General News

eHarmony has a new CEO. It is the well qualified Jeremy Verba. Mr. Verba last job was as an Executive at Zynga (they make popular Facebook social games like Treasure Isle). He also has worked at other internet companies like AOL, E! Online and CNet.

eHarmony also revealed that in 2011 they hit several milestones. Their mobile dating app (for both Android and iOS platforms) has had over 1 million downloads and on average it gets downloaded about 10,000 times in a day. The eHarmony mobile dating app also accounts for about 30 percent of all user registrations on the site now.

For more on this story you can read the press release To find out about this dating site you can take a look at our eHarmony.com review.

In February of this year Zoosk had 2.7 million Facebook fans. In just 6 months the number of fans has reached 4 million and is still climbing. This goes to show you how a smart marketing campaign and especially TV advertisements can make a dating site. It also helps that Zoosk has a unique but easy to remember name.

Zoosk first reached 1 million Facebook fans back in June of 2010.

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

Last week OkCupid.com added location based dating to all of their mobile applications (Android, iOS). Since OkCupid.com is geared towards a younger crowd (20 and 30 something's) and this demographic has embraced the smart phone, it just makes sense for this much talked about dating feature to be available through this service.

OkCupid has added a few neat twists to their location based feature. One of them is you can set it up to broadcast your location to people near you who match you based on your interests and personality. Not just to everyone who happens to belong to the dating site and is near you. Once you have connected with someone close to you through the location based feature of the OkCupid App, you can then chat via text with them and share photos.

For more on this service you can go ahead and read our OkCupid.com review.

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.