General News

If you haven't heard of Skout yet, you probably will soon. The dating app has raised $22 million dollars and is poised to make a huge splash in 2012, but CEO Christian Wikilund doesn't plan to stop at dating. Skout is adding 40,000 to 50,000 new users on the app every single day and if Wikilund has his way, it will eventually become a global network on the scale of Facebook or Twitter.

In an interview with Business Insider, Wikilund described the history of Skout and his vision for the app's future. Skout got its start in 2007, before Facebook had a mobile product and location-based services were just starting to become popular. As a location-based mobile social network, Skout immediately stood out from its competitors. Skout was the first dating app for the iPhone at the time of its launch, and has since evolved into a more general service to meet new people and flirt.

"The mission for the company is to build a global network for meeting new people," Wikilund told Business Insider. "A year ago we had 30 million messages a month, last month we had 425 million messages. We were signing up a year ago 100,000 per month. Now we're signing up 40-50k users per day. Everything has been growing, basically due to a good product."

Skout's impressive growth has taken it through Hong Kong, New York, Japan, Berlin, LA, South Korea, and more. Wikilund attributes the success to Skout's ability to be whatever you want it to be. Looking to meet new friends? Skout can handle it. Looking to meet a lover? Skout can do it. Looking for long-term love? Skout can help with that, too. "Right now," said Wikilund, "50 percent of adults on a national level are single, but 80 percent of our users are single." Flirting is definitely on the Skout menu.

Using Skout is free for all basic functionality, but extra fun requires an extra fee. Users can pay to see who checked them out or to promote their profiles, but the vast majority of activities on the app come with a price tag of $0.

If all goes according to plan, 2012 will be a big year for Skout. The company plans to continue developing the product and spreading the word, and has plans to continue their growth on both the national and international stages. A major launch is also scheduled for this summer.

Is it just me, or does there seem to be an awful lot of mobile dating apps these days claiming to "bring the online dating experience offline?" Even online dating sites themselves are getting into the act - Match.com is offering their new service The Stir for online daters who want to cut to the chase. (The Stir sets up singles events and depending on what you like to do, you can sign up and they match you with an event.) And then there's the popular HowAboutWe.com, which allows you to post a date idea and see who bites - allowing you to bypass the profile search process.

But mobile dating apps are popping up faster than ever, each utilizing GPS capability to allow people to see who's nearby, text each other, and potentially meet up right away. There's an appeal to many daters for cutting to the chase - you want to see if there's any chemistry rather than spending a lot of time emailing in advance.

The latest app to launch into the mobile dating market is Yumixo, which reminds me of a mobile version of HowAboutWe. It uses GPS to allow members to see who is close by, but the main selling point is that members are able to post their own date ideas - either for the community or to an individual person - and see if anyone is interested in meeting up. Yumixo is integrated with FourSquare, so if you have a specific meeting place in mind, you can suggest it and your date can check it out in advance.

I like the idea of mobile dating apps, but there seems to be the ever-present element of "hooking up" for its users, which doesn't really appeal to people looking for relationships. And it can feel unsafe to meet someone so quickly without really getting to know him first, especially for women.

The great thing about all of these new services and mobile dating apps is that companies are thinking outside the usual online dating box, and looking for more organic ways to help people connect. Not every app or online dating site is right for everyone, so sometimes the best thing to do is give different ones a try and see what you like.

As you can see, there's no reason to be hesitant about online dating anymore. It's not just about looking at profiles over a computer screen, like the want ads. You can still meet people in the usual ways - at social events or just by walking into a bar. But by using dating technology, you'll know whether or not they're single and looking first.

Remember that hilarious online dating spreadsheet that was all over the Web in May? (If you don't, here's a little refresher!)

Now it seems that spreadsheets are old news. The latest online dating gaffe to spread across cyberspace like wildfire is a survey. That's right, a 24-year-old finance guy (what's with finance guys and odd online dating habits?) asked women to complete a survey after their dates and, as you can probably imagine, the results are pretty funny.

The survey was shared by a Deadspin.com reader who enjoyed the tale of the hapless spreadsheeter and received the survey after an encounter with its creator in Philadelphia. Mike - the man behind it all - asked dates to provide feedback on just about everything, from his outfit, to his hair, to his body, to his conversation, to the smoothness (or lack thereof) of his moves with the ladies.

The survey arrived as an attachment to an email with a Romeo and Juliet quote - "Good Night, Good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow" - in the subject line. The questions are amusing, to say the least:

• Please rate Mike's outfit on a scale of 1-10, with a higher score associated with how much you wanted to take the outfit off.
• Mike is very self conscious about his hair. Does he have reason to be?
• Mike is very masculine; at any point did you feel he was compensating for anything?
• Are there any questions missing from this extremely well written form or is there anything you would like to add about the date?
• Please feel free to use the space below to draw Mike a picture.

At first glance, it sounds crazy. But at second glance, it might be inspired. Mike responded to the sudden fame of his spreadsheet with a surprisingly rational reason for sending it to his dates.

"While dating you're forced to put on all types of fronts and be this very generic person to attempt to garner some attraction," he told The Atlantic. "It's unbearable. The survey was created to filter out un-date-able women (those, like my date, who do not find it funny), versus women with a sense of humor similar to mine."

It's all about turning social norms on their head, standing out from the crowd of other singles online, and finding compatibility in a unique and funny way. Women who don't get the survey probably won't get Mike, and women who do see the humor in it very well might get Mike on a level that suggests deeper compatibility.

Despite allegations of "creepiness," I'm going to have to crown this "genius."

I've never been particularly interested in experimenting with the sugar daddy dating scene, but this new site nearly made me rethink my position. As a frequent traveler, there are no two words in the English language that I love seeing more than "free vacation," so MissTravel.com - which calls itself the only online dating website for travelers' - caught my eye immediately.

The site takes dating in the sugar lifestyle to the next step and refines it. Singles at MissTravel are looking for one thing, and one thing only: travel buddies. Got money burn, but don't want to see the world by yourself? Sign up for the site to find a pretty travel companion. Got an itch to see the world, but don't have the funds to do it? Join MissTravel to find a wealthy benefactor who will subsidize your international adventures in exchange for getting to tag along.

The site is divided into "attractive travelers" and "generous travelers" (and for those who are wondering...no, generous travelers can't be women and attractive travelers can't be men). Attractive travelers have the choice of accepting a generous traveler's proposal to visit his home town or going on a trip together. And if that isn't reason enough to join the site, attractive travelers also receive benefits, via a points based incentive system, for signing up. MissTravel breaks it down like this:

"Generous members have the ability to gift frequent flyer points to Attractive members (hence gifting them the gift of travel). Attractive members who accumulate enough frequent flyer points may redeem them for free airline tickets and hotel rooms, allowing them the opportunity to travel the world for free."

Other than that, MissTravel is pretty much like any other dating site you've encountered. Attractive travelers click on the "All attractive members" button and fill out a traditional dating profile. The profile covers all the expected basics, with the addition of a list of the places you're most interested in visiting. Generous travelers click the "All generous members" button and fill out a similar profile, then browse through attractive ladies and select their travel companions of choice.

After that, it's up to you to pair up, plan the trip, and set off into the sunset together. If a globe-trotting love affair sounds like your style, sign up for MissTravel here. Perhaps it will be love at first flight.

Earlier this month Lavalife announced new functionality for their instant messaging feature. Members can now turn off instant messaging for up to 10 minutes. This allows members to take a timeout from being hit with chat requests if they happen to be searching for profiles or composing a private email to another member. When you disable IM only the person you are currently communicating with or anyone in your hotlists may contact the member.

To find out more about this Canadian dating site you can read our Lavalife review.

What do Sinead O'Connor, Demi Moore, and Charlie Sheen have in common? Rumor has it all of them have tried online dating, and they're not the only celebrities than have allegedly turned to the Internet to find love.

Match.com relationship expert Whiney Casey recently made an appearance on "The Insider" to discuss what happens when Hollywood and the World Wide Web collide. It seems that online dating is more popular amongst the rich and famous than you might think!

According to Casey, Match is a popular destination for celebrities who haven't had luck in love. Jenny McCarthy joined the site though ultimately, she said, "It didn't really work out for me." Ricki Lake also tried her hand at online dating, with considerably more success. She told Chelsea Handler on Chelsea Lately that she met her husband, Christian, on Match.com. True Blood star Deborah Ann Woll is also a success story - she met her boyfriend on Match.com, and they've now been dating for more than four years.

Melissa Rivers says her infamous mother, Joan, signed her up for a dating site in hopes of finding a prince charming to sweep her off her feet. It came as a shock to the younger Rivers - "She made a profile for me on a dating site," she said, "that I was unaware of." It has also been reported that Jennifer Aniston, Matthew Perry, and Halle Berry have explored the possibility of finding love online.

The prize for most romantic celebrity success story goes to "Dancing With the Stars" judge Carrie Ann Inaba, who revealed last year that she met her fiancé, Jesse Sloan, online. "I met him on eHarmony," she said. "I was dating all these younger guys. I was like, 'Maybe I need to change it up a little.'" To make sure that the men she met were interested in her, not her fame, Inaba didn't post a picture or offer any clues to her profession. Most singles would probably consider that a dealbreaker, but Sloan was willing to take a chance - and it paid off, big time.

"In his picture, I felt like I already knew him," Inaba told "Access Hollywood" last October. "He took a risk because he didn't know what I looked like or anything." Sloan finally discovered who his secret admirer was when she sent him a photo of her without makeup, and in March of 2011 he proposed on "Live! With Regis and Kelly."

So next time you get a message from a sparse profile, give it a chance...it just might be your celebrity crush.

For more details about the dating site mentioned here you can read our Match.com review.