Online Dating

Moneyhighstreet.com posted a news item about the costs of dating in Britain. In it they refer to the NS&I Quarterly Savings Survey in which men believe they pay on average 60% more than women on dating in a year. In total British men expect to pay about £12 billion on dating this year with woman only spending £4.5 billion. This translates to about £50 per date for men and close to £30 for woman.

Across the pond, I think these statistics hold true here in North America. Most dating men I know spend about $100 on a typical date. This includes the cab ride, dinner and usually a movie afterwards. Of course, more and more woman are picking up the tab but in most cases it's still the mans job to pay (at least in my age group mid 30's). I wonder if this is different for the 20 somethings?

I've decided to do a little more research of my own on the Better Business Bureau in regards to dating sites. This was after seeing an article about rising complaints (see Increased Complaints Registered Against Dating Services).

First a bit more on how the BBB works. To do a BBB search on a company visit their home page. The best way I found to find dating sites was to type in the domain name without the www prefix. Just a note here, most free or small dating sites are not found on the BBB. Once you have initiated a search, a list of companies may then come up. Some have nothing to do with what you are looking for while others may deal with separate branches or offices of the company. As an example, do a search on "yahoo.com" and you will get 22 results. Another thing to remember (which I didn't realize at first) is a company doesn't have to be a member to have a report on them. Actual BBB members are denoted with an icon and usually contain a lot more information than companies that are not members. When you click on the name of the company it will bring you to the report page of the company on the local Better Business Bureau website. These local BBB websites are not all the same and some have a lot more information available than others. All the information I am giving below seems to be how most of the BBB websites display their information. Some BBB sites like the one serving Los Angeles displays the information differently. They grade the company and actually shows some or all of the customers complaints. This seems to be an update to the service and may be how other BBB sites will soon follow.

I saw OmniDate.com mentioned in the news recently. The twist to this dating site (every new site needs a gimmick these days) is you can go on virtual dates with your matches. You can pick from a variety of virtual dates which is represented as different animated backgrounds. You also have several detailed 3D characters to pick from which represent you in your conversations.

The graphics look good, though the window is a little small (at least at my monitor's resolution). The main problem is I don't really see this as virtual dating. The characters look good but there are not that many choices. So, if you go out on several virtual dates you may end up seeing double. OmniDate also needs to bring in audio chatting. You can make the characters express different emotions like laughing (with sounds) but all the chatting is done via the keyboard and comic book text bubbles. In the end I see this more as a fun text chatting tool.

I think virtual dating needs to represent the actual person with live voice and video. At this point they could put you in different settings like a restaurant or bar complete with appropriate sound effects. Also, when I here the word virtual I tend to think of those glasses that you can wear with tiny screens that can track your head movement. When you look around it feels like you are in actually there in the virtual environment. It needs to be something that offers true emersion with an actual representation of the person you are talking too. We are a long way off technology wise before this happens.

The closest thing to virtual dating at the moment is live video and audio chat. A lot of speed dating sites have this type of system setup. I haven't looked much into speed dating yet since it really hasn't caught on in the internet world yet but, David over at Online Dating Insider has been testing them out recently and has a few good posts about them.

PerfectMatch.com relationship expert and professor of sociology at the University of Washington, Dr. Pepper Schwartz has been in the news a few times late last month. She was interviewed on Oprah & Friends XM radio show in a live segment in which she discussed matchmaking and online dating. Then a few days later a WebMD article called The ' Good Enough' Marriage' was publish in which Dr. Pepper Schwartz was asked for her expert opinion on, if it is ok to settle for Mr. or Mrs. 'Good Enough'. This article was also featured on CBSNews.com.

Dr. Pepper Schwartz played a leading role in designing PerfectMatch.com singles matching program called the Duet Total Compatibility System. For more information please read our Perfect Match Review (Perfectmatch.com).

Here's an idea that us Geeks should love, lets find your match based on comparing your DNA with others. The Record has an article about a new dating site called ScientificMatch.com that does just that.

How does it work? ScientificMatch.com helps you find a partner with physical chemistry. According to ScentificMatch.com physical chemistry is based on the immune system. When they analyze your DNA for matching purposes, they are just looking at these genes. The general idea here is we are attracted to people with different immune systems. Nature's primary goal for us is to produce healthy babies with strong immune systems. The best way this is achieved is when a couple has 2 different immune systems. More details about immune system matching can be found here. ScientificMatch.com has identified six specific benefits of physical chemistry (backed by peer-reviewed articles) that if you share with someone increases your chances of falling in love. With your match, some of the benefits of DNA matching is you will be attracted to their natural body fragrance, have a more satisfying sex life and be more fertile as a couple.

So what is involved in this process? You may think you just send in some DNA and in a week you get a bunch of matches back, not quite. First off, Scientificmatch.com basis their matching system not just on DNA, but on the core values and beliefs of a person. So once the DNA process is complete it seems you will have to fill in some additional profile information. Scientificmatch.com also does criminal background checks as well so they need some additional personal information over and beyond just your name and address. This dating service is not available in all areas of America so you have to input your Zip Code to find out if you can join.

When you have signed up, you will receive a DNA collection kit which includes a sterilized packet of cotton swabs. You rub the swabs in your check and then mail them back. It then gets sent to the labratory. ScentificMatch.com stresses that this is all done in complete privacy and only the DNA that deals with their matching system is looked at (your immune system). Once the results are in, your sample is destroyed. None of your DNA information is every posted and it takes up to 2 weeks to process your DNA.

All of this DNA matching comes at a price, $1,995.95 to be exact, for a life time membership. Right now they are having a 50% off special for the rest of the year so a membership will cost you only $995. It seems like a lot to me but I am sure DNA testing isn't cheap. Does it work? I don't know and I would be hard pressed to pay there membership fee to find out. The scientific evidence behind it seems sound but I am not sure if we understand enough about DNA to gather the type of information we need to make this type of matching possible.

This month, eHarmony announced their 50 top couple's success stories for the year 2007. Each couple represents one of the 50 states. For entry into this contest the couple had to submit their success story of how their experience was on eHarmony. For this contest there where more than 25,000 entries. The grand prize winner for 2007 is, John and Mindy Pease, of Kailua, Hawaii. They received "a travel package including flight and five nights stay at a luxury resort in Orlando, Florida courtesy of Southwest Airlines Vacations and the Orlando Visitors Bureau."

On a related note, Lavalife is currently looking for it's top singles: Lavalife is Searching for Canada's 10 Top Singles