Article Subject: The New Dating Tools: A Card and a Wink

Article Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/22/fashion/22date.html?_r=1

Article Rating: 3.5 (out of 5)

Website: none

Dr. Dato’s Brief:

There doesn’t seem to be any shortage of creative ideas when it comes to online dating and personals. Two new start-ups reviewed by NY Times claims to have a hybrid solution to online/offline dating with more debonair and effectiveness than traditional methods of dating. The two sites are called greenlightcard.com and flipmedating.com and they were founded in mid-2010.

The way they work is you sign-up to the site and purchase a pack of cards with a unique member number and on the back is an explanation of notes to the recipient of the card. Basically you hand the card discretely to anyone that takes your fancy and it could be on the streets, restaurant, shop, bar etc. If they are interested, they will go to the website and type the member ID and initiate a contact with you.

The idea seems novel, but only time will tell if this wins an audience with the singletons out there.

novel hybrid dating sites making use of date cards

Tags: flipmedating, greenlightcard, new dating tool

Article Subject: Online Dating for Nerds: Looking for Love in All the Wrong Postings

Article Link: http://www.pcworld.com/article/219333/online_dating_for_nerds_looking_for_love_in_all_the_wrong_postings.html

Article Rating: 4.0 (out of 5)

Website: none

Dr. Dato’s Brief:

A fairly chirpy article on two made-up users (Sarah and Alex) who try their hands on several dating sites in the run up to Valentines Day.

The sites they look at consists of Geek2Geek, OtakuBooty, Cupidtino, Sweet on Geeks, OKCupid, Match.com and eHarmony. All are subscription (paid) based sites and prices range from $4/yr to $31/m.

Although Sarah has a different take to Alex, their general impressions were the same when it comes to the usability of the site. Here is a summary of their findings:

Serious daters only - Match, Eharmony
Beautiful people - Cupidtino
Ugly people - Match
Ugly interface - OtakuBooty
Too many quizzes - OKCupid
Youngsters - OKCupid
Best responses - OKCupid, Match
Least responses - Cupidtino

Although the ‘geek’ sites were reviewed for the nerd readers of the post, they found that most people were pretty normal in these sites… how enlightening.

PCWorld dating review of five paid dating sites

Tags: dating site reviews, geeky dating sites, pcworld dating review

Article Subject: In online dating, blacks more open to romancing whites than vice versa

Article Link: http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2011/02/11/onlinedating/

Article Rating: 3.5 (out of 5)

Website: none

Dr. Dato’s Brief:

Here is an interesting article of a study conducted by the University of Berkeley, California on the preference levels of whites and black when it comes to online dating.

The study seems to suggest that in online dating whites are tend to contact other whites of their own race rather than blacks who are more likely to go out of their race and contact whites. More than 80 percent of the whites contacted other whites and fewer than 5 percent contacted blacks. This study points to many debates whether people are seemingly hypocritical, politically correct, racially founded etc.

Personally, I feel its a choice that everyone makes in life. Depending on how rooted you are in your own culture, you are naturally attracted or drawn to other similar cultures. This can be outside of the ‘race’ domain and exist for people who share a common interest and bond such as area of expertise, hobbies, religions, spirituality etc.

Also we may even find ourselves in the company of people who have similar background and tastes ie. the friends of friends and this may exclude a certain race not by choice but simply happens naturally. In this case, we tend to project personalities, needs and desires based on the people around us and our natural tendency is to go after people of that background.

are we really shallow when it comes to interracial dating?

Tags: dating blacks, dating race issue, dating whites, whites and blacks

Article Subject: Does Online Dating Work?

Article Link: http://news.discovery.com/tech/does-online-dating-work.html

Article Rating: 4.0 (out of 5)

Website: none

Dr. Dato’s Brief:

A nice useful post that reflects on the online and offline statistics of meeting people on dating sites.

It has been shown that online dating has become a major medium of choice for people to meet other people and it has been estimated that 23 percent of the couples have met this way in the US alone. However, it was also noted that rate of partnering hasn’t changed especially for women and people offline relationship habits have remained the same. Online dating has become a replacement for offline social dating outlets.

Many people remain distrustful of the online dating profiles since its easy to fudge age and weight and it has been compared to writing a resume where positive attributes are emphasized which can often lead to disappointments in the offline meeting.

Another statistic reported in the post says that the greater time you delay the offline meeting, the greater chance of failing because your expectations are raised too high before you even meet that person.

The final note recommends that you use the online dating sites more realistically ie. use it to filter out the desirables and then have the face to face meeting as early as possible.

online dating stats show an interesting picture about how we date

Tags: online dating advice, online dating rules, online dating stats

Article Subject: Biggest Mistakes Men Make When Dating

Article Link: http://www.onlinedatingnewsblog.com/video-dating-tips/mistakesmenmakedating-689.html

Article Rating: 3.5 (out of 5)

Website: none

Dr. Dato’s Brief:

This is a post on the onlinedatingnewsblog where they have blog articles along with videos hosted by OnDating. In this post, host Andrea Syrtash discusses the biggest mistakes men make when it comes to dating.

One of the interesting points mentioned was whether men should take a what a woman says at face value when dating. Many tend to agree.

Some of the biggest mistakes men make when dating as noted by this post include;

- Trying to impress women too much
- Pull the disappearing act
- Not listen
- Not enough of chivalry
- Not initiating

A user also makes some worthy comments on this subject:

- Being too predictable - can be boring to some women
- Being too nice - need someone real
- Distance relationship - women need physical contact

men make common mistakes when it comes to dating

Tags: dating advice, men dating, mistakes dating