General News

The Internet has been a-buzz lately with bad news for my northern neighbors: STDs are on the rise.

According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, the per capita rate of new syphilis cases throughout the country has surged nearly 10-fold since 2000. Chlamydia rates fell through most of the 90s, but have jumped 66% since 2000. In 2009, more than 87,000 new cases were reported and HIV, too, saw a steady decline through the 1990s but has been climbing again in the 2000s. Many of those new patients are heterosexuals and women, say public health agency statistics, two groups that are typically considered to be at a lower risk for HIV.

So what's responsible for the sudden soaring rates of STD infection? Are the diseases themselves more tenacious? Are we simply being less careful?

The answer, some health experts believe, is something else that's been on the rise during the last decade: online dating. In North America alone, the online dating industry has soared from bringing in $40-million in revenue in 2000 to bringing in more more than $1.5-billion currently. A quarter of Canadians have taken part in Internet dating, says a survey taken last year, and 16% reported having sex with someone they met online.

Many of the new singles flocking to dating sites are middle-aged and older, age brackets that are less likely than younger daters to practice safe sex and that are now responsible for many of the new STD infections. Experts believe that online dating may create a false sense of security and intimacy for members, subconsciously leading daters to take more risks in their sex lives.

"By the time you meet and start having sexual activity," says Pam Krause, executive director of the Calgary Sexual Health Centre, "perhaps you have this sense that you're really comfortable and you know this person well. So there's no need to negotiate safer sex."

Dr. Jill Grimes, author of Seductive Delusions - How Everyday People Catch STDs, says that patients frequently report feeling an increased sense of intimacy with partners they meet online. "You feel like you know them because you've had this correspondence," she says, "and physical intimacy proceeds a lot faster." The mistake we make is thinking that the more we know someone, the less likely they are to have an STD.

To combat the rising STD rates, dating sites are being encouraged to include features like a safe-sex option in member profiles, lists of HIV testing locations, and e-cards to inform partners of positive results. Many experts, including officials with the Ontario and Alberta health departments, believe that there is no hard evidence of a link between the popularity of online dating and the growth of STD infections, but smart daters will chose partners wisely and practice safe sex - whether dating online or not.

It looks like that MillionaireMatch.com received a homepage facelift. The color scheme is the same but I think the new graphics definitely enhances the style of the dating site and gives it a much more professional look. I also think having less text on the homepage helps in this regard as well.

MillionaireMatch.com has also expanded into Asia and Europe. They are now available in 3 languages. Along with the Americans, Canadians and Britians, Germans and Japanese singles can also enjoy this dating service in their native language.

For more information on this niche dating site, please read our Millionaire Match review.

I notice several comments this week about users not liking the fact that Plenty Of Fish has now made the dating feature "Viewed Me" for paid users only. I had thought this was done a while ago but after some further research it looks like only the ability to see when someone had looked at your profile was removed. You could still see who had viewed you, not just when.

Well earlier this week it looks like you now cannot see who has viewed your profile anymore on POF.com, if you are a free member. You will now have to pay for this privilege.

For more information on this popular dating site, you can read our POF.com review.

eHarmony let us know that they are offering free communication this weekend in the United States and Canada. This promotions starts in the morning at 12:01am on Friday March 16th and ends in the evening of Monday March 19th at 11:59pm.

For singles interested in trying our eHarmony, this 4 day event is a great way to do it for free and with no credit card required. To start all you need to do is sign in and create a free profile on eHarmony. Once you are finished with creating the profile and taking the in-depth questionnaire, you will then receive your first set of matches. After you have reviewed your matches you can then start the guided communication process and contact your preferred matches. Features not included during free communication events are photos, Secure Call or Skip to Email.

This will be eHarmony's 38th free communication event (by our count) with the last one happening around Valentine's Day (see Story).

To find further information about this online dating site, you can read our eHarmony.com review.

Lt. Peter Burks was a troop leader in the 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment. He was also the recipient of the Bronze Star, a medal awarded for acts of merit. More recently, Peter appeared as the poster boy for an online dating site, with the headline "Military Men Searching For Love."

That wouldn't be making headlines, were it not for the fact that Peter passed away on November 14, 2007, when a bomb blew up his vehicle as he was returning to base after a mission in Baghdad.

In December, a friend of Peter Burks was surfing PlentyOfFish.com when he spotted the ad. He clicked on it and was directed to True.com, then reported the incident to Burks' parents. His parents are now suing both sites for using their son's photo without their permission, for benefiting financially from its use, and for misleading the public.

His father, Alan Burks, said the photo was taken just days before his son was killed, at only 26 years old, in late 2007. It now appears on the website of the Burks family's Unsung Hero Fund, which celebrates the life of their son by providing supplies to troops in war zones. "I felt horrified, disgusted. It upset me," said Alan of the photo. The assumption that Peter was using online dating sites to meet women "couldn't be more wrong," Alan continued, as Peter was happily engaged at the time of his death.

Plenty Of Fish has responded to the scandal through spokesman Paul Bloudoff, who claims that the company had no advertisements online in the U.S. in December. Hundreds of thousands of third parties advertise via his company's site every month, he noted, making it impossible for Plenty Of Fish to control the ads or be aware of their content. The ad has now been blocked from the company's network, though Bloudoff believes the suit should not have been filed. "We dealt with this matter a month ago," he said in an email.

True.com president Ruben Buell has shown a little more sympathy for the Burks. "I certainly feel for his family," he said, adding that he hasn't seen the lawsuit but "will be researching this diligently."

The suit was filed last month in state district court in Dallas, TX, seeking a jury trial for compensatory and punitive damages. Alan Burks plans to donate any money awarded in the suit to military charities. "For me, this is making sure that the honor and legacy of Peter is protected," he said.

Once upon a time, matches were made through friends and family, through classes and workshops, through the workplace and religious institutions. Now, thanks to the meteoric rise of online dating, a virtual "flirt" or a message sent via email are equally likely to bring couples together.

Most people, from relationship experts to the daters themselves, are raving about online dating, but a new review written by a team of psychologists suggests that dating websites may actually be lowering singles' chances of building a successful relationships by distorting their attitudes and expectations.

"Specific things the online dating industry does [do] undermine some of its greatness," the lead author of the new review, Eli J. Finkel, Ph.D., said to CNN. He believes that the major potential pitfall of online dating is the very thing that online dating websites are constructed around: profiles. Although profiles seem to be a detailed look at who a person is and what they're looking for, Finkel's team of researchers say that the information found in profiles is rarely useful in determining compatibility. Studies have shown that most singles don't actually know what they want in a partner, meaning that what they look for in a date online often isn't what creates a real, lasting connection.

The "shopping" mentality that online dating sites create may also be reducing the chance of finding love online. Singles may become too picky and judgmental, passing on partners that could be perfect for them because someone new is just a click away. Instead of evaluating potential dates spontaneously, online daters are often overly-critical and sabotage potential matches by developing unreasonable expectations based on profiles and messages.

And then there's the algorithms, which claim to take the guesswork out of mating by using psychology and mathematical formulas to pair up potential dates. The review team found no studies that proved the effectiveness of algorithms, and other research has found that it's "extremely difficult to predict the likelihood that a relationship will succeed before two people meet." Instead of bringing couples together, algorithms may be creating a "destiny mindset" that places the focus on initial compatibility rather than on factors that really make up the foundation for a long-term relationship.

Finkel advises finding a happy middle ground: use online dating sites to identify potential matches but move the budding relationship offline as quickly as possible, and don't assume that more time spent browsing profiles translates to a greater likelihood of finding The One. "There's probably never going to be a substitute for getting two minutes from another person across a cup of coffee," he says.