General News

You know that annoying couple you're friends with on Facebook? The one who's always putting up soppy status updates, cutesy pictures, and stomach-churningly sweet wall posts?

Prepare yourself: they're about to get even more annoying.

Facebook has recently launched a digital version of relationships at Facebook.com/us. If you're in a relationship on Facebook, the new page collects all posts, events, and photos that both you and your significant other are tagged in. It's a one stop shop for all the details of your digital romance.

Reviews are...mixed, to say the least.

The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) is a non-profit organization with more than 37 million members. They are the voice of Americans 50 plus and have several media publications including a magazine and website. On Monday AARP debuted a new Dating Channel on their website (found under the Home & Family tab). Within this dating channel you will find articles on dating and relationships geared towards older singles.

Along with the expert advice and dating resources AARP also has partnered with the dating site HowAboutWe.com to bring online dating to their members. Through the dating portal AARP members are offered a free 7 day trial membership along with a 50% discounted membership for those who choose to subscribe.

To celebrate the launch of AARP's Dating Channel they commissioned a survey of 1000 people. With the survey AARP found that the top 3 reasons singles over 50 try online dating are:

• 23 percent said they can meet a broader range of people
• 20 percent said that there is no pressure to communicate with others until they are ready
• 14 percent said they tried online dating because a friend recommended it

In future articles we hope to dive deeper into the AARP survey and tease out more interesting data about online dating.

To find out more details about this dating site you can read our HowAboutWe review.

The countdown to Match.com's 2012 LoveGeist Report has begun!

I was a huge fan of the report last year, so I can't wait to see what interesting facts and figures Match has to share this year. In prep for its official release, Match has revealed a few teasing tidbits of what the 2012 LoveGeist Report has in store.

Match's latest research has shed some light on the infamous post-date text. Singles in Britain, says the report, spend an average of 14 and a half minutes making sure that each text they send to their sweethearts is perfect. That sounds like an insane amount of time to spend on one text to me, but the report says it's time well-spent. Almost a third (29%) of survey respondents admitted that the content of a post-date text could be a dealbreaker, so I guess that 14 and a half minutes isn't so crazy after all!

What's on the list of turn-offs that could make a text a dealbreaker? The biggest turn-off was bad spelling, followed closely by Web abbreviations, like "gr8" and "l8r," and acronyms like LOL and LMAO. Discerning daters also dislike one word messages, emoticons, and "double texting" (failing to wait for a response to your first message before sending a second).

Women may have the reputation for consulting their friends about their love lives, but Match's research shows that single men are 60% more likely than women to enlist a friend to review their post-date texts for a second opinion before sending them.

It's no wonder men feel so much pressure to get the post-text date right: over half of single women surveyed (52%) said the burden of sending the first text after a date rests on the man. In fact, only 16% of ladies surveyed said women should take responsibility for sending the first message.

Come on, ladies, it's 2012 - step your game up!

One of Match.com's relationship experts, Kate Taylor, comments on the post-date text: "In recent years the way we use technology to communicate after a date has made the post-date follow-up more important than ever. Not only do you now need to perform well on the date itself, if your follow-up message isn't up to scratch, then you might be out of contention for a second meeting."

Match offers the following advice on getting the trick post-date text right:

• Keep it short, sweet, and honest.
• Send it shortly after the date is over, so the experience is fresh in your date's mind.
• Perform a spelling and grammar before hitting Send.
• Play it safe by keeping it clear and simple - humor and sarcasm don't always translate well into text.
• Forget about the outdated three day rule. In the 21st century we prefer communication to be quick.

For more information on this dating site you can read our Match.com UK review (those in the US should read this review of Match.com).

In a surprising move eHarmony in the US is offering free communication on Tuesdays. Usually free communication is only offered during special long weekends. Over the next 3 Tuesdays (December 4th, December 11th and December 18th) from 3pm to 11:59pm PST all members of eHarmony will be able to communicate at no cost.

If you would like to try out this promotion (no credit card is required) all you need to do is create a free members account and fill in the profile. This process will take you about 30 minutes to an hour. When you are finished you will then start to receive your targeted matches. You can take a look at your matches and figure out which ones you would like to contact. Then, all you need to do is wait for 3:00pm Pacific Standard Time on Tuesday to communicate with your matches. Free communication events do not include photos, Skip to Email (of the guided communication process) and Secure Call (a phone service).

The last free eHarmony communication event was held in November (see Story). To find out more about this popular dating service you can read our eHarmony review.

It's not destined to be a classic like "You had me at hello," but "You had me at your hastag" has a certain ring to it, don't you think?

If you answered "yes," you're not alone. I'm not sure what the new black is this season in fashion, but I do know that social media dating is well on its way to becoming the new online dating.

Think of it this way, says Bianca Bosker in the Huffington Post: "traditional online dating sites offer the internet equivalent of a speed dating session," while "social networking sites are the cocktail parties of the web." On a dating site, you're focused on presenting a very specific side of yourself. When you concentrate that hard on meticulously-crafted self-representation, you lose the spontaneity of dating in real life.

On a social media site, your personality has a greater chance to shine. Instead of trying to appeal to someone you think is your ideal match, and feeling pressured to fall in love, a social media site is just about sharing your interests and connecting with like-minded people. It's much more like finding love offline - it all happens when you least expect it.

The options for dating via social media are endless.

Take Ashley, who told HuffPo that she courted her latest love on Twitter.

Or Danielle, who tried to track down a man who caught her eye through a particularly witty and scathing review of a Chinese restaurant on MenuPages.

Or Rayco and Nuria, a Spanish couple who met on Instagram following a sticker giveaway for fans of the app. They continued the conversation on Facebook, then began video chatting using Apple's FaceTime, and now plan to move to Barcelona together.

"Online dating to me is not online dating anymore," says Julie Spira, author of The Perils of Cyber-Dating and a professional online dating coach. "It's social dating and it's a social experience."

The Internet is the second most common way for couples in America to meet, said a 2012 Stanford University study, and social sites are increasingly becoming responsible for making those matches. A paper from Oxford University reported that less than 10% of couples met on social networking sites prior to 2000. Now that number has more than doubled, to 21%.

Of course, there are pros and cons to both approaches. Social media services are free, unlike many online dating sites, and boast millions more members. They also offer a serendipitous, algorithm-free experience that more accurately mimics offline dating. On the other hand, social media sites don't offer the pool of guaranteed-to-be-looking-for-love singles that online dating sites do.

For now, it looks like social media sites may slowly be edging out the competition. "We live a lot of our social lives on Facebook, Twitter and sites like that," says Laurie Davis, the founder of online dating consultancy eFlirt Expert, "so since dating is inherently a part of our social life - it only seems natural to find love that way as well."

To find out more on how the individual Social Networks like Twitter and Facebook are used for dating you can visit our Social Networks Dating category.

Are you the shy type? Do you feel more comfortable going on a blind date as long as you're also with a couple of other friends? If so, you're not alone.

San Francisco-based Tandem has created an online dating website that offers two-on-two blind dates instead of the traditional one-on-one. (That was so 2011 folks...) The reason? People are more comfortable dating in groups - it takes the pressure and awkwardness out of first dates. It also makes the setting more relaxed and makes people feel safer when they're dating. That's a big plus for ladies who don't feel comfortable handing their number out to strangers or meeting someone at a bar after only a few emails.

It works like this: you can sign up using your Facebook account, which pulls your main Facebook photo into your new Tandem profile. You will then be prompted to add "Wings" - meaning wingmen or wingwomen - friends with whom who you want to double-date. Your wing person can be any gender (and hopefully single), so don't let that stop you if you're best friend is the opposite sex.

You'll then be given a series of questions about height, weight, occupation, and general interests, so you can fill in the blanks about yourself and what the general information on Facebook doesn't cover. Then you can check out other members and friends, and if you want to schedule a "tandem" you can send an invite with location and time details. (Make sure your "Wing" agrees on the time first, otherwise the invitation won't go through.) An email is then sent to all four of you to coordinate - replies go to the group but your emails remain private.

This format is similar to Groupr, who also started a group dating service for those who prefer not to date alone.

Between online dating, dating apps, group dating sites, and the integration of social media with dating, there are multiple dating technologies available to help you meet more people than ever. Even if you're the shy type - you get nervous or have been hesitant to try online dating - there are alternatives for you, thanks to technology. If you have a phone or computer, you can be hooked up for a date. So, no more excuses. Now is a better time than any other to get out there and meet new people.

Tandem is currently available in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Madison, Chicago, New York City and Boston.