General News

It's time for a pop quiz!

The question: What's the biggest time for online dating?

Answer: Did you guess Valentine's Day?

If so, I'm afraid you've earned yourself a big F on this quiz. Better luck next time.

According to HuffPo UK, the biggest time for online dating is actually the days between Boxing Day and New Year's Eve. The site contacted more than a dozen dating sites to get the stats, and all said they experience a noticeable increase in both sign ups and website traffic during the holiday season.

Mark Brooks, a dating analyst and online dating consultant, told HuffPo UK that family pressures are responsible for the holiday spike. Singles often find it tough to face family during the season, knowing they're bound to be pressured with an endless stream of questions about who they're dating, why their last relationship didn't work out, and why they're still single.

Kate Taylor, a relationship expert at Match.com, added that the post-Christmas to pre-New year boom can also be chalked up to the reflection that time of year usually brings. As one year comes to a close and another begins, people look back on what they've accomplished over the past 12 months and set goals for the new year. Love is a perennially popular subject for resolutions.

"We know that top of many people's list this year will be finding a partner, and online dating offers the perfect chance to widen the number of potential partners available to you - and to find a potential date from the comfort of your own living room," Taylor said.

And that's not all.

"Most of our customers are professionals so they will be off from work during the festive period," said Pali Banwait, chief executive of AsianD8. "We're generally a lot busier during weekends (as people have more time to themselves) so it's fair to assume a correlation between spare time and online dating."

Banwait also thinks the weather has something to do with it. When it's cold outside, people spend more time at home and use online dating to pass the time. Singles get swept up in the excitement of the fresh start the new year promises, and long to share the happiness of the holiday season with a partner.

Brandon Wade, founder of SeekingArrangement.com, believes the increase popularity of online dating can be attributed to the fact that it's one of the quietest times of the year in every other sector. Online dating provides entertainment at a time when little else does.

What did you resolve to do for your love life in 2013?

What inspires seniors to venture into the brave new world of online dating?

The same things that inspire everyone else, of course! (You didn't think seniors would really be so different, did you?) According to AARP, the top three reasons people over 50 turn to online dating are:

1. A serious relationship (48%)
2. Friendship/Companionship (26%)
3. Casual dating (14%)

Amongst seniors, gender, age, income, occupation, and education play a role in what brings singles to online dating services.

Women are significantly more likely to be looking for friendship and companionship, while more men than women are looking for intimacy and sexual relations. Younger seniors, age 50-59, are looking for serious relationships more often than older seniors, age 60-69, who are primarily looking for companionship.

Looking at external factors, half of those with incomes greater than $50K are primarily in search of serious relationships. Those making more than $100K choose relationships based on physical intimacy instead. The more educated a senior single is, the more likely he/she is looking for a serious relationship and the less likely he/she is to want something casual or platonic.

Employment shows similar stats: those who are employed use online dating to enter serious relationships more often than those who are retired. Retirees, on the other hand, more commonly use online dating services to meet new friends.

Of course, not all seniors are interested in incorporating the Internet into their love lives. The top 3 reasons people over 50 don't try online dating, other than that they are currently dating someone, are:

1. Online dating does not fit their lifestyle (18%)
2. They've heard too many negative stories about online dating (13%)
3. They feel it's too risky to talk to strangers online (12%)

Again, these reasons can be divided further by other factors.

Men are more likely to feel that online dating doesn't fit their lifestyle, while women are more likely to fear negative consequences from talking to strangers online. Mid income levels are also more likely to say online dating doesn't fit their lifestyle than lower income levels. By employment, retirees tend to feel the same way and by location, seniors living in the West agree.

Education levels reveal slightly different results. Those with high school diplomas or some college are more likely to believe it's too risky to talk to strangers online. Those who have graduated from college, on the other hand, are more likely to skip online dating because they believe there is no trusted site geared specifically to the over-50 age group.

If you are interested in finding out more about a great seniors dating site you should read our Our Time review.

So that Mayan apocalypse was fun, wasn't it?

Frankly, I'm a little disappointed in what a non-event it was. No rioting in the streets? No Y2K bunker-building and supply-buying? No one arming themselves in anticipation of a zombie attack? No drunken end-of-the-world revelry?

It turns out that the most exciting part of the least interesting apocalypse ever was OkCupid's response to it. First, there was a survey. Did OkCupid members believe in the impending end of everything? And if so, how were they planning to mark the occasion?

OkCupid members proved themselves to be a relatively sane bunch:

• 73% of men said the world was not going to end on 12.21.12
• 81% of women said the world will end at some point, but not in our lifetimes
• Only 15% of men and 10% of women believed December 21 would be their last day on Earth

Here's how they planned to spend their Doomsday:

• 48% of women and 19% of men planned to be with their loved ones
• 68% of men didn't have any plans at all
• 43% of women celebrated the apocalypse by chatting online all day

When it came to preparing for the apocalypse, OkCupid users fell a little short:

• 29% of women said their survival strategy was the "damsel in distress" act
• 19% of men had food and supplies prepared
• 14% of women had a survival pack ready
• 21% of men said they planned to get someone else to look after them

How is the world actually going to end? Here's what OkCupid members think:

• Most agree that a natural disaster will be our ultimate end
• 24% of women believe aliens could be our downfall
• 25% of men think a virus could wipe us out
• 57% of women think a meteorite could destroy the planet
• 54% of men are convinced another kind of natural disaster could happen

And if all that doesn't strike you as bizarre enough, there's also OkCupid's response to the Mayan predication. The site sent out a mass email to its subscribers bearing this less-than-cheery message: "Do you want to die alone?"

Ouch. What a downer.

Thankfully, the accompanying picture made absolutely no sense and was totally hilarious: an asteroid with Obama's face on it crashing into Earth, destroying the Statue of Liberty and the US Constitution in the process.

Huh?

To find out more about this online dating site you should check out our OkCupid.com review.

A recent article in The New York Times revealed that dating in hard economic times may have gotten a little more rough. It's great to be pretty and petite, or tall, dark and handsome, but that might not be all singles are after.

It's no secret that career success and wealth factor into our dating choices. But now credit scores are important indicators of who we should date. They provide a peek into someone's personal history - not of their relationships with other people - but of their financial choices.

Traditionally, credit scores have been used by banks to determine whether you qualify for a loan on a new house you might want to purchase. It's a complex formula that indicates your debt and payment history. But now, credit scores are being used by everyone from potential employers to potential suitors to see how you've managed your money in the past, which can determine your future behavior. Are you saddled with debt? This might be enough to sway a potential boyfriend from asking you out on the second or third date.

"Credit scores are like the dating equivalent of a sexually transmitted disease test," said Manisha Thakor, the founder and chief executive of MoneyZen Wealth Management, in The New York Times article. "It's a shorthand way to get a sense of someone's financial past the same way an S.T.D. test gives some information about a person's sexual past."

This trend indicates that the recession has affected our personal lives too. Daters have become more concerned with credit scores because they fear an uncertain financial future. A good credit score can give us a sense of security about someone else, whether or not it's justified. Because so many people were burned with bad mortgages and credit card debt, it might seem overwhelming to take on someone else's in a new relationship, especially if it leads to marriage and merged banking accounts.

While the stress is understandable, and financial security is a high priority to many people, I don't advocate making a person's credit score a deal-breaker in any relationship. After all, someone could be extremely rich and have excellent credit but be a selfish, inconsiderate boyfriend or girlfriend. And financial situations can change, as we've all learned. A good credit score in the past doesn't mean that it will stay that way in the future.

The more important factors in any relationship involve the intangibles - how the other person treats us, how they engage and interact with us, and mutual respect and kindness. I urge you to put financial fears aside and consider these aspects first.

Chemistry.com is having a free weekend starting today and it will run for 72 hours. This means Friday February 1st, and all day Saturday, and Sunday February 3rd new and existing members of Chemistry will be able to us all the features of the dating site at no cost and with no credit card required.

When you register during this promotion you will be able to create a profile and complete the personality test. When you are finished you will then receive your quality matches. There is no searching on Chemistry as their matching algorithm takes care of this process by matching you with the best candidates for long-term relationships. With your matches you will be able to view their complete profile and photos along with communicating with them by using email and chemistry starters.

There last free weekend happened in October of 2012. To find out more on this dating service please read our Chemistry.com review.

We all know the power of social media, especially Facebook. Which is why it's interesting that Facebook has developed its own service similar to an online dating search, helping people to connect with each other.

While Facebook has generally tried to distance itself from online dating in the past, Graph Search seems to be a move in that direction. Graph Search is a search engine (like main competitor Google), which harnesses the power of Facebook information. So you can search for recommendations for people, places, and businesses and gather information about them. For dating purposes, you can type in "friends of my friends who are single and living in Boston," and in theory the service will provide you with some choices and basic information.

Traditionally, people have used Facebook to find and "friend" people they know. But with Graph Search, people can find others outside their social circles and potentially connect.

Some online dating sites have already taken advantage of Facebook's social connections by harnessing the power of Facebook itself, like CoffeeMeetsBagel and Circl.es among others. When you sign up, the services pull information from your Facebook page and match you with friends of friends, so you stay within your particular networks. But with Graph Search, the field can open up. You can search for other single users and filter the results based on their interests, education, age, hometown, and current city for example.

Of course, online dating sites do have an advantage over Facebook's Graph Search: the people who join online dating sites are definitely interested in dating.

Facebook can filter lists of people who are single to contact, but that doesn't mean these singles are in the dating market. If you don't want to be approached by virtual strangers for potential dates, Graph Search might be a motivation for you to shut down your Facebook profile if you start getting unwanted messages. With online dating sites, everyone is there for the same reason, so it's easier to approach people and to get responses.

Another benefit of online dating sites is the ability to cater your profile specifically to romantic searches. People use their Facebook pages for a variety of reasons - some personal, some professional. Facebook "Likes" don't equate with a detailed profile on a site like OkCupid where you can list your favorite music and movies, or write a description of yourself in a flirtatious manner that your mother or boss won't be able to read.

Either way, it's good to have more choices available to meet people and widen your social circles. Let's see how Graph Search will evolve when it comes to online dating.

Once Facebook Graph Search is out of beta and available to the general public we will have to update our dating review for Facebook to include this new tool.