Online dating has just about everything these days, but there's one thing that real-life dating still has over meeting someone on the Web: your trusty wingman by your side.

Or at least that was the case, until Tandem came along. Tandem invites you to bring that trusty wingman (or wing-lady...we don't discriminate) along on your online dates. No, it's not a covert swingers site...it's a carefully-thought out "two on two meetup site" that hopes to ease the awkwardness of meeting strangers on the Web.

Searching for The One online is usually a solitary pursuit, but a growing number of sites - like Circl.es and Acquaintable - are turning online dating into a social experience. It makes perfect sense, if you think about it...meeting someone new is rarely a solo experience in real life, so why should it be online? More often than not, real life dates happen because we meet someone new through our social circle or while out with friends.

Sites like Tandem are now trying to mimic that social experience by increasing face-to-face interactions and placing the emphasis on meeting new people rather than finding a soulmate. "It's like a casual meetup instead of a direct one-on-one online dating meetup," Tandem founder Will Tungpagasit told the Huffington Post. "People are a lot more at ease when they're with someone they know, and so we wanted to build a site that leverages that."

Every Tandem member signs up with Wings who are trusted friends (which sounds like a great opportunity to avoid filling out your own profile by writing each other's). Finding a date is a three step process:

1. Invite: See an interesting profile, pick your Wing from your friends, then pick one of their Wings to join you on the date.
2. Confirm: Your Wing must confirm before the 2 invitees are notified. Then either of the invitees may confirm the date.
3. Coordinate: An email is sent to all 4 people. Replies go to the group but email addresses remain private.

Tungpagasit suggests that the most effective strategy on Tandem is to join with your most attractive friends. "Maybe someone doesn't think my profile is cute, but she thinks my friend is cute," he explains, "and she thinks, 'Oh, I want to meet that guy. I don't care if Will comes along.' It opens up opportunities for me because I'm not that photogenic, but I'm fun in person. I get an opportunity to win them over with my charm."

Sounds good to me.

eHarmony is having a free communication event this weekend which starts Friday November 16th and runs to Monday November 19th. This 4 day event is available on both eHarmony US and Canada websites.

This probably will be the last free communication event until the Christmas Holidays so if you are thinking of trying eHarmony this fall, over the next few days would be a good time to try it out to see if you like the dating service. So how does free communication work at eHarmony? If you do not have a membership yet you first need to create one. This will just take you a couple of minutes. Once completed you will then need to complete the personality profile. This is the key to how eHarmony is so successful at matchmaking so you need to complete it truthfully and accurately. It takes most people about a half an hour to do. If you run out of time and cannot finish the personality profile that is not a problem. You can save what you have completed and finish it at a later date. A basic membership and personality profile at eHarmony is always free and so is receiving matches. Once you have finished the profile eHarmony will send you your first batch of matches. When the free communication event starts you can then send messages to one or more of your matches at no cost. Free communication weekends do not include photos and Secure Call (a phone service). No credit cards are required so there is no obligation and who knows, maybe you will find a date for this Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday! 😉

The last free eHarmony communication weekend was during the Labor day long weekend (see Story). By our count on eHarmony.com this free communication event with be number 42.

To find out more about this dating site which helps singles create long-term relationships, please read our eHarmony review.

Some think of fall as the time for Halloween and Thanksgiving. Others think of fall as time for the celebration of Movember, a tradition run since 2004 by the Movember Foundation.

What is Movember?

Movember is an annual, month-long event that hopes to "change the face of men's health" by raising awareness of prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and other men's health issues. On November 1st, Movember participants - known as Mo Bros - begin the event clean shaven. For the rest of the month, Mo Bros grow and groom their 'staches and raise money for the Movember Foundation by seeking sponsorship for their efforts. At the end of the month, Mo Bros celebrate their achievement by throwing a Movember party or attending one of the official galas held around the world.

This year Zoosk is celebrating the month of Movember by surveying members about their thoughts on facial hair and how it plays out in their relationships. Here's what they found:

Facial hair is becoming more popular in America.

• Only 50% of American men say their father had facial hair.
• But today, 64% of American men report having facial hair.
• "Mustache" may be a French word, but only 40% of French men currently embrace facial hair.

The most common reason for growing facial hair is confidence.

• 44% of men around the world say they feel more confident when they have facial hair.
• Other common reasons for growing facial hair are: to feel more attractive, to feel more sophisticated, and to feel more intelligent.

The majority of women are a-ok with facial hair, and the goatee is their favorite form.

• 80% of American women and 69% of women in the UK and Canada don't mind their men with facial hair.
• But most women in Australia, France, Mexico and Denmark prefer clean-shaven men.
• The goatee is the preferred form of facial hair, as voted by 36% of American women, while the soul patch is the least-liked form.

Participating in Movember might actually increase your chances of finding love.

• 63% of American women say that they would be more open to romance with a man who grew facial hair for a worthy cause.
• Only 27% of French women say they would feel more romantic with a man who grew facial hair for a cause.

Men and women disagree over which celebrity sports the best facial hair.

• More than 50% of women think it's Johnny Depp.
• Men, on the other hand, say Depp's facial hair is second to James Bond himself: Sean Connery.

See the infographic here. To find out more about this dating site you can read our Zoosk review.

We have added a new review to the United Kingdom dating category for the dating service called “Girls Date For Free”.

As the name suggests females on GirlsDateForFree.com can use the site for free while men are required to pay if they wish to communicate with other members. The thinking behind this is, if the women do not have to pay for the service, more of them will use it. And, as you know, where the women are, men will surely follow.

GirlsDateForFree.com has become very popular in Europe where the site sees over 350 thousand visitors every month. Over the last year they also have been gaining traction in North America. The site appears to have a younger demographic and singles use the site more for finding a good time than searching for long-term relationships.

To find out more about this British dating site you can read our new Girls Date For Free review now.

There is no one on the planet whose work fascinates me more than Dr. Helen Fisher. Dr. Fisher is a biological anthropologist, a research professor, and a member of the Center for Human Evolution Studies in the Department of Anthropology at Rutgers University. She is also the Chief Scientific Advisor of Chemistry.com and the author of five books on sex, love, marriage, gender, and personality.

The latest of Dr. Fisher's riveting research revolves around a subject every romantic holds dear: love at first sight.

Does it exist?

And if so, does it last?

Love at first sight, Dr. Fisher explains, isn't only a human phenomenon. The animal kingdom also experiences its own brand of instant attraction. Scientists have recorded instances of love at first sight in hundreds of species, including elephants, orangutans, baboons, beavers, dogs, chimps, and more. Even Charles Darwin witnessed it, between a pair of ducks: "it was evidently a case of love at first sight, for she swam about the newcomer caressingly... with overtures of affection."

Humans inherited the ability to fall in love at first sight from our animal ancestors. Like other mammals, the female descendants in our primordial past had a monthly period of heat. They had to procreate within that limited amount of time, making it essential that they were able to meet and attract a mate quickly.

First meetings are still important, though we no longer have only a brief window in which to reproduce. We form a strong impression of someone within the first three minutes of meeting them, using only the limited amount of information we are able to gather during that time. For the lucky ones, that impression is one of attraction.

Believe it or not, men tend to fall in love faster than women. Because their brain circuitry for romantic love is more quickly triggered by visual cues, they are more likely to feel instant attraction than their female counterparts.

That may sound like a case of lust rather than love, but lust and love involve very different brain networks. "You can have physical intimacy with someone you are not 'in love' with," Dr. Fisher writes in the Chemistry.com blog, "and you can be passionately in love with someone you have never kissed. But these brain circuits can trigger one another, leaving you wondering for a moment if your attraction is purely physical."

Love at first sight shouldn't be dismissed as shallow or fleeting. Instant passion can last and become genuine, deep attachment. The question you must ask, Dr. Fisher writes, is "What percentage of the day and night do you think about him or her?" Romantic love is an obsession, so if you can't get your beloved off your mind, you can be sure it's the real thing.

To find our more about the dating site in which uses Dr. Fisher's research to help match their members, you can read our Chemistry.com review

We have added a new review for the dating site called How About We.

HowAboutWe.com has been around for a number of years now and approaches online dating in an interesting and unique way. Instead of concentrating mainly on the physical and personality attributes of a member, HowAboutWe.com wants you to find members based on their favorite date ideas. Every date idea starts with “How about we…” hence the name of the site 😉. Basically you are looking for a date based on what you like to do. This process stream lines the online dating experience since it tries to get you offline and dating as soon as possible. Your date is already planned so there is a lot less messaging. Once someone is intrigued with your date idea, all you need to do is agree to go on the date and then figure out when.

To find out more about this dating service with a unique twist you can check out our new How About We review now.