Online Dating

Seattlepi.com did a piece on a facial recognition from ActiveSymbols called Eyealike. This technology is able to gather the properties of a face from a picture. Such facial traits would include hair color, location and spacing of eyes, and skin tone. Company President Greg Heuss hopes this technology would be used for online dating to allow singles to search for a match by just a picture alone. He also sees applications in homeland security and video copyright protection.

While I find this type of technology neat I feel its use is very limited in online dating. It's much easier and faster to get the member to fill out the physical attributes of his or her profile than to try and get them to upload a photo that meet the necessary requirements for the software to be able to gather the information. This technology works best when the photo is something like a passport photo, which is fine for the software but usually is not very flattering for someone trying to find a date.

Try out a beta version of Eyealike and find your Dream Date or Celeb Match.

Spark Networks just released their third quarter financial results. Spark Networks owns AmericanSingles.com (there flagship dating service), Date.ca (for Canadians), JDate.com (Jewish Dating) and a fair number other specific niche oriented dating services. With most of their dating services membership numbers holding steady, JDate.com saw an increase in paid members by 3% for a total of 74,078. This shows well for the service in this increasingly more competitive niche market. Overall Spark Networks have a healthy bottom line and will continue to be one of the driving forces in internet dating.

For more information on the dating services which Spark Networks owns, see our reviews of AmericanSingles.com, JDate.com, and Date.ca.

According to this article and a few others on the internet, Charlie Sheen and girlfriend Brooke Mueller have gotten engaged this week. The couple met over a year ago on the popular Sugar Daddy dating site MillionaireMatch.com. This is an online dating service where wealthy singles can join who are looking for younger unattached people to enjoy there wealthy lifestyle with.

2 years ago a trend started in China's big cities. More and more single Chinese men and woman started to join dating sites. According to CCTV international, there are now an estimated 8 million or more registered members with over 70 percent having a bachelors degree. The reason for this huge jump is the busy lives of the white collar workers and the easy access they have to dating sites through the internet. White collar Chinese workers are now too busy to meet new people the traditional way.

To read more information on this Asian trend check out this article at CCTV International. For information on 2 popular Asian dating services read our Asia FriendFinder or Asian Singles Connection.

I just finished up a review for the dating service Amor. This personals site is designed for Latin singles and is available in both English and Spanish. Amor can be found in the following dating niche categories:

Check out the review for more information or visit Amor directly.

It seems like a fair number of the major dating services have been updating there services recently. The latest dating site to do this is, Lavalife. Along with new features, Lavalife has also received a facelift. Though not a major interface overhaul, Lavalife did make their site cleaner looking and easier to navigate.

The major new features which Lavalife added include:

• While you are Instant Messaging with a single, it is now easier to view profile information on the person. This was complained about before and I am glad Lavalife listen to their members.
• The photo gallery now allows you to share up to 30 photos with the ability to assign the pictures to one or more of Lavalife's 3 communities (dating, relationship and intimate encounters).
• Members are now also allowed to upload high quality videos (up to 6).

According to Hitwise (Oct. 2007) Lavalife is the top Canadian dating site and is one of the top ten worldwide. You can read our Lavalife Review and user submitted reviews or go directly too Lavalife.com for more information on this dating service.