Dating Services

What services are included in the mobile dating market? Basically anything designed to be accessed by a cell phone for the purposes of finding and communicating with a date. This includes mobile phone applications (think iPhone Apps), mobile internet services (accessible via the phones web browser) and text based services (Twitter like).

The global mobile dating market appears to have a bright future indeed. In 2007 the industry was worth $330 million already (Juniper Research). By 2008 it had jumped over 60% to $550 million and by 2013 it is expected to double to $1.3 billion.

In part what is driving this industry are the capabilities of the phones themselves. As more people get GPS enabled smart phones and as the dating software become more sophisticated, yet easier to use for the user, more people are willing to try out these services. Still, mobile phone dating is more about instant gratification. It is considered a tech-savvy young adults tool, who is not looking for so much a long term relationship, but a casual fling or hook-up. This is why most dating profiles on a mobile dating service contains only a few questions since it is designed primarily to get the user to be able to search for matches as soon as possible.

Here is a list of a few dating applications usable on your phone:

• DateCheck - For background checks. You can search criminal records and if they own property, etc...
• Skout - An iPhone app that uses the iPhones GPS to offer a real-time location based service for online daters.
• Radaroo - A Twitter app for meeting singles.
• Zoosk - A dating site which integrates with social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.

The free dating site OkCupid is also planning to launch a free iPhone dating app in the near future which will offer a location based service. Sam Yagan, CEO of OkCupid.com says that the main challenges is to create a big enough user base in which to work from and to try to get people to the same place and at the same time.

For more on this story, read Chicago Now. For dating sites which offer services for your phone (web based and applications), check out our Mobile Phone Dating category. Our Zoosk review can be found here.

Are you creeped out by the idea of posting a dating profile for all to see and then going on dates with total strangers? Is the whole idea just a little too.... technological for you? You're not alone! But on the other hand, maybe you're new to town and don't know anyone. You're not religious, so meeting people through a church or temple is out. You don't dip your pen in company ink, so that cutie in Accounting is off limits. Where are you going to meet other singles if you don't do online dating?

Consider Meetup.com. Their tagline is: Do something • Learn something • Share something • Change something. No matter what type of activities you enjoy, you can bet there's a meetup group somewhere in your area devoted to it.

Do something
Why not join a meetup group of fellow runners and train for a local marathon together? Or maybe a meetup group of Civil War enthusiasts who put on reenactments? What about a meetup of hiking enthusiasts who take on a different mountain every weekend?

Learn something
Always wanted to learn how to knit? Join a knitting circle! (And remember ladies, even if the group lacks single men, it has ladies who KNOW single men!) Want to learn French cooking? Brush up on your German you've neglected since high school?

Share something
Join a local book club to share your experiences reading great literature. Find others who enjoy going to new restaurants and share in some great cuisine together. Join a playgroup for owners of Labrador Retrievers and give your dog a workout while you meet new friends.

Change something
Volunteer to help build or renovate a playground (also check kaboom.org for groups in your area helping local kids play!). Go door to door to encourage voters to support your favorite candidate. Join a group of environmentally-minded singles and adopt a section of highway to clean.

Meetup is a great way to meet new friends with similar interests. Don't by shy about signing up! Most meetups take place in public places, so you can meet your German language meetup at the local coffeeshop and your Labrador Retriever group at the dog park and feel perfectly safe while meeting new friends.

While Meetup does have singles groups, you will find a more relaxed atmosphere, without the pressure of "OMG-THIS-IS-A-DATE!" that we often feel on one-on-one dates. If the group of people mesh with you, you can come to the next meetup, or make plans to see people at other times. If they don't, you don't have to go back. No pressure, no problems.

I found Meetup to be very useful when I moved to take a job in a new city where I knew hardly anyone. I looked up some of my interests, dropped in on a couple meetups, and developed a circle of friends faster than I ever thought was possible. I really recommend meetup.com as an alternative to online dating and a great way to make new friends.

If you would like to meet some new friends, check out our full review of Meetup.com now.

eHarmony launched their Celebration of Love marketing campaign on their Facebook page during the last week of October and it sure has been busy. There are currently 2,156 fans and over 600 success stories (I stopped counting after 20 pages) from Facebook members posted on the wall. Fans of the page have also uploaded 379 photos for these success stories.

Most of these success stories are in response to a weekly contest being run. Facebook members can submit eHarmony success stories about how they met their partner and if they follow the official contest rules they could when a $50, $100 or $200 Amazon E-Mail Gift card.

Entries will be judged based on the criteria set forth in each weekly Contest announcement post. The judge or judging panel will select the entry that best represents the theme or purpose of the weekly post. The judge or judging panel will evaluate all qualifying entries and the subjective opinion of the judge or judging panel will be the deciding factor. Entries must be entrant’s own original work, must not infringe on any third-party rights and must be deemed suitable by Sponsor.

This is a great idea by eHarmony's marketing team. They get lots of great exposure and a lot of new success stories. These success stories also seem more legitimate than your typical quotes of successes on most dating sites since they are linked to the actual Facebook members account that people can contact or become friends with.

For more information on the Facebook page and the contest, visit the eHarmony Facebook Page and for more details about the dating site, read our eHarmony review.

It's the gift that keeps on giving. Worse than an unwanted present from grandma, chances are that if you have an STD it's not going anywhere anytime soon. Is your romantic life over? Only if you choose to let it be over.

Join a site for other singles with STDs

There are plenty of dating sites out there that cater to singles with STDs. Everyone is positive for something, and usually they list what it is on their profile. Why not look for someone who understands what it's like to walk in your shoes? There's transparency from the start, so you don't have to have that awkward talk before things get serious. Everything's on the table.

The Times Online UK took a look at what they called Quickie Dating Websites recently. When I think of a quickie I assumed they were referring to an adult dating site where people go looking for casual sex. I was only partly right. They were talking about Affair / Infidelity dating sites for married people. On this side of the Atlantic, the most popular dating site for people looking to have an affair is Ashley Madison, where it is even guaranteed. In the Times article they took a look at Forget Dinner (ForgetDinner.co.uk) which is very popular in London. It is not advertised really as an affair dating site but most people on the service seem to be married. Profiles tend to be straight to the point and a lot of the photos contain nudity. There appears to be about 10 men for every 1 woman on the dating site.

Here are some infidelity related figures for the UK. In 2008, there was 115,200 divorces granted and 29 percent of these divorces were the result of adulterous behavior. According to a Grant Thornton UK Survey (2009), 9 percent of women would cheat on their partner as long as there was no way to be found out. In comparison, 24 percent of men said they would cheat. In the same survey 20 percent of men admitted to having an actual affair where only 10 percent of women did.

In the United Kingdom every month 7 million people visit online dating sites. This is a 27 percent increase over last year, whereas the percentage of the UK population that used the internet only grew by 4 percent.

For more on this story, and to get a couple of men's and one woman's experience on Forget Dinner read Times Online.

The chief executive officer of eHarmony Inc, Gregory Waldorf, talks with Bloomberg's Pimm Fox about the dating service.

Gregory mainly gives a brief overview of how eHarmony works and how members need to be honest with themselves so that the matching algorithms will work and give them highly compatible matches. He also talks a bit about the current recession and the boost of members eHarmony has seen. Over the last few years, eHarmony has seen a yearly increase in members of about 20 percent. Waldorf also further discuss what the company is most proud of, being responsible for about 2 percent of marriages in the United States each year. This works out to about 236 eHarmony members a day.

Most of the information we have heard before, but one interesting point Gregory Waldorf said is, what their researchers found really important is starting with a pool of compatible matches. With the matches given to members, eHarmony research indicates that these singles give that particular member the best chance of having a long term relationship. From there members can figure out if they live in the right place or have a job that interests them and that they have that " right amount of special click" (his words not mine).

If this online dating service interests you, read our full eHarmony review for more information.