Our new Speed Dating category is now available to all visitors. Speed Dating events or parties are usually held either online at a website or, in the "Real World" at a bar, restaurant or other entertainment location. Speed Dating offers singles a fast and easy way to meet 10 or more new people in a single night. At a typical event you go on short 3 to 6 minute speed dates with each participant of the opposite gender. After each short date you then score the person as someone you would like to either see again or not. At the end of the night, the host (or website) then gathers all the scores and if that same person wanted to meet you, your contact information would then be exchanged.

There are currently only 2 dating sites in the category. I added the Lavalife review because, at the beginning of the summer Lavalife started to offer online virtual speed dating nightly at 9 PM (use to be 8 PM) to its members (see Story). HurryDate is a new dating site which we reviewed specifically for this category. They offer both online and offline speed dating events and parties plus a dating website where members can go after the event to further communicate with their matches.

For more information about what Speed Dating is all about, visit our Speed Dating Services category.

To find out more about the dating services currently listed in this new category, read our review of Lavalife and our review of HurryDate.

DatingSitesReviews.com would like to welcome our new blogger, Erika (RedheadWriting). Expect to see Erika posting her opinions, advice and insight into online dating and relationships, a couple of times a week. In her writing, Erika has a great sense of humor, likes to get to the truth of the matter and, is not afraid to express her opinion.

You can find out more about Erika by visiting her Bio page. To contact Erika directly with any questions or to suggest a dating topic, please use this form.

Welcome Erika.

Tom

It has been confirmed for eHarmony here in the US and Canada that they will be having a Free Communication Weekend, starting this Friday (September 4, 2009) until Monday (September 7, 2009). In Canada this will be their Labour Day Holiday long weekend.

As the name suggests, eHarmony Free Communication Weekends mean all members can review and communicate with all matches for no cost. These promotional weekends have become extremely popular for eHarmony, so expect a flurry of matches if you decide to signup. If you have been thinking about trying this internet dating service for a while now, this weekend, is the time to try! Remember, no credit card is required.

By our count this is Free Communication Weekend number 19 for eHarmony. The last one was held in July on the Independence / Canada Day weekend in July (see Story).

Read our review of eHarmony for more information on this popular online matchmaking service.

Once again it is the time of year for me to start thinking about our annual dating site awards. Last year's Dating Sites Reviews Choice Awards saw increased visitor participation and some energizing debates and comments. With the growth the site has experienced this year, I would hope to see over 1000 votes for the Single's Choice Award. Our main goal with the 2009 Dating Sites Reviews Choice Awards is to recognize the best dating sites of 2009. This selection process is done not only by us at DatingSitesReviews.com with our Editor's Top Picks Awards but by you the public as well, with the Single's Choice Award.

As requested, one of the improvements you will notice this year with the DSR Awards is, there will now be 2 Single's Choice Awards, One for paid dating services and one for free dating sites. This also means that there will be 2 parts to our poll. The first poll question relates to paid dating sites and allows to select from the 10 most popular. Of these, the top 3 dating services with the most votes will receive a Single's Choice Bronze, Silver or Gold Award. The second poll question allows you to choose from 6 of the most popular free dating sites. The top voted free dating site will receive the Single's Choice Award for a free dating site and recognition will be given for the runner up as well. We decided against having 3 placements here since there are only a limited number of free dating sites contending. Not all of the free dating sites up for an award have a review at the moment but we hope to rectify this soon. Here is the poll for the Single's Choice Award, please cast your votes:

Our review of BlackPeopleMeet.com (BPM) is finally up. I had originally planned to have this review ready a couple of months ago but things kept getting in the way of me finishing it up (my subscription even ran out). With the recent purchase of People Media (the owners of BPM) by IAC (owners of Match.com), I thought it would be a good time to finish up the review (see Story). Expect to see more reviews coming soon of some other People Media dating sites, including SeniorPeopleMeet.com and SingleParentMeet.com.

If you are interested in meeting African-American singles, check out the full BlackPeopleMeet.com Review now.

Are you a member of BlackPeopleMeet.com? If so, why don't you post your own review.

BlackPeopleMeet.com User Review

This weekend it is Chemistry's fourth free communication promotion. All Chemistry members will be able to use the site for free starting Friday July 17th, 2009 until the end of Sunday July 19, 2009.

For those of you who haven't heard of Chemistry before. They are a dating site which performs the matchmaking for you. You fill out the detailed profile (about 30 minutes) and based on your answers Chemistry will send you your best matches that are not only compatible with your personality and lifestyle, but also fit within your own preferences as well.

The last Chemistry.com Flirtathon happened in the middle of May, two months ago (see Story). For more information on this matchmaking service, read our review of Chemistry.