Online Dating

Catholic singles who are looking to marry are turning to their religious roots, according to a recent article in The Denver Post. Rather than looking for matches based on similar interests or careers, they look for people who hold the same faith, values, and outlook.

When it comes to dating, Catholics do have a lot of choice. In 2008, the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life estimated there were 22.6 million single Catholics in the U.S.

Anastasia Northrop, who founded the National Catholic Singles Conference in 2005, explains the high numbers of single Catholics. She believes that "endless choices" have made it easy for people to shy away from marriage. She maintains, "people hesitate to commit because they want to keep their options open."

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Northrop could be right. In the past five decades, the percentage of married men ages 35 to 44 has fallen from 88% in 1960 to 69% in 2007. For women, it has fallen from 87% to 72%. However, the popularity of online dating shows that people seem to be looking for partners, and a growing percentage of online daters are turning to religious dating sites such as CatholicMatch.com.

Perhaps the uncertainty of dating today plays a part. With the number of people remaining single through their thirties and forties, coupled with the high rates of divorce and broken families, people turn to religion for guidance and stability.

This is especially true for Catholic singles. As of 2008, the Pew Forum states that 78 percent of married Catholics were married to other Catholics. The only religious affiliations with higher same-faith unions were Hindus, 90 percent, and Mormons, 83 percent.

According to founders of religious dating sites like CatholicMatch.com, people look to religion because shared faith seems to boost chances of marital success.

Well, the BeautifulPeople.com latest press release about them launching a virtual Sperm Bank sure has garnered some attention. Newsweek, Mashable, The BBC, and a pile of other media websites have all written articles on the news. Some of the articles are a little confusing though and make it sound like BeautifulPeople.com are actually running a Sperm Bank and distributing donor samples. In fact all they have done is created a forum on their dating site which allows people to connect with those who are interested in supplying their sperm/egg.

The BeautifulPeople.com virtual sperm bank is a forum where members register and state their procreation interests. A number of members already registered on the forum are married or in a relationship where for many reasons, an external donor is required. Likewise, many men have been able to register to help infertile couples or single women to conceive healthy, attractive offspring. ... Members wishing to donate will be able to access information on which clinics to contact and gather information on the donor protocol.

Cupidtino, a new dating website for those who prefer their MacBooks to PCs, launched earlier this month and has already gained a following of more than 16,000 Apple lovers.

The dating site is exclusively for fans of Apple products. The site's founder Mel Sampat had the idea that people who were passionate about their electronics could also make for good romantic partners. Ironically, he is a former Microsoft employee.

The website introduction reads: "Diehard Mac & Apple fans often have a lot in common - personalities, creative professions, a similar sense of style and aesthetics, taste, and a love for technology. We believe these are enough fundamental reasons for two people to meet and fall in love, and so we created the first Mac-inspired dating site to help you find other Machearts around you."

With all the niche dating sites out there matching those with similar interests, including video game lovers and environmentalists, shouldn't those who are avid fans of Apple technology find other "Machearts" too?

In your Cupidtino profile, you can reveal to potential partners what your earliest Apple purchase was and list your favorite iPhone apps. If that's not love, what is?

There are some limitations with the site. You can only access the site through a Mac, iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, although you can only view photos on a Mac or iPad. If you try to login through a PC, it will lead you to a page that lets you know Cupidtino is off-limits to Windows users.

For more on this dating site for Apple fans you can visit Cupidtino directly.

Great Expectations franchises continue to get into trouble (see Story) and this time it is in Bellevue in Washington. The Washington Attorney General's Office and a dating service in Bellevue, which is a licensee of Great Expectation, have reached a settlement which provides partial refunds to disgruntled customers and restricts how they can market their service. No admission of wrongdoing was included.

The settlement requires Great Expectations not to misrepresent the number, ages or locations of its membership. That settlement requires the company to display up-to-date photos of active members and to check on members' status at least once every two months.

The agreement requires the dating service to disclose the fees for services such as photos, events and Internet access that aren't included in the basic package. The dating service must also obtain written permission before accessing a prospective member's credit history.

Some of the contracts Great Expectations had with clients cost upwards of $8,000. Clients of this location may be eligible for pro-rated restitution if they have filed a recent complaint with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) or the Attorney General's Office. To become eligible for any restitution you must file a complaint by September 13, 2010.

For more on the story, read The News Tribune.

Back in February of 2009 Match.com sold its European Operations to Meetic. Well according to Informatica, a independent provider of data integration software, they completed the post-merger integration of Match.com in Europe with Meetic 40 percent faster than by using a home grown solution. It took only 4 months on the Informatica Platform.

The data, which required integration from Match.com in Texas (Orcale Databases) to Meetic in Paris, included millions of profiles from 15 countries. Photos from the profiles as well as all messages were migrated over as well. All this integration was done seamlessly and without interruption to any online services.

To find out about the dating site, you can read our Match.com UK review.

I've noticed a few comments lately on our site (see Comment) from visitors about chatting on PlentyofFish (and Dave's blog post as well). This was a bit of a surprise to me since back in April 2009 IM was dropped without notice, much to the dismay of many members (see Story). Well, I had time to confirm it tonight, and it does indeed look like the old instant messenger is back.

The reason given for the removal of the IM functionality initially was that it reduced the page impressions on POF by 10% or more. The reason for this was people were chatting and not surfing the site (and clicking on ads). I guess all POF needs to do now is update their Help FAQ since it still says "Plentyoffish doesn't have an IM.".

For more on this dating site, you can read our review of PlentyofFish.com.