Christian Mingle

Christian Mingle has partnered with a Dallas, Texas ministry called H.I.S. BridgeBuilders. This ministry helps restore low-income urban communities through economic means, education, health and spiritual development. With this new collaboration Christian Mingle's first project will be to help plant gardens in underprivileged communities located in south Dallas. These gardens will offer healthy food options to people who need it.

Christian Mingle and H.I.S. BridgeBuilders also plan to host charitable events to raise money for this and other projects. For more on this story you can read the press release and to find out how Christian Mingle works as a dating site you can read our review.

I just notice that my connection has timed out when I tried to visit ChristianMingle.com. I first notice the problem at 12:05pm today. I am not sure if the site is too busy or that Christian Mingle's web servers are offline due to a hardware or software problem.

We will update this post when we get more information.

Update #1: As of 12:23 pm EST a message comes up stating that the site is momentarily down and to try back again shortly. No reason is given for the outage though it obviously is not their internet connection since they can serve the problem page. The Christian Mingle customer service phone number is also given: 1-866-660-7924

Update #2: I just checked (1:33pm) Christian Mingle is back up and working fine. They were still down at 1:00pm so it looks like ChristianMingle.com was down just 1.5 hours or so.

Christian Mingle is one of the top dating sites in the United States. The Drew Marshall Show is a Canadian radio spiritual talk show based in Toronto. What does these 2 businesses have in common? They have partnered to create a matchmaking contest called “The Dating Game”. This segment is an 8 week-long series that follows a contestant who is given a free subscription to ChristianMingle.com.

The first contestant named Danielle is 25 years old and is new to online dating. The series follows the experiences she has from joining Christian Mingle to the men she meets. A couple of weeks in she has met a man named Phil whom she really likes and who funny enough goes to the same church she does. The two have never met or seen each other before meeting online at Christian Mingle. Danielle and Phil have been on several dates and have decided they want to be exclusive and now pursued their relationship offline.

To find out more and to see who the next contestant is you can listen to the Drew Marshall Show On Saturday’s at 3:30 pm Eastern Standard Time.

Thanks to a $30 million marketing push in 2012 ChristianMingle now has over 8 million registered members of whom 154,000 pay to subscribe. A large portion on these members live in the Midwest and Bible Belt areas. Over half of the members (55%) are 37 years or older and a quarter of members (25%) are over the age of 50. In the last quarter of 2012 the amount of subscribers grew by 89 percent when compared to the same quarter in 2011.

ChristianMingle’s objective is to create long-term focused relationships. Currently the site doesn’t allow gay Christians to join in an attempt to balance the interests of its members. Spark Networks which owns ChristianMingle does have other dating websites for LGBT singles which cater to a more casual relationships. ChristianMingle’s main competition in the Christian online dating niche is eHarmony and ChristianCafe.com.

For more on this story you can read Business Week and to find out more about this dating site you can read our ChristianMingle review.

The Editor's Top Pick - Christian Award goes to Christian Mingle. Christian Mingle was a huge success this year. With over $30 million spent in television advertising Christian Mingle has become the most popular dating site for Christian singles. While their tagline “Find God’s Match for You” has been a bit controversial it hasn’t stopped this dating site from having over 7 million members join.

Christian Mingle is serious about their online community. In 2012 they launched an advisory board which includes church directors, pastors, psychologists and authors from around the United States. It is the responsibility of this board to provide direction and guidance on content, features and other initiatives to insure that the community feels connected and is routed in Christian values.

Christian Mingle has been around for 17 years now and is free to join and search for members. A small fee is required to communicate with other members beyond sending out smiles. If finding someone with Christian values are important to you, then this dating site is one you should take a look at.

Read our review of Christian Mingle for more information about this dating service or visit Christian Mingle directly.

This Year's Runner Up for this award is: Christian Cafe

Say what you want about Google (and believe me, I have), but I can think of no one better to gather the biggest stories of the past 12 months and determine exactly what defined the year 2012.

And they did. It's called Zeitgeist, and it's an annual tradition that analyzes over one trillion search queries in almost 150 languages to showcase what the world searched for. Using data from multiple sources, including Google Trends and other internal data tools, Google has turned the year's searches into a report that reflects 2012.

The report is divided into two sections: Trending and Most Searched. The "trending" queries are the searches that had the highest amount of traffic over a sustained period in 2012 as compared to 2011. The "most searched" queries are the most popular terms for 2012, ranked in order of the queries with the largest volume of searches.

Here's what Zeitgeist has to say about the most searched dating services of 2012:

1. PlentyOfFish: POF - the site formerly known as PlentyOfFish - is one of the most popular free dating services on the Web. Since its launch in 2003, POF has appeared in music videos, launched mobile apps, and conducted a contest with Lady Gaga. For a review of this service see our Plenty of Fish page.
2. Match: Match.com may be the most famous dating site in the world. Match has helped millions of singles look for love in 24 countries and redefined the way modern singles meet. Most recently, the company announced Stir, local events by Match.com. For a review of this service see our Match.com page.
3. OkCupid: OkCupid is famous for its lighthearted and affordable approach to online dating. The site is free to use, and features fun quizzes and multiple-choice questions designed to bring out users' personalities and encourage community interaction. For a review of this service see our OkCupid page.
4. eHarmony: eHarmony is where it's at for singles looking for long-term relationships. Its famous matching questionnaire, developed by eHarmony Labs, takes a scientific approach to love that promises to find a deeper level of compatibility. For a review of this service see our eHarmony page.
5. DateHookup: Online daters really like free stuff. DateHookup is another no-cost service for singles that made it into the Zeitgeist top 10. This year it hit the big times after being bought by Match.com and OKCupid owner, IAC/InterActiveCorp. For a review of this service see our DateHookup.com page.
6. Zoosk: Zoosk distinguishes itself from traditional dating sites by putting the focus on its social networking capabilities. It's currently available in 25 languages and more than 70 countries, and shows no signs of stopping in 2013. For a review of this service see our Zoosk page.
7. ChristianMingle: "Find God's Match For You," says ChristianMingle, a faith-based site created to bring Christian singles together for friendship, dating, and marriage. With over 8 million members, the largest and fastest growing online Christian community. For a review of this service see our ChristianMingle.com page.
8. AdultFriendFinder: AdultFriendFinder is an online sex and swinger personals site that helps members meet new friends and sex partners. What started as a small niche site quickly grew in popularity - it even debuted the music video for Flo Rida's "Touch Me."
9. JDate: JDate is one of a number of demographically focused online match-making websites operated by Spark Networks. JDate offers both free and premium plans to Jewish singles looking to date within their faith. For a review of this service see our JDate page.
10. SinglesNet: SinglesNet offers singles a feature-rich environment with free online dating tools like online chat, personals, and dating forums. IAC added the site to its ever-expanding dating services roster back in 2010. For a review of this service see our Singlesnet.com page.

So what do you think...did the Zeitgeist report accurately capture the spirit of online dating in 2012?