Dating Services

Perfectmatch.com recently started offering a new membership plan which is a step higher than their Premium membership, called Platinum. What is the difference?

• Preferred Search Results - Your profile will appear higher in the search results than other members.
• Highlighted Featured Platinum Profile on your profile and in search results.
• Members with approved profiles can initiate communication with you and respond to your emails.

I have been after dating sites for a while now to allow free members to communicate with paid members and I am glad to see Perfectmatch.com has come around. On a per month basis the Platinum membership is actually cheaper than the Premium membership (around $33). What Perfectmatch.com did is offer Premium memberships for 1, 2, and 3 month terms. Platinum memberships are only available for 4 and 6 month terms.

If this membership name sounds familiar to you, Match.com also has a Platinum membership (see Story).

To find out more about this dating site, read our review of Perfectmatch.com.

I received an email from Perfectmatch.com advertising a free search and communication weekend starting Friday, February 19th, 2010 to Monday, February 22nd, 2010. Looking on the dating sites homepage though, there is no mention of this promotion. This is a little strange but, I did log into Perfectmatch with my old account and was greeted with a banner advertising the free weekend on the member's homepage. I was also able to communicate with members.

So it looks like that this promotion is only available to existing members. Too bad new members couldn't have a go at it. eHarmony was the first dating site to offer this type of free weekend promotion a couple of years ago and just last year Chemistry followed suit. This is the first time I have heard of PerfectMatch doing this.

If you are interested in this dating site, you can read our Perfectmatch.com review for more information.

Popular online dating website OKCupid recently dug into its member base and asked the question: why are men not seeking women of their equal age or older? According to their post-Valentine’s Day blog entry, the typical user on their site aged 22-30 states age preferences for female matches to be younger. Now, that was worth a deeper look by their staff and what they found might surprise you.

OKCupid’s user base peaks at about 7 million users aged 24 and drops significantly as age increases. This could simply be a factor of OKCupid having developed into an online dating site that caters to a younger crowd or that membership over age 30 decreases because people in those age brackets are in relationships/married. So herein lies the question that OKCupid set out to answer: why are older women on the site having a more difficult time matching-up than their male counterparts?

It all comes down to age preferences stated in the male user’s online dating profile, they say.

While the male to female user ratio on OKCupid stays fairly balanced across the age brackets, men consistently indicate in their user profiles that they prefer dating younger women. While they do indicate that they are open to older women, it’s with much narrower limits. For example: OKCupid’s average 31-year-old male user sets his age range preference for women as 22 to 35 – a full nine years younger but a mere 4 years older. And here’s the shocker – as male age increases, age preferences toward younger women skew even further. They give the example of their median 42-year-old male user typically looking for women up to fifteen years younger but only three years their senior.

Interestingly enough, when OKCupid flipped the coin, they found women to be much more tolerant of age ranges. Women on the site typically message those younger and older than themselves with equal frequency. They also become more open to dating older men after age 29 according to messaging practices tracked on the site.

So with the skew in view, where does that leave men and women in the quest to find a match when age enters the equation? Check out the second installment of this article: OKCupid Says Men Are Looking for Older Women and Just Don’t Know It. For more information on the dating site, check out our review of OkCupid.

The recipient of the Editor's Top Pick - Innovative Award is Match.com. In 2009 Match.com introduced a number of new features and it was also the year in which Match.com embraced the smartphone. MatchMobile has been around since 2005 (I believe) and allows the everyday cell phone to connect to Match.com, search for matches, view profiles, and send emails. Match.com decided to expand on this functionality and last March released an iPhone App. With its larger high quality screen and touch interface the iPhone made mobile dating easier to view and simpler to use (no typing on a 10 digit pad). iPhone users also were able to edit their profiles and use other features of Match.com which is not available on MatchMobile. The iPhone with its built in GPS also allowed Match.com to offer location based dating to its members. This opt-in feature allowed you to see if there are other Match.com members nearby in which you could communicate with. This is ideal for singles who enjoy the bar scene and want to find other singles in the vicinity. Later in the year the Palm Pixi and Palm Pre also saw the release of a similar Match.com dating application and in January 2010 an App for the Blackberry was released. An app for Andriod is also expected soon and once released Match.com will have a dating application for 90 percent of all smartphones. This gives them a huge jump on the competition.

Late in December of 2009 Match.com released a suite of matching tools called "My Match". These tools were designed to complement Match.com's existing search capabilities. In the suite members will be familiar with the "Daily 5" which Match first launch in December of 2008. The Daily 5 provides a quick and easy way for you to review qualified matches based on your profile information and preferences. The next tool is called "Mutual Match". It works by sifting through Match.com's database of members to identify those who not only match your criteria, but whose criteria also match you. The third dating tool is called "Singled Out". This feature allows Match.com when they find a member who really stands out as someone they think you'll have a connection with, to "single this match out" for your consideration. The last tool in the suite is called "Like At First Sight". This tool has an additional quiz component which concentrates on finding out what makes a good first impression to you. Based on your answers Match.com will introduce you to members which should have immediate appeal for you.

If you are interested in a dating service which continues to innovate and create a better overall online dating experience then Match.com is an ideal choice.

Read our review of Match.com for more information about this online dating service or visit Match.com directly.

This Year's Runner Up for this award is: OkCupid.

According to a recent article from PC World, geeks are the most romantic bunch of folk out there! Whether it's men being able to better identify with tech-savvy women or simply the inherently creative nature of techier gigs, it seems that geeks rule both the online and real world romantic spaces. And guys - there's something to back up your argument when people say geeks are no fun!

But what about the ladies? The article reports that geek girls (or "geekettes") are more likely than their non-tech savvy fellow femmes to have more active social live. This translates into delving into the online dating scene as well as other tech-based social activities like FourSquare, Brightkite and community or regional groups like Meetup.com. So the bottom line is: nothing's wrong with being a bit of a geek, especially when you're out and looking for love.

If you're still a bit skeptical about the allure of "geekdom," we've put together a list of awesome things that geeks bring to the dating table:

• Great shoppers - A geek knows his or her way around online shopping. Give them a mouse and a laptop and they'll click their way to shopping bliss.
• They're connected - When you come across a fellow geek on an online dating site, they're likely to be better with emails and communicating before the first date. Tech is their niche, so take advantage of some great email banter!
• Oh-so-resourceful - Since a geek knows their way around a computer just think of their ability to tap into the local pulse. Live music, local events, movies and dinner reservations - the options are endless. Need something researched and planned? Give it to a geek!
• Simply handy - It's not so bad having a techie close by. Think iPhone snarls, cell phone questions, mp3 download and home theater system hookups. Sometimes you just can't beat "geek" for answering the questions posed by modern technology.

For the Editor's Top Pick - Match System Award, the recipient this year is eHarmony. This is the second year in a row for eHarmony to win this award, and the reason why is, this dating service continues to push the boundaries in matching singles. eHarmony also achieved a major membership milestone in 2009. By September they had surpassed 30 million member accounts since the launch of their dating site in 2000.

eHarmony has always been about matching people through compatibility. This is the reason for the in-depth profile and the 200 plus questions. eHarmony needs to get to know you before they can match you with someone. Most dating sites rush you through the sign up process in under 5 minutes; eHarmony's takes a good hour. This means most members you find on eHarmony are serious about finding love since they need to make a fair commitment in time before they can view their matches. Another thing that makes eHarmony different is they send you matches of compatible singles. You do not search for them. This may put some people off, but what this allows eHarmony do is make sure you see the right people who are compatible with you. Not the people you think should be compatible, by the searches you perform.

If you are someone who is interested in a long term relationship and are someone who believes matching involves compatible personalities then eHarmony is the dating site for you. If you need proof that eHarmony works, all you need to do is visit their Facebook Fan Page to see the thousands of submitted success stories and pictures on their wall.

Read our review of eHarmony for more information about this dating service or visit eHarmony directly.

This Year's Runner Up for this award is: Chemistry.