General News

One of our reviewed dating sites Positive Singles, has been mentioned in a New York Daily News article on dating sites and sexually-transmitted diseases. Like other STD dating sites Positive Singles match people based not only on interests, location and personality but also on the same STD infections.

Positive Singles currently has more than 700,000 members since it launched and has over 15,000 people visit the site every day. From our investigations it is the largest dating site that caters to members with an STD. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports in the United States that in a given year there are over 110 million cases of sexually-transmitted infections reported. About a third of the US population is single so this would mean that at least 33 million singles have a STD. I would bet this number is significantly higher since a single person is most likely to have many more sexual partners in a given year than someone in a long-term relationship and/or marriage. I could see this number being as high 60 million.

You can take a look at our Positive Singles review here.

Plenty of fish (POF) released recently a document on their dating site showing what type of people visit their service. The document is designed for advertisers but it gives some great incite on their members for the general user. Let's ask a few questions of the document and see what the answers are!

Question 1: How many visitors does Plenty of fish have?

Answer: They receive 4.3 million unique visitors a day and 432 million visitors (not unique) in total on an average month. These monthly visitors view 9.8 billion pages.

Question 2: What countries are the members from on Plenty of fish?

Answer: This is how many monthly visits the top 9 countries have:

• United States: 95 million
• Canada: 27 million
• United Kingdom: 26 million
• Brazil: 7 million
• Australia: 3.4 million
• Mexico: 2.4 million
• Ireland: 2.2 million
• Spain: 1.6 million
• France: 1.3 million

Question 3: How old are members on Plenty of fish?

Answer: Members on Plenty of fish fall into the following age ranges:

• 18-24: 10% or 430,000 visitors a day
• 24-34: 38% or 1,634,000 visitors a day
• 35-44: 22% or 946,000 visitors a day
• 45-54: 14% or 602,000 visitors a day
• 55+: 6% or 258,000 visitors a day

Question 4: Do Plenty of fish members use other dating sites?

Answer: Yes! On average a Plenty of fish member belongs to 3 other dating sites. 15 percent of these members are actively using another dating site while still being a current active member of POF.

Question 5: How much money do members on Plenty of fish earn every year?

Answer: Members on Plenty of fish fall into the following income brackets:

• < 30 thousand: 38% or 1,634,000 visitors a day
• 30-60 thousand: 29% or 1,247,000 visitors a day
• 60-100 thousand: 25% or 1,075,000 visitors a day
• 100-150 thousand: 5% or 215,000 visitors a day
• 150+ thousand: 3% or 129,000 visitors a day

Most of these statistics are from data gathered in 2012. For more information on this dating site you can read our Plenty of fish review.

On those rare occasions when I find myself tucking in to a seedy gossip rag (it's all there is to read in hair salons...don't judge me), it seems that everyone in Hollywood is "canoodling." I have yet to determine what exactly canoodling entails, but apparently it's all the rage in Tinseltown.

It now could be all the rage in your life, too, following the recent launch of the Canoodle app. Canoodle is a social discovery dating service for Facebook, Android, and iOS. And it couldn't be easier.

The Canoodle team believes that the best way to find good friends and relationships is to discover interests and hobbies in common. The service makes it simple to do so by gathering information from your Facebook profile, making it quick and easy to meet matches who are into the same things as you.

Using Canoodle's social, location-based service, you can explore new places, events, and people in your area. You can customize and filter your search to exactly what you need, browse profiles, and connect in chatrooms around your favorite topics, activities, and places.

Signing up is as simple as connecting with your Facebook or email account. Canoodle reviews the Pages you've liked and the celebrities, products, sports teams, brands, etc., you follow, and incorporates that info with user-provided information. By mining your social media accounts, Canoodle gains a better understanding of what you like, eliminates the guesswork that exists on traditional dating sites, and connects you more easily with others whose interests and tastes are similar.

After gathering relevant data, Canoodle then uses a subset of 27 million people from among Cupid's 54 million-strong user base to determine the best possible matches for you. It's all free, and complete privacy controls are offered. Users can also interact via chat rooms, a desktop messaging client, and a newsfeed related directly to all of the user's preferences and affinities.

"Canoodle is designed as a fully mobile experience, either through the mobile version of the website or through a smartphone app, which means it can deliver results to users that are not only relevant in terms of their interests and passions, but also based upon their location," said Bill Dobbie, CEO of Cupid. "Social discovery and matching of people with shared interests is really powerful - it's like starting a conversation with a built-in ice breaker. Couple this with Cupid's enormous database of singles who are actively looking to meet someone, and you have all the right ingredients for success."

Confession #1: I am guilty.

I will be the first to admit that the prospect of acquiring a partner and acquiring that partner's debt is a little scary. I attended one of the most expensive private universities in the country - it's terrifying contemplating my own debt, much less my debt combined with someone else's.

Years ago, when a new date confessed he was multiple tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt, I could feel some of my excitement about him evaporate. It was like someone instantly started lowering the volume on my attraction knob.

Confession #2: His debt never affected our relationship, which turned out to be a long and very happy one. Although it ended up being a total non-issue, I still remember how I felt when those words first came out of his mouth. It may not have been one for me, but is debt a dating dealbreaker for others?

eHarmony paired up with CreditCards.com to answer that question. Here's what their study revealed:

• 65% of men and 71% of women agreed that sharing the same attitudes towards managing money is the most important factor in a relationship.
• 48% of men and 57% of women say debt is a turn-off in a partner.
• Keeping credit card debt a secret is a breakup-worthy offense to 54% of men and 70% of women (that's the same percentage of women who would breakup with a partner if they found out he had a criminal history).
• The most common arguments for couples are about money, say 71% of men and 75% of women.
• Would you pool your money with a partner if you thought he or she was irresponsible with finances? 72% of men and 80% of women say "No."

That sounds like a whole lot of bad news, but don't fret - there are a couple of lights at the end of the tunnel. Debt may be a deal breaker to some, but it's not the most serious offense a partner can commit. Most men and women think a criminal history and cheating are bigger reasons to break off a relationship.

Most Americans also believe that a partner's spending habits can be changed. 69% say it's ok to insist that a partner alter his or her spending habits. Looking at it by gender, 70% of men and 68% of women think they should try to influence a partner's monetary decisions.

When it comes to money matters, money matters. Be honest with your partners and make sure you're on the same financial page.

Wow I got a surprise when I visited eHarmony.com today. The first thing I noticed was that they have changed the banner that use to say in all capitals "Check Your Matches Free" to "Now Free To Communicate". This changed seems to be only on the United States eHarmony dating site as the Canadian one still has the original message.

After doing a bit more investigating it looks like eHarmony.com now allows free communication all the time. It seems to work very similar to Free Communication Weekends (FCW). You can use the guided communication process for free which after 3 steps does lead to sending emails via eHarmony Mail. The 4 steps of the guided communication process are designed so that you can learn more about your match. The first step is quick questions, the second step moves onto any makes or breaks you may have for a relationship and the third step has you asking some deeper relationship questions. The final fourth step is mail.

Free memberships still do have their limits though. The top 4 restrictions would be:

• You cannot view your matches photos
• You cannot see who has viewed your profile
• You cannot see when your matches have last logged in
• You also cannot skip to email

This is very similar to the restrictions placed on free communication weekends. To remove these restrictions you would then have to purchase a membership plan. eHarmony has 3 plans called Basic, Total Connect and Premier which can be purchased in 1, 6 or 12 month terms with prices ranging from $18.95 to $41.95 per month.

This is a big change eHarmony has put into place. I am not sure if this change is permanent or if they are just testing things out. They also haven’t officially announced anything either but I would expect some sort of press release soon. I am sure if it is successful we will see eHarmony sites in other countries follow suit. In my opinion it also places them much closer to a free dating site like Plenty of fish (POF). While you cannot go straight to sending email to members like on POF, for people seeking a long-term relationship the guided communication is very helpful and you can send mail once it is complete. POF’s free members have very similar restrictions as eHarmony unless they choose to upgrade. The major difference being between the eHarmony and POF memberships is POF members can view member photos.

Update: April 2, 2013 - I just found out another restriction which isn't obvious at first and would have changed the tone of this post a bit if I had known about the restriction before writing. Apparently you can only send out an email message in step 4 of the guided communication process. If the match replies to this message you cannot see it until you pay for a membership. Getting to use the guided communication process is nice but it would be even better if we could view the replies once we are finished with it like during a FCW.

I guess we now need to update our eHarmony review to reflect this new information along with the other profile changes I notice.

Do certain people have an advantage when it comes to online dating? Maybe so, but not for the reasons you think.

Match.com has recently revealed a comprehensive study of thousands of singles across the U.S., asking them some of the most pertinent relationship questions to see how they think about love.

When most singles sign up for an online dating site, we assume they are looking for the same thing: an enticing physical appearance. Pictures are what we look at first, and if we don't find someone attractive, we move on. But as it turns out, this isn't exactly true. There are specific physical attributes that we look for, and I'm not talking about someone's eyes, smile or even how voluptuous they are.

One of the most surprising findings to me was that, more than anything else, singles look for matches who have good teeth. While this is still a physical attribute, it is more specific than just general attractiveness. According to Dr. Helen Fisher, a renowned anthropologist reviewing the study's findings, good teeth are a sign of fertility. The more fertile you seem, the more attractive you are to the opposite sex. So a little extra flossing and brushing go a long way.

And the second must-have the majority of singles want from their online dates? Good grammar. Instead of speaking in text or sending emails with misspellings or run-on sentences, most daters want to feel like you put some effort into your communication, and that you present yourself well. Because this translates into how you will communicate in a relationship. So don't post a profile without doing a little proofing first.

Researchers for the study also asked participants about commitment, specifically how many of them were interested in pursuing long-term relationships or marriage. While we've heard many stories lately, even from The New York Times, about dating becoming a more casual affair, this is not the case. Ninety percent of singles said they could stay married forever, as opposed to just two years ago when 78% said they could. Especially men.

As it turns out, men are the romantic ones in relationships. The study found that men are more interested in commitment while women are more interested in maintaining their independence in a relationship. Men also fall harder and faster. On average, they have fallen in love 4.2 times during the course of their lives compared to women at 2.8 times. Also, 61% of men have experienced love at first sight, compared to 51% of women. According to this survey, romance is far from over.

Still feeling hopeless about love? You shouldn't be. Now people are more optimistic and motivated than ever, so what are you waiting for?