It took a handful of Harvard alumni to create OKCupid, a site that uses math, psychology and a series of questions to derive a percent compatibility among its members. There's no fine print, no cost and no need for an Ivy-league degree to answer these brain-busters, and the more you answer, the higher your potential match percentile can be.
More than one million singles have logged on to the Lavalife, which claims to be the online dating site "where singles click." Cute. So hold onto your hats, folks, and get ready for this: whatever you're looking for (Date? Relationship? Fling?), Lavalife.com will hook it up. Amen to online dating. All cynicism aside, here's what Lavalife has going for it: the site separates users by what they're looking for, casual dating, a relationship or an intimate encounter. Other sites boast similar breakdowns but Lavalife goes one step furthur, using the same system to organize articles Click, its online magazine. Lavalife features a city guide, as well as LavalifePrime for singles over 45. An unscientific Love Buzz survey found that most regular members range from early twenties to late thirties.
So what's with all the vampire love fangfare (sorry, couldn't resist), anyway? Well, for entertainment bigwigs, what better characters to invest in than those that never age? All My Children producers were ahead of the curve on this one when they hired Susan Lucci. As for the audience, we get love stories that involve temptation, restraint, eternal love and blood-sucking danger. It's almost like watching Survivor, except better.
Do you know the site PlentyOfFish.com? No, well get with the program. It's North America's (and the UK's) most visited dating platform. In addition to that, it's free and totally ad supported. So, that's pretty fun.
Do you know the site PlentyOfFish.com? No? Well get with the program! It's North America's (and the UK's) most visited dating platform. In addition to that, it's free and totally ad supported. So, that's pretty fun.
So, when checking out SweetonGeeks.com, a site billing itself as "A Dating Space Where Gray Matters," I was expecting to encounter a bunch of trendy geek touches, like thick-rimmed glasses and Battlestar Galactica discussion forums. Mensa ads on the home page and a browse through the site's video links (a girl completing a Rubicks Cube in 17 seconds, an animated "Code Monkey" music video) assured me SweetonGeeks is not for "feeks" (faux geeks), and that only the truly nerdy need apply. Adding further to its geek cred is the founder, who once sought geek love himself. He writes on the site about knowing he'd found his wife when "he met a girl who at first seemed like all the rest. Until, she laughed with a snort and a chortle at his Star Wars references."
You may have thought it was a little weird for the Baby Boomer generation to be into internet dating, but it looks like their parents are getting into it too. That's not all, cohabitation is on the rise for the World War II victors.
A mediocre-looking guy recently approached my sister, a hesitant JDate subscriber, online. After a brief chat, the strangers decided to take things to the next level. Sex? No. Facebook? Yes. They exchanged names and allowed the inter-network stalking to begin. A day or so later, my sister burst into laughter at a Facebook message she'd received a video message from the JDate boy. Playing the piano and singing (in a surprisingly good voice, I might add) he began: Here I am writing strange girls messages via video, via song, but only because you looked like someone I'd like to talk to more.
WYou ever think that 'stars' are completely different from the rest of us? And then you're like, "hey, you know, I bet that Brad Garrett from Everybody Love Raymond occasionally eats, sleeps, and excretes. And he's a pretty big star. Do you think other stars have to do the gross stuff that we peasants do?" And then you read on Digital Spy about Lauren Conrad googling dates and you're like, "Damn, I do that. I might have to start watching this The Hills program. Maybe they're doing some other awesome stuff I should get into, like kickboxing."
Building a social network online, for dating purposes or otherwise, just got a lot more fun. Youniverse.com profiles your dating, love, mind, party and personality types--to name a few--based on the images you select to correspond to prompts such as "I find this the funniest..." or "To me, sexy is..." At the end of the quiz, your profile is revealed, along with how your image choices correspond to all other Youniverse participants.
Introducing the Talk To Me pin: the worst parts of online dating and the Home Shopping Network blended together, with a scoop of awkwardly getting hit on by random people on top. It's supposed to be a social lubricant helping gel awkward singletons together, but a yenta it is not.
