Dating Services

It looks like Match.com UK mascots Cupid and Fate will be around for another year. Starting December 26, 2008 Match.com will begin its new multi million pound marketing campaign in the United Kingdom. This campaign will dedicate 50 percent of the available air time to creative's for the new matchmaking personality test (see Story). The new ads will use humour and are targeted primary at women between the ages of 25 to 34.

Read our UK Match.com review for more details on this dating service.

Earlier this month ChristianCafe.com announced that American and Canadian members now have improved search functionality. Members can now search for other members based on a distance from a postal or zip code. This search parameter can be combined with other search options.

To try out Distance Search simply create a New Search just like before. You will see Distance as the third option down. The zip/postal code you see there by default is the one that we have on file as part of your profile. If you would like to change it, change your address under Edit Profile. You can always change the zip/postal code on-the-fly for every search (just input it right in the box). Every new search you do, however, will default back to the zip/postal code indicated in your profile settings.

Christian Cafe staff also suggest you update any saved searches you are using to specify a maximum distance to find members.

For more information on this award winning dating site, read our ChristianCafe.com Review.

Just a small news tidbit,

JLM Pacific Epoch is reporting that Match.com China (cn.Match.com) has been online since 2006 and has now more than 8 million registered members.

E Harmony has taken a lot of flack lately regarding their dating site not allowing gay singles to join. The recent settlement about eHarmony violating the New Jersey's Law Against Discrimination has only fuelled the flames. A large number of newspaper articles and blogger posts support the gay activists in which they have the right to use the dating service. Here are a few posts which take the stand on the other side of the argument.

The San Francisco Chronicle has an article called EHarmony settlement erodes everyone's freedom. Their main point is, E Harmony just didn't provide the service in which Eric McKinley (the plaintiff of the settlement) wanted, male to male matching. The author goes on and points out this would be like someone suing an Asian grocery store for religious discrimination, for not selling kosher meat

The unofficial eHarmony Blog has a post called From Arjewtino: 7 more lawsuits inspired by the eHarmony case. It is written by a gay author and looks at the case from several different angles. He also pokes fun at the E Harmony case by including 7 sample cases in which other groups of people could sue companies for not providing a certain service.

For more information regarding this dating site, read our eHarmony review.

This years Editor's Top Pick - Match System Award goes to a dating site which has produced more than 1 Billion matches, eHarmony. This dating service has continued to grow to become the most popular personality matchmaking system in North America. I am sure this continued growth will follow their newest endeavors in the United Kingdom and Australia. These sites share the similar interface of eHarmony in Canada and the United States but contain modified profile and matching systems based on the cultural differences of each country.

No other dating site that we know of spends 3 million dollars a year on matchmaking research. They currently have 6 PH. D. researches on staff who's full time job is to improve eHarmony's matching algorithms. Each question in their 256 question profile helps determine who is the best match for the member.

Just remember this dating site completely relies on their match system. You cannot search for singles yourself like most other dating sites. This is what makes eHarmony unique. It also means that the matching system must work, and it does! A study by Harris Interactive found in 2007 that eHarmony is responsible for 43,000 marriages in the United States over the past year. This means on average 236 eHarmony members a day get married. No other dating site that has a detailed personality matching system comes close to these numbers.

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

This Years Runner Ups for this award include (in no particular order): Chemistry and PerfectMatch.com.

Matchmaking service It's Just Lunch released the results of a poll which looks at dating, the economy and the holidays. Over 7,500 people participated in the poll which had 9 questions. Among other things the poll asked singles at what point in the relationship is it appropriate to give a gift and how much should you spend on a gift. 42 percent of voters thought a gift is warranted this holiday season if you have been dating for at least a month and 43 percent of the voters thought this gift should be worth between $25 and $100.

For more information on this matchmaking service, read our It's Just Lunch Review.