Dating Services

Date.com has just released their first version of a dating toolbar. This interactive toolbar lets Date.com members find dates whenever they are connected to the internet. It allows singles to appear online at Date.com even when they are visiting other websites. When a member on Date.com attempts to contact you, your Toolbar will let you know right away. Features of the Date.com Toolbar includes:

• Receive emails and Interest Alerts.
• Send and receive instant messages.
• Direct access to online chatting.
• Search profiles.
• Favorites list access.
• Statistics on members online and the number of times your profile has been viewed.
• Advice and news headlines from Date.info
• Searching the web, provided by Yahoo.

Creating a toolbar for a dating service is an excellent idea. It allows members to be accessed instantly even when they are not actively using the site at the moment. This increases there chance of meeting someone new. Most singles when they use a dating service are probably online only an hour or two at any one time. They then are off doing other things on the computer like emailing friends and family or just surfing websites. Now this "other" internet time and not just when they have logged into Date.com can be used to be alerted to requests for instant messaging, etc.

Date.com's Toolbar is available to both free and paid members of Date.com. For more information about this dating service, read our review of Date.com.

Looks like the weekend I reviewed ChristianCafe.com they had updated their Instant Messaging software.

I never used ChristianCafe.com old 'Quick Messaging' system, but their new one works well and also adds audio and video support for paying members. Reading there blog, it looks like there have been several updates over the last month to the dating service, which is good news for the Cafe's members.

Oops, I missed this one, sorry UK Daters! According to Netimpreative, yesterday (Sept. 24) was National Dating Day. To celebrate this, DatingDirect.com setup a booth at Waterloo Station, under the clock. This location is apparently a famous place for daters to meet in the UK. This clear booth had Celebrities, single models and DatingDirect.com members inside. The idea is singles who saw the booth can then login to DatingDirect.com to enter in a competition to win a date with anyone in they saw in the booth.

The target audience for this publicity campaign was for male and female singles aged 25 to 35. Will it work? Who knows, I just feel sorry for the people in the booth!

We haven't had a new review in a while so I took the time this weekend to try out ChristianCafe.com. This matchmaking site has been on my radar for a while. I've heard many good things about this site and for the most part I would have to agree, Christian Cafe offers a friendly Christian enviroment to meet singles. Plus, with their 10 day trial, anyone can try it out for free.

Read our review here.

CNN Money has an informative article about how the online matchmaking service eHarmony was started 7 years ago. eHarmony is one of the few dating sites which was started by a psychologist, Dr Neil Warren, who had years of experience counselling married couples. This enabled eHarmony to present a scientific approach to matchmaking. They continue to do this by having on staff "five Ph.D. researchers who are constantly tweaking the matchmaking software based on their latest findings". eHarmony takes the conservative approach to online dating and believes in Christian values. A lot of other dating services currently are pushing a sexier image.

The author explains as well the process of how eHarmony works, from signups, to creating a profile and then the matchmaking process. The article further goes through the ups and downs of eHarmony's success, including their latest negative press regarding gay singles being not allowed to use the site.

The Motley Fool has an interesting point of view regarding eHarmony's charges against Chemistry before the Better Business Bureau's ad council. The charges are in response to Chemistry's new TV and internet ads that mention eHarmony has rejected over a million singles.

The article goes on and explains that the Chemistry ads are free advertising for eHarmony and they don't necessary reflect them in a bad light. It can be a good thing for a dating service to be choosy over which singles can join.