General News

Earlier this month (January 6th) eHarmony released version 2.1.8 of their free dating app for Android phones and tablets. It requires Android version 2.1 or higher and has been installed between 1 and 5 million times.

Currently the eHarmony dating app offers the following features:

• Create a member account and update your profile when needed
• Take the Relationship Questionnaire which is mobile optimized
• Take and upload photos. Import photos from Facebook
• Subscribe to eHarmony (United States and Canada only)
• View your daily matches
• Communicate with matches via icebreakers and mail
• See who has viewed you
• Participate in free communication events

With version 2.1.8 there has been a number of bug fixes which should help improve stability on some phones and fix the subscription process. The profile photo gallery also received some upgrades designed to create a better user experience.

The eHarmony app current average rating on Google Play is 3.1 out of 5 stars. This is about average for a dating site app. Reviewers give the app high praise for the ability to receive matches and communicate with them while on the go. Others wish for more stability and the ability to be notified by icon on the phone when a new message is received.

Check out the Google Play Store on your Android phone and search for eHarmony to download the app. To find out more about this matchmaking dating site you can read our review of eHarmony.

You may think that OkCupid is crazy enough as is. You would be wrong.

OkCupid is about to get even crazier, with the launch of a new app called Crazy Blind Date. It's not a new idea - Crazy Blind Date was originally launched back in 2007 and was taken down shortly thereafter - but it promises to be better this time around.

The blind date has been around for...well...probably as long as dating has. It's a staple of many people's love lives, but the Internet has not yet been able to recreate its magic. OkCupid is hoping to fill that void, by setting singles up on blind dates with only a few hours' notice.

Traditional online dating requires hours of work spent writing profiles, searching through potential candidates, and crafting intriguing messages. Crazy Blind Date takes only a few minutes so users can get straight to what matters most: meeting face to face.

Using the app couldn't get any easier:

• Download the app for iPhone or Android.
• Choose which nights of the week you're available for dates
• Pick your favorite bar or coffee shop.
• Let Crazy Blind Date do the rest.

Once the app finds a compatible date, it sends confirmations to the parties involved and the date is booked. An hour before the date is scheduled, an anonymous IM window is opened so the participants can start communicating and find each other easily.

Once the date is complete, Crazy Blind Date asks users to give feedback on the experience. If you had a good time, you're offered the opportunity to vouch for your date by purchasing credits, called "Kudos," on their behalf. One will cost $0.99 and ten, for really spectacular dates, will cost $2.99. The more Kudos a person collects, the higher priority they are given for future date assignments.

From a user's point of view, the Kudos system helps make sure that everyone is on his or her best behavior during the date. From OkCupid's point of view, the system is an innovation. "Never before has a dating app allowed singles to pay on a per-date basis, and to vary that payment based on the quality of the date itself," says Sam Yagan, Co-Founder of OkCupid.

Is a blind date the best way to lead to lasting love? Well...maybe not. But that's ok, because that's not the point. Crazy Blind Date isn't about helping you find your future spouse - it's about having fun. "A lot of dates aren't going to work, but you are going to meet someone interesting," Yagan told Mashable in an interview last month. "And you're going to have a lot of stories."

Ladies and gentlemen, the match is about to begin.

In this corner we have POF, a popular free dating site since 2003 that claimed 40,000,000 members as of February 2012.

And in this corner we have OkCupid, a free dating and social networking legend that The Boston Globe once called "The Google of online dating."

This fight is gonna be a tough one, folks.

Looking at it by the numbers, POF comes out on top. Its many millions of members dwarf the member base of OkCupid, which gives its users access to many more potential dates. On the other hand, OkCupid offers more ways to find a match who meets your dating requirements. OkCupid's features include a greater variety of search options and a range of other fun tools, like quizzes, to assess compatibility.

At the end of round one, it looks like POF wins the battle for quantity and OkCupid wins the battle for quality.

Round two requires you to think seriously about what you're looking for in your online dating experience. Is it simplicity? Go for POF. Is it an aesthetically pleasing site? Go for OkCupid. Is it older singles? Try POF, which has a higher number of users in the 35-49 age range. Is it hip younger singles? Try OkCupid, which targets the 25-35 audience.

At the end of round two we've got another even split, depending on what kind of date you're looking for.

It all comes down to round three. This is the make or break moment for OkCupid and POF. How do you want to be matched with potential partners? And what kind of relationship are you looking for?

POF determines compatibility using the Chemistry Test and the Relationship Needs Assessment, which matches you with dates who think and act the same way you do in relationships. Outside of that, POF primarily matches users based on age range and area, which doesn't provide a very accurate picture of whether or not they'll click romantically.

OkCupid has a few more tricks up its sleeve. There are its famous member quizzes, a whole bunch of funny and weird questions, and also the additional option of creating unique profile questions that are tailored to your exact personality. Not only are they entertaining, but OkCupids matching features are more effective at judging real compatibility.

So, although it was a close one, at the end of round three I'm going to have to call this one in favor of OkCupid.

To find out more about these 2 free dating sites you can read our Plenty of fish review and our Okcupid review. For more related services you can check our the free dating sites category.

The New Year is a time for reflecting on the most important lessons learned over the course of the previous year. 2012, like every year, had its share of ups and downs and plenty of big lessons - both good and bad - came along with them.

Marriage proved to be a popular topic of discussion in 2012. Scientists around the world were determined to unlock its many mysteries in a series of studies that examined everything from video games to drinking. Here are some of their most important findings, according to HuffPo:

1. Online gaming can hurt your marriage. Couples report lower marital satisfaction when one spouse's gaming interferes with bedtime routines, says a Brigham Young University study. 75% of gamers' partners wish their spouse would put more effort into their relationship and less into beating their high score. When both spouses are gamers, however, they report higher satisfaction in their relationship.
2. The "Honeymoon Phase" is a myth. Couples are actually happiest after their first year of marriage. A "wedding hangover" may explain why newlyweds are not as happy as couples who have been married longer.
3. Getting angry can help your relationship. Getting angry (but only short-term!) signals that certain behavior from a partner causes distress, giving the couple an opportunity to address the issue.
4. Marriage offers few benefits over living together. A study found that the health benefits of marriage decrease over time, while couples who are unmarried and cohabitate experience greater happiness and self-esteem in the long run.
5. The later you have sex, the better your relationships. A team at the University of Texas at Austin found that postponing sex until a later age corresponds to less dissatisfaction with relationships in adulthood. They also found a link between waiting and higher education and household income levels.
6. Interracial marriage rates and acceptance are on the rise. Acceptance of interracial marriage is spreading rapidly, and more interracial couples are marrying than ever before.
7. Married people are healthier and live longer than singles. Studies have shown that married couples experience lower levels of cancer, heart disease, depression, and stress. In contrast to #4, these benefits appear to be greater in couples who are married than in couples who cohabitate.
8. Young people expect marriages to last. Divorce rates may be high, but a survey found that 86% of single and married people aged 18-29 expect their marriages to last a lifetime.
9. Married women drink more than single women. Unlike married men, who tend to drink less than they did when they were single.
10. Sons-in-law are the key to successful marriages. A 26-year longitudinal study found that, when a husband reports having a close relationship with his wife's parents, the couple's risk of divorce decreases by 20%.

A Japanese dating site called DEAiBBS was launched in 2005 and were soon advertising that they had about 120,000 members. In 7 years of operation it has been reported that the dating site has earned 2 billion yen ($22.7 million USD). On January 15, 2013 7 people were arrested and charged with fraud relating to DEAiBBS. It has been alleged by the police that 80 percent of the members of DEAiBBS were not real people. 4 of the arrested people were part-time employees whose job it was to create fake profiles and communicate with other members to dupe them to pay and upgrade their memberships.

Over 45 claims have been filed against the dating service which are looking in total for 85 million yen ($965 thousand USD) in damages. Some victims of the fraudulent dating service had lost more than $10,000 USD to the company.

For more on this story you can read the Japan Daily Press.

eHarmony first offered free communication on Tuesdays in December and it must have gone well since the dating site is now offering it again today and for the next 2 Tuesdays in the United States. On January 22nd, January 29th and February 5th at 3:00pm to 11:59pm (PST) eHarmony members will be able to communicate with their matches for free. This is a great way to get members excited about online dating and a great lead up to Valentine's Day, which is one of the busiest weeks in the online dating industry.

To participate in free communication at eHarmony.com all you need to do is signup as a member and create a profile. This process does not require a credit card and should take you no more than an hour to complete. Most of this time is taken up by the questions you will be answering about yourself which eHarmony will use in their matching system to determine the best matches for you. Once completed you will receive your first set of matches and from their you can communicate with any of them for free. During this promotion members will not be able to, Skip to Email (of the guided communication process), use Secure Call (a phone service) or view photos.

The last free eHarmony communication event was held at the beginning of this month (see Story). To find out more about this matchmaking service designed to help form long-term relationships you can read our review of eHarmony.com.