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An online dating profile can tell you a lot about a person - Does she smoke? Does he want children? What are his hobbies? Where did she go to school? - but there are a few key things that you will probably never find in someone's profile, like arrest records, sex offender status, and financial history.

When you're meeting someone in person, things like body language, tone of voice, and pace of speech offer a lot of clues about the truthfulness of what your date is telling you. But when all of the information you know about someone has been gathered from the text of profiles, emails, and instant messaging conversations, it is much more difficult to determine if your date is being dishonest.

So how do you protect yourself from predators?

You could try asking something along the lines of "Hey, you don't happen to have a criminal record, do you?" but it's not the smoothest of pickup lines and I have a tiny hunch that most prospective dates would consider it a turn-off. Instead, I recommend a more subtle (and confidential!) approach: the online criminal background check.

A background check is the ideal way to discretely find out if someone you're interested in is a liar or a potential lover. If you find nothing suspicious, you haven't hurt your date's feelings or made them uncomfortable with the aforementioned awkward pickup line, and if you do find something that makes you nervous you still have time to walk away from the situation easily.

Some Web sites, like DateDetective.com, cater specifically to online dating, but most sites conduct general background checks on either a statewide or a nationwide level. FreeBackgroundChecksUSA.com, for instance, presents basic facts about each state (like population and largest city) as well as information on crime rates within the state. They also provide links to the National Sex Offender Registry, and places where you can find out more about criminal records, incarceration records, and court records.

SnoopStation.com offers a free option that takes you through a short questionnaire to determine exactly what information you'd like to acquire and what information you already have. If you know the person's name, you then have the option to search his or her criminal history, financial history (or occupational details), marital/relationship history, vital details (like name, age, and SSN), location, or to simply find out as much information as possible about the person. If you do not know the person's name, you can search using his or her phone number, address, email address, or Web site URL.

CriminalSearches.com is a very easy-to-use site that provides information using a simple system of symbols that puts offenses into several categories: Behavioral, Business, Drug & Alcohol, Sex Related, Theft/Robbery, Violent, and Traffic/Other. Like many other online background check sites, CriminalSearches.com offers basic information for free and redirects to a paid service for a more detailed report.

I recommend searching several different sites and comparing the results, to ensure the accuracy of their information. You can also check accuracy by running a search on your own name. If you ever find yourself worrying about the honesty of someone you've met online, don't hesitate to conduct a quick search on an online background check site. The old adage is true: better safe than sorry!

It seems the economic recession hasn’t slowed down many singles’ search for love, especially when it comes to online dating.

According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, a report by Web tracker comScore Inc. showed that online dating nationwide increased 15% from May 2009 to May 2010, but in the Bay area (which includes San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland) it increased 22% over the same period of time.

Andrew Lipsman, senior director of industry analysis at comScore, claims the emergence of free dating sites like PlentyofFish.com and Zoosk as well as the tech-saavy residents of the area have contributed to the growth.

Paid dating websites like eHarmony, Perfectmatch, and Match.com say that they haven’t noticed any major shifts in the region, but hard economic times don’t stop people from looking for more serious relationships. eHarmony and Match also found that the average dater in the Bay area skewed older than the rest of the country. The average age for a dater in San Francisco on Match.com is 38.

The Bay area region is sometimes called “The Valley of No Dolls” because of the larger numbers of single male software engineers and other tech-saavy types compared to the number of single women. However, Match.com, Perfectmatch and eHarmony agree that there seem to be more women online dating. Perfectmatch claims 53% of its Bay area members are women, compared to 51% for the rest of the country.

For more information on the dating sites mentioned in this article, please read our Match.com review, eHarmony review or our Perfectmatch.com review.

One of UKs largest online dating sites, DatingDirect.com, has over 5 million members now. I notice the other day when I was updating the snapshot for our review of DatingDIrect that they have a new statistic posted on their homepage (at least it is new to me). According to DatingDirect, on average 5,224 conversations between singles in the United Kingdom happen every day on their dating service. A conversation is defined as emails between two members or, two members using the instant messenger to communicate. Taking this statistic a step further this means almost 10,500 people receive some sort of message every day from another member of DatingDirect.

With all of these DatingDirect.com members communicating with each other, this seems like the right dating site to join if you are single and living in the UK. For more information on this online dating site, you can read our review of DatingDirect.com.

If you're unemployed and afraid this will negatively affect your dating life, times have changed. A new study from online dating site Zoosk shows that unemployed men are more dateable than ever.

According to Zoosk, 60% of its female members surveyed said they would date a man who is unemployed, compared to 52% in 2009. Also, 90% of men said they would date an unemployed woman.

And when it comes to picking up the check, chivalry isn't dead. A staggering 85.9% of men said they would pay the bill on a date, despite 52% claiming a date costs more in 2010 than it did in 2009. Perhaps this is because women are letting men foot more of the bill...57% of women said they spend less on dates now than in 2009.

Another interesting trend found in the study was that an overwhelming majority of daters don't need to be wined and dined. 92% of singles are now open to free dates compared to only 85% in 2009. Also, 70% said they do not consider money an important factor when choosing a mate.

It seems the recession has taught us that despite our own economic concerns, money isn't a main focus for singles. Lucky for us, love trumps money.

The study was conducted in August 2010 via an online poll, which fielded 1,858 responses from singles in the U.S.

For more information on the dating site which provided this poll, read our review of Zoosk.com.

Wow, there has been a lot of eHarmony news lately. Here is some more dealing with the marketing and media side of the business.

Industry insiders are reporting that eHarmony has reached out to a number of media agencies including Omnicom Group, WPP, Publicis Groupe and Interpublic Group of Cos. It looks like they are shopping around with their rather large marketing account. According to Kantar Media, eHarmony "spent a total of $85.4 million in domestic measured media in 2009".

For more on the story, read Advertising Age. To find out other details about this dating site you can check out our eHarmony review.