General News

In a post several weeks ago, I shared the story of Lewis Altfest, Robert Ross, and Project TACT, a computer program that was inspired by a World's Fair in 1964 that became a precursor to modern online dating.

But that's not the whole story. The matchmaking industry has a long and glorious history that reaches back far beyond the 1960s and the digital age. Independent Singles, the dating service run by The Independent in the UK, recently took a look at the history of the love industry, and found that services dedicated to helping singles pair off with potential partners are practically as old as dating itself.

Their romance retrospective begins in the 16th century, when the idea of courtship was almost exclusively confined to arranged marriages. The earliest "dating agencies" were run by Parish Vicars, who compiled lists of candidates they considered compatible for marriage based on factors like social class. In a society that condemned people who were single beyond their early twenties, it's no surprise that the matchmaking industry took off!

Fast-forward a few centuries to 1825, when an agency that was not associated with the Church was finally opened in London. Despite the service's secular origins, it also focused primarily on male clients who were looking for wives from an appropriate social class, and singles ultimately still had a better chance of meeting a spouse through more traditional means.

In the aftermath of World War II, matchmaking as we know it began to get a foothold. "Dating clubs" were established during the economically prosperous post-war period, in which members had their photographs taken and were matched with potential partners based on information they gave about their personalities and the kind of people they were interested in meeting.

By the latter half of the 20th century, placing personal ads became a mainstream dating practice, after initially being popular only amongst more "bohemian," rebellious singles. Now, in the 21st century, we've shaken off the majority of the stigma associated with dating services, and we've turned to the Internet to link up with potential loves. The popularity of online dating is increasing at a phenomenal rate, and social networking sites are being used for everything from reconnecting with old friends, to maintaining business contacts, to forging romantic relationships.

Just one question remains: Where do we go from here, and what revolutionary dating innovations are waiting around the corner?

For a more modern twist on matching you can check out our Matchmaking category for reviews of several services.

We have had a number of site upgrades over the last week. While a little late (I was hoping to have it finished in June) you can now use your Facebook account to log into Dating Sites Reviews. This means in as little as two clicks, visitors now can create an account on our site with all of your basic information filled in. This means participating in the forums, writing comments and reviews has now become much easier. As an added benefit, once you have created an account you also can opt-in to receive email notifications on any posts you have written.

Our Facebook login is very secure. It is all done on Facebook itself so we never need to know your password. To log into our site using Facebook and create a new account all you need to do is click on the "Login with Facebook" button at the bottom of the page in the left column. From there you will be redirected to Facebook. Once at Facebook, if you are not logged in, it will ask you to do so. Facebook will then ask you if you wish to allow our site access to you public information and your email address. If you click "Allow" you will then be redirected back to Dating Sites Reviews where we will automatically create an account based on the information you have granted us access to.

If you would like to create an account and/or login now you can also visit our user login page.

David over at Online Dating Insider noted last month that Lavalife had purchased Meetcha which had gone on sale earlier this year in February. David had helped the previous owners to find a new home for Meetcha at Lavalife.

I have heard of Meetcha before and I had checked it out a few years ago but I don't remember much about the service. Right now on the Meetcha homepage is a note saying that Meetcha is coming soon. You can also submit your email address for a sneak preview of what is to come.

Usually an aquisition of a dating site by another dating site results in 1 of 3 things:

1. For all outward appearances the dating site continues on normally. Usually the new owners just plan to market the site differently.
2. The current user database of the purchased dating site is merged with the buyers and the domain will redirect to the buyers main dating site.
3. The purchased site is updated with new features and theme.

It looks like Lavalife is going with option 3. We will review the new site once it goes live and update you on our thoughts.

For more information about the dating site who purchased Meetcha, please read our Lavalife.com review.

At the World's Fair in Queens in 1964, a giant computer selected foreign pen pals for visitors to the Parker Pen Pavilion where it was housed. Curious sightseers filled out a questionnaire, inserted it into the machine, and shortly afterwards received a card with the name and address of a participant with whom he or she was determined to be a match.

Sound familiar? That machine, according to a recent article by Nick Paumgarten in The New Yorker, marked the humble beginnings of online dating. Inspired by the computer, Lewis Altfest, a 25 year old accountant, and Robert Ross, a programmer at I.B.M., teamed up to develop a similar method for finding matches a little closer to home. Altfest and Ross partnered with a group of Harvard students who had created Operation Match, a program that used a computer to pair people with potential dates, and soon a prototype called Project TACT was born.

Project TACT - which stood for Technical Automated Compatibility Testing - became New York City's very first computer-based dating service. TACT was initially restricted to users living on the Upper East Side, where the freedoms of the sexual revolution had been unreservedly embraced by many, and within a year over 5,000 subscribers had signed up for the service.

For a fee of $5, each user filled out a 100 question multiple-choice survey, the results of which were then fed to an I.B.M. computer for analysis. Questions covered a wide range of topics, from likes and dislikes to personal values, and also included gender-specific queries about a participant's ideal matches. When the program had evaluated the data, the computer produced 5 cards (blue if the participant was a woman, pink if the participant was a man) with the names of potential dates.

As TACT became increasingly popular and expanded to the rest of New York, Altfest and Ross found themselves in the pages of Cosmopolitan and the New York Herald Tribune. One woman, a reporter from a local radio station scheduled to conduct an interview with Altfest for a story about how New York couples meet, married Ross two years after Altfest was out of the office for the interview and Ross took his place.

Though Ross was pleased that TACT, in a way, did help him meet his wife, he eventually grew tired of the project, moved to London, and began working in finance instead. Despite the success of the project, Ross says that, looking back on TACT now, he considered computer dating to be nothing more than a gimmick and a short-lived fad.

Oh, how times have changed...

What does it take to make a summer date as hot as the summer weather?

"With summer officially in full swing," says the blog of Match.com, "we polled our Match.com members to find out this year's summer dating essentials to help heat up their love lives - from tips on picking the perfect place for a summer date to fashion do's or don'ts."

Ladies, if you're headed to a sizzling summer date, here's what the men of Match.com think you should wear and what you should leave at home:

• Copped tops: Some men - 12%, to be exact - think that midriff-baring shirts don't belong on a date.
• Your bikini: 34% of women said that they'd be willing to wear a bikini in front of their dates, but only after they'd seen each other 1-3 times. Men, on the other hand, were more comfortable with their beach bodies - 23% said they would don a swimsuit on a first date.
• Braided hair: Boys dig braids! 63% of men said that they like it when women wear braids in their hair.
• White pants & short skirts: 81% of men think their dates look great in white pants, and it should come as no surprise that a whopping 92% are firmly in favor of short skirts.
• Thong swimsuits: Save your thongs for the bedroom - 53% of male participants said that it's not acceptable for a woman to wear a thong swimsuit on a date at a pool or beach.
• Giant sunglasses: Most men think the bug-eyed sunglasses trend should be for celebrities only. 56% said they aren't into it.

The ladies of Match.com offered the following style advice for men on summer dates:

• Your abs: They may be phenomenal, but women would prefer that you keep your shirt on. 80% said that a guy shouldn't walk around shirtless on a date, no matter how toned his stomach is.
• Skinny jeans: Ditch 'em. 68% of women said a man should never wear skinny jeans on a date.
• Speedos: Speedos are definitely a spee-don't. 91% of women said that a man should never slip into a speedo for a date.
• Polo shirts: A polo shirt and khakis are the preferred uniform for men on summer dates. 93% of women expressed a preference for this look, while 87% opted for the polo shirt and shorts.
• Shade: Visors are a huge turn off, said 84% of women. Stick to aviators (favored by 75% of women) instead.

The Match.com survey also found that, although 1% of singles still prefer to meet a date over coffee during the summer, the majority prefer to meet in cooler locations, like a deck or patio. And for those who are wondering whether or not a summer fling is a good idea in the first place, 49% of participants said that they'd had a summer romance that turned into a long-term relationship.

For more information on this dating service you should check out our review of Match.com.

How have marriage and divorce changed over the years?

In 2009. the United States Census Bureau surveyed 39,000 households in an attempt to get a glimpse into the evolution of marriage and divorce in America. The results from the Survey of Income and program Participation (SIPP) were just released, and FlowingData.com used their findings to create visual charts of the state of America marriage. You can see the original graphs here, at their website.

Their primary finding concerns the ages at which men and women choose to marry. "In 1986," says FlowingData.com, "nearly three-quarters of women from 25 to 29 years old had married at least once, while in 2009, only about half of women in the age group have married."

In each survey year - 1986, 1996, 2001, 2004, and 2009 - the graph shows the same trend: the lowest percentage of married people fall into the 25-29 years bracket, and the percentage steadily increases through each successive age bracket until it peaks at "55 and older." The huge disparity seen in the 25-29 years category between the 1986 graph and the 2009 graph is almost completely gone by the time participants had reached the 55+ group, where the points from the two graphs nearly intersect.

In most age and race groups, according to the survey, a "lower percentage of people were married in 2009 than in 1986. However, in some groups, such as those 55 years and older, a higher percentage of people were married in 2009 then in 1986; although the differences are quite small." The SIPP results also confirmed that, in 2009, it was no longer particularly uncommon for someone, either male or female, to be married more than once.

Divided into ethnic groups, the survey found that, though in most cases fewer marriages happened for each age bracket in 2009 than in 1986, marriage in both years increased at a fairly steady rate (regardless of race) as age increased. The lowest percentage of married people for all ethnic groups fell in "25-29 years," and the highest in "55 and older." The greatest differences between 1986 and 2009 are seen in the 25-29 age bracket for all races.

And what of the infamous seven year itch? According to this survey, the idea of the seven year itch isn't completely accurate, but it isn't far from the truth either. "The median marrying age for men is 24.5," reports FlowingData.com, "and median divorce age is 32.0. For women: 22.3 and 30.1, respectively."