General News

Some things are so complex that most of us will probably never understand them. Nuclear physics, for one. Why anyone would eat fast food after seeing that dreadful pink slime stuff, for another. Why cats insist on trying to befriend me even though I'm seriously allergic to them, for a third.

Dating and relationships are top of that list for many people. Is there anything more impenetrable than the mind of the average single? What on earth is going on in there?

USA Today recently tried to answer that question by asking singles what their must-haves in a relationship are, and what would cause them to cancel a date.

Men and women, it turns out, value many of the same basic things in partners. At the top of the list are good teeth and good grammar, which are important considerations for both men and women. After that men place importance on hair and clothes, followed by tattoos, nails and hands, a date's accent, shoes, the car a date drives, and the electronic devices a date carries.

Women, on the other hand, put the emphasis on the same traits in the following order: clothing, hair, nails/hands, having/not having a tattoo, shoes, the car a date drives, a date's accent, and the electronic devices a date uses.

More differences can be found when men and women list their must-haves in a relationship. Men said their must-haves are: is someone I can trust and confide in (63%), treats me with respect (57%), is physically attractive to me (40%), has sense of humor/makes me laugh (37%), is comfortable with her own sexuality (36%).

Women say their relationship requirements are: treats me with respect (84%), is someone I can trust and confide in (77%), has sense of humor/makes me laugh (58%), shares the same values as I do (47%), is comfortable communicating his wants, needs, and desires (46%).

And if those are the things that are most important, what traits are least important to the success of a relationship? Men say:

• Is eager to marry (4%)
• Makes at least as much money as I do (6%)
• Eats similar foods (7%)
• Has a similar education level/Has successful career/Wants to have children/Shares my political beliefs (tied at 8%)
• Has the same ethnic background as me (9%)

For women, the least important factors in determining compatibility are:

• Is eager to marry (6%)
• Eats similar foods (9%)
• Wants to have children/Shares my political beliefs (tied at 11%)
• Has similar education level (12%)
• Has same ethnic background as me (14%)

Now if only someone would conduct a study on cats and my allergies...

Do you need a gift for a single friend or family member? Christian Café is now offering gift certificates (it looks like since Dec. 2012) which is the ideal way to buy someone else a membership. You can purchase a 1, 3, 6, or 12 month gift subscription at the same price as a regular member would. A Christian Café membership right now are also still 25% off for anything over a month.

The recipient of your Christian Café membership will have full access to the site including use of the iPhone and Android dating app.

For more information on this dating site you can read our Christian Café review.

I just notice that my connection has timed out when I tried to visit ChristianMingle.com. I first notice the problem at 12:05pm today. I am not sure if the site is too busy or that Christian Mingle's web servers are offline due to a hardware or software problem.

We will update this post when we get more information.

Update #1: As of 12:23 pm EST a message comes up stating that the site is momentarily down and to try back again shortly. No reason is given for the outage though it obviously is not their internet connection since they can serve the problem page. The Christian Mingle customer service phone number is also given: 1-866-660-7924

Update #2: I just checked (1:33pm) Christian Mingle is back up and working fine. They were still down at 1:00pm so it looks like ChristianMingle.com was down just 1.5 hours or so.

The United States online dating industry market research report from IBISWorld has updated their numbers for 2012 and their predictions for 2013 and beyond.

For the last 5 years the online dating industry has seen an average revenue increase of 2.9 percent and should reach $2 billion annually in 2013. After a slight dip in 2009 due to the recession revenues are up in large part to the increase use of smartphones and tablets by single adults who have a lot of disposable income. Realizing this, dating sites have created dating apps for their services on a wide range of mobile devices including the iPhone, Android and Blackberry. Most of these devices are also GPS enabled which has led to location based dating as well.

In the last 5 years the number of dating services has increased in the US on average every year by 3.1 percent according to IBISWorld to 3,898. Employment has also increased by the same amount by these dating companies to an estimate of 7,376.

IBISWorld predicts that demand will be strong in the next 5 years for online dating services. This is due in part to the increase use of smartphones and the increase in internet access for households. Mobile dating revenue is expected to almost double in the upcoming 5 years.

Christian Mingle is one of the top dating sites in the United States. The Drew Marshall Show is a Canadian radio spiritual talk show based in Toronto. What does these 2 businesses have in common? They have partnered to create a matchmaking contest called “The Dating Game”. This segment is an 8 week-long series that follows a contestant who is given a free subscription to ChristianMingle.com.

The first contestant named Danielle is 25 years old and is new to online dating. The series follows the experiences she has from joining Christian Mingle to the men she meets. A couple of weeks in she has met a man named Phil whom she really likes and who funny enough goes to the same church she does. The two have never met or seen each other before meeting online at Christian Mingle. Danielle and Phil have been on several dates and have decided they want to be exclusive and now pursued their relationship offline.

To find out more and to see who the next contestant is you can listen to the Drew Marshall Show On Saturday’s at 3:30 pm Eastern Standard Time.

These days, unless you literally live under a rock, technology is an integral part of your dating life. Maybe you used your smartphone to text the cutie you met last night at the bar. Maybe you've been looking for love on online dating sites. Maybe you keep in touch with your long-distance partner using Facebook. Maybe you've found an innovative way to incorporate technology into your love life that I haven't even thought of yet (in which case, give me a shout!).

For better or for worse, technology and online dating are entwined forever more. Match.com set out to determine exactly how singles use technology in dating, and put together an infographic that dishes all the details.

Let's start with the scandalous stuff:

• Singles in their 20s are nearly 4 times more likely to send sexy texts to their dates than singles in their 50s.
• 36% of singles say they've sent a sext, regardless of their age.
• And, age aside, 51% say they've received a sext from a partner.
• Sexting may be becoming increasingly common, but it isn't becoming any more private. Nearly 23% of those who have received sexy photos say they've shared the pictures with others.
• But some find that lack of privacy flattering: 42% of single men who sext say they would not be offended if the recipient shared the pic, though only 13% of women say the same.

Sharing private snaps isn't the only taboo tech move. Though mobile phones are now ubiquitous, more than 90% of singles agree that it's NOT ok to break up with someone via text.

And then there's that other ubiquitous bit of technology: Facebook. Almost ¾ of singles are on Facebook, making it a hotbed of new techno-dating etiquette rules:

• 65% of singles say they do not post their relationship status on Facebook.
• 38% say they would cancel a date over something they discovered about their date online.
• 48% of single women and 38% of men say they research someone on Facebook before going on the first date.
• 25% of single women use privacy settings on their Facebook profiles to limit access to pictures and posts for the people they date.

Facebook also comes along with a lot of dealbreakers. These are the most common ways the social networking site causes breakups:

• Men are most likely to breakup with a date due to: her pictures (55%), something she posted on someone else's wall (42%), or her status updates (21%).
• Women are most likely to split with a sweetie due to: a post on someone else's wall (s), his pictures (36%), who he was adding as friends (27%).

As always, technology is a double edged-sword. It's not without its drawbacks, but the benefits clearly win out.