Harris poll that stated more than one in three American couples that got married between 2005 and 2012 met online.

Match.com was quick to jump on that study, touting its matching services for their own successful couples.

Match.com is one dating site that has stood the test of time, and managed to grow its user base over the years despite the onslaught of competition. This month the online dating giant announced its “MatchMade” Scholarship Contest, a $50,000 program open to kids of parents who met on Match. Launched over 19 years ago, Match claims it has led to more dates, more relationships, and more marriages than any other site. The company also says that over one million babies were “made” because of Match, so the company will continue to positively impact the lives of its members by offering a scholarship to the children of its success couples.

Match’s contest revolves around creative story-telling and social media sharing. The campaign kicked off with a video of young kids sharing their thoughts on everything from marriage to careers and college – but mostly about love and babies. The MatchMade scholarship contest is open to students between the ages of 13-20 nationwide, so it’s targeting an older demographic that will be ready for the dating pool soon.

To enter, students must submit a short video retelling their parents’ Match love story in a creative way - from their first messages exchanged on Match to the moment they knew they were meant for each other. Match will accept submissions through June 30, 2014, after which the company will select a group of finalists. In August, the public will choose the winner by sharing their favorite videos via Facebook and Twitter, and the winner will be awarded a $50,000 scholarship. The parents of the winner are part of the competition, too - they will be given $5,000 to put toward a getaway.

“Success on Match takes many forms, but of course there’s a special place in our hearts for the children involved in our members’ lives,” said Sam Yagan, CEO of Match. “By bringing their parents together, we’ve played a small role in the lives of more than one million MatchMade babies, and now with the MatchMade Scholarship Contest, we’re excited to extend that special relationship to helping those children pay for college.”

What’s one of the biggest reasons online dating detractors say the Internet is no way to meet a decent date?

The high creep factor, of course. And to be honest, anyone who has tried online dating for more than a day would probably find it difficult to totally disagree. Online dating is an incredible innovation, but there’s no denying it comes with its fair share of strangeness.

A little weirdness is either entertaining or mildly irritating, but what if it goes beyond “a little?” That’s where CreepShield comes in, a new service that helps users avoid the creeps and the crazies online using facial recognition technology .

"Criminals often hide behind aliases online, but CreepShield uses facial recognition software to check for facial similarities and brings up potential matches from a database of over 475,000 registered sex offenders," explained CreepShield's creator Kevin Alan Tussy. "We see facial recognition as a tool that can definitely help make online dating safer. While this technology can't identify everyone out there with bad intentions, it's a huge step in the right direction."

To use the service, simply copy the URL of any headshot and paste it into the CreepShield search engine. The photo is instantly scanned against images in a database of convicted sex offenders, looking for a match. In addition to CreepShield.com, there is also a CreepShield Chrome extension if you prefer to research dates on the fly. Once installed, the extension allows users to right click on any jpg, png or gif displayed in the browser and select "Scan with CreepShield" from the dropdown menu.

CreepShield was developed by the team responsible for the extremely controversial Google Glass app "NameTag." The app and its powerful facial recognition technology were big news earlier this year when Senator Al Franken publicly requested that its release be delayed. With that project put on the backburner, CreepShield came to the forefront.

It’s an intriguing idea, and it’s hard to argue with something that could make online dating safer, but the service still has a few kinks to work out. The site’s FAQ stresses that, due to the way facial recognition technology works, CreepShield can’t guarantee its matches. “It is always up to the user to decide whether or not a searched photo contains the same individual as the results presented,” the site reads. And indeed, when put to the test, it seems the searching method leaves something to be desired.

What do you think? Would you use CreepShield to get the deets on a date?

Move over Tinder, there’s a new Facebook-based mobile dating app in Los Angeles.

Hinge likes to call itself the “anti-Facebook” for good reason. Instead of relying on GPS and matching whoever happens to be close by, Hinge tries to connect you to potential love matches through your Facebook friends and their networks. So, you’re not meeting “randos” like you might through Tinder.

Recently, The Huffington Post interviewed the founder and CEO of Hinge Justin McLeod, who mentioned that Tinder didn’t even exist when he was developing Hinge. Because of the app’s slower roll-out to the major cities – first in Washington D.C. and next in New York, and a lot of word-of-mouth advertising - many people have caught on and downloaded it before it was even available in their cities, including 6,000-7,000 L.A. singles.

When asked what the main difference is between Hinge and Tinder, McLeod says: “It’s interesting because Tinder started in LA, and I think it’s one of the places where it’s worn out the quickest. From what I hear, people thought it was cool when it started, but people burned through all of their matches and now the quality has gone down. I think [with Hinge] we have a great long-term solution for that because we have a curated app that gives you a limited number of matches each day.”

The app skews a little older and more professional than your typical Tinder users, too. Ninety percent of users are between the ages of 23 and 36, and 99% are college-educated. Most work in either consulting, banking, law, tech or media. McLeod believes the entertainment and legal industries will be strongest in L.A.

The best part? Hinge doesn’t seem to be loaded with guys looking to get laid. In fact, women comprise a little more than half the users at 50.2%, whereas 49.8% of men are using the app. It is a more equal distribution. (Hear that L.A. guys?)

According to Hinge’s website, there are many reasons to go with Hinge rather than relying on Tinder or the bar scene. It states that “if you meet someone at a bar vs. through friends, your date is 5 times more likely to lie about his relationship status, 14 times more likely to lie about his age, and four times as likely to have a one-night stand and never call you again.”

While these are good selling points for Hinge, there are still problems the dating app is working out, like how fast people can move from being matched to actually communicating and setting up a date. Because Hinge only matches you with a maximum of 15 people a day, you’re less likely to go through all of your connections. However, it makes the communication process a lot slower – with Tinder, it’s easier to sort through matches and meet up quickly.

Hinge is now available to L.A. residents, and is free to download. If you are interested in this service you should check out our new Hinge review.

eHarmony recently launched a new service called eH+, which provides professional matchmaking for those willing to pay a fee for more personalized service. Now, the company is introducing Ashley, the matchmaker behind the new service.

Before you start envisioning sessions with Patti Stanger and some TV-worthy drama, Ashley is much more focused on understanding her client’s perspectives. She finds out where they seem to be running into roadblocks in their love lives, and what might be holding them back. She works with them through one-on-one conversation, feedback, and a focus on finding a mutually beneficial relationship.

According to eHarmony, Ashley’s focus is to create a great connection with her clients so that she’s better able to help you find a long-term, lasting relationship. She’s earned Master’s degrees in Marital and Family Therapy and a Doctorate in Psychology, so she’s trained to work with people to help cultivate healthy relationships.

So what does all of this personal service cost? It’s not cheap at $5,000 per year. But if you really are focused on finding the right relationship and you don’t want to spend hours in front of your computer pouring over profiles and sorting through all of eHarmony’s guided communication, this might be for you.

In fact, with eH+ you don’t even need a computer. You can talk to Ashley via phone or Skype (or however you prefer). She also calls you when she finds a match for you. It’s a good option for busy professionals who are looking for a little more personalized service, like hand-picked matches and follow-ups after dates.

eH+ sounds similar to traditional matchmaking services that provide one-on-one support to their clients, but instead of relying on a smaller pool of people, eHarmony can pull from its vast database to find you quality matches. In essence, eHarmony’s matching system is still doing the technical work of sifting through thousands of profiles to find the right matches for you, and the professional matchmaker is providing an extra level of service to help you improve your dating skills and connect with the person who is the best match.

According to eHarmony founder Neil Clark Warren, eHarmony has now 762,000 paying members, up 50% from last year. They won’t disclose how many people have signed up for the eH+ service, but Warren claims there has been great response.

eHarmony has its sights set to the future, though – and they are moving beyond the dating world. The company’s next focus is matching people with the right job. “Sixty-five to seventy-five percent of people in US are not happy with their job,” according to Warren. “They can be if they match on both the cultural basis with the company they work for and on individual personality basis with the person to whom they report," he said.

A new kind of LinkedIn based on eHarmony matching? I’d be curious to check it out.

To find out more about this dating site you can read our review of eHarmony.

Anyone who has dated online knows that it's one of the biggest drains on time and energy ever. It's not that it isn't fun, it is, it's just that it's also a lot of work. Between the spambots, scammers, and plain old average liars, an entire lifetime could be spent just separating the real profiles from the fake ones. Who has time for that?

No one, that's who, so thankfully a new service called Mesh promises to do it for you.

The goal of the New York City-based startup, who says their product is still in "pre-beta,” is to "[m]ake online dating enjoyable and trustworthy again." Some might debate whether online dating (or maybe even dating at all) was ever enjoyable or trustworthy, but for now let's give Mesh the benefit of the doubt.

Launched last fall, Mesh claims to help online daters prevent “creepy and sleazy messages, stalkers, overly aggressive types” and other undesirables from cluttering up your inbox. Some might say that being denied the pleasure of rejecting people takes all the fun out of online dating, but even the most hard-hearted of daters could probably stand to free up some time in their schedules for something else.

Mesh takes a several-pronged approach to protecting you:

• Sub-par messages – those that include vulgarity, text-speak, poor grammar/spelling, and copy-and-pasted content - are automatically filtered into a Mismatch folder so you never have to see them.
• Before a potential match can message you, they must first prove that they see eye-to-eye with you on the essential questions you set as your Dealbreakers.
• Privacy settings are specific and taken very seriously. You can keep some preferences hidden (if you’re looking for a particular relationship, appearance, religion, etc) and Mesh will never connect, link, or publish anything to your Facebook profile.

Other perks of Mesh include an ad-free experience, more options for gender identification, and a “Perfect For” feature that allows users to set friends up with people they think they’ll like.

"The current crop of free online dating sites are broken," founder and CEO Asher Snyder said in a press release on Street Insider last week. "Harassment and undesirable vulgarity runs unchecked while quality messages get lost in the shuffle, leaving many women with a negative experience. Together with the team, we spent nearly a year reinventing online dating, using advanced technologies, better algorithms, and beautiful functional designs our generation expects. The result is like no other online dating service currently available. We hope not only to bring people together better, but to make online dating enjoyable and trustworthy again."