Free Dating Site Review – mingle2.com Part - 4
Search feature of the website is like all the other sites out there. Personally I like the advanced search of this site. Advanced search is where you can customize the search by relationship type, habit and all the options which you will fill while creating your profile. I would have liked to have seen the save search criteria which is a big omission from this site. You can find other people who are online but there appears to be no filter for screening out men or women.
Another omission was that in the navigation of the site, I could not see an option for going back to the home page or it wasn’t obvious to me right away, which is normally the case in most other sites.
The messaging section has all the features including mail, IM and ‘nudge her’. ‘Nudge her’ is the feature where you can ping the person in the same way as a normal IM client like yahoo. There is an unusual selection such as “Kick her in the butt” which I couldn’t see the need for.
A quick messaging option was not available and you need to send a normal email or if that match is online you can do an IM chat.
Tags: JustSayHi.com, Mingle2
Free Dating Sites Review – mingle2.com Part - 5
Other features
The site has other features to build its online community such as the blogs, discussions; and you can add match/people to be friends with.
If you are looking for website with lots of rich features then this website may not be for you.
Mutual match is the feature where you can a mutually match to another person but you need to have photo uploaded on the site.
What’s Missing:
Videos are missing from this site and you cannot upload your video.
Video chat is not available via free registration; you need to pay by upgrading, which can work against its message of 100% free dating.
They really need to think about giving extra features to its members.
In addition, they should add some more personalized questions to the profile creation section so that the user can write more about themselves.
Member Base
The site appears to have a good member base. People from all parts of the Unites States can be found when searching. If you are young and like to find the best date in your locality then logon to Mingle2.com. Majority of the members are in their 20’s to 40’.
Longetivity
I have provided a unbiased view on using this site and reviewing some of it’s features and they seem OK. So far I haven’t got any replies from the site and even on the IM chats that I tried to initiate, people did not respond.
Tags: JustSayHi.com, Mingle2
Free Dating Sites Review – mingle2.com Part - 6
Scores
The following are scores for the mingle2.com site.
| Ease of registration process | 3 |
| Look and feel of website | 2.5 |
| Available features | 1.5 |
| Profile creation & completeness | 2 |
| Matching System | 2 |
| Overall Rating | 2.2 |
Conclusion
The look and feel of the mingle2 website is good with a hassle free registration and profile creation. Like all other sites, searching is very basic with an advanced search option.
Messaging is so-so. In terms of features found on other sites, there needs to be more work done in this area.
Navigation through the menus wasn’t as intuitive as I would have like it. More features need to be added like video upload, video chat, voice chat to the free profile. If you are new to online dating you can try signing up to this site to get a good footing into the online dating scene.
If you already member of other free dating sites then you probably won’t get as much as you would like from this site. But the choice is up to you.
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Tags: JustSayHi.com, Mingle2
Review of Free Dating Sites - DateHookup & BookOfMatches
My first review of the three free dating sites (matchdoctor, jumpdates and plentyoffish) led me to explore more dating sites of this nature.
The two sites reviewed here, datehookup.com and bookofmatches.com (bOM) are 100% free online dating websites. It does not cost anything to sign up and use their service and the adage “Love is Priceless” applies.
Signing up to datehookup.com was not a problem and one thing I liked was that the registration process was quick and easy. It literally took me about 40 seconds to complete the signup. There were very basic questions about personality and you are pretty much ready to go. You don’t need to be a member if you are only there to read the forum, see other member profiles or to get new dating ideas. However, if you are coming to make friends and do some serious online dating that you need to sign up.
Customizing your own profile comes with lots of options and color combination. You can modify your profile page to look and feel the way you want and create your own unique web presence.
One thing I noticed was that it never asked me what kind of relationship I was looking for. Am I looking for date or long term relation? I found that to be a bit odd.
Look and feel of the web site was nice with well built menu options that are easy to navigate with cool color choices.
There are several options for searching for profiles - you can do a quick search, advanced search, search by nickname, directly search from the photo gallery or search by keyword(s).
The quick search is like all other sites but advanced search is what I liked the most. Though it is a bit cumbersome, where you need to specify the age, height, hair, body, ethnicity, sign, education, job, income, politics and religion and can be time consuming but it is actually worth it. You can save this customized search and get notification in you emails of any matches pertaining to this search criteria.
I found it innovating that within the searched profile, user can sort results; by best match, common interests, proximity to your location, by age. It is like filtering you search to get the desired results.
Members of the websites are young and in their 20’s and 30’s. You can add up to 16 photos.
The site seems to have all the common features such as send wink, mail, add as friend and/or favorite, block profile, reading and writing to the blog and forum boards. After you login the site shows what other users are doing in your area.
You can flag a picture and profile as violating the guideline and policy of the website.
My rating out of a possible score of 5 is shown below;
Ease of registration process – 3
Look and feel of website – 2.5
Number of features – 3
Profile creation and completeness – 3
Searching pattern and getting results – 3
Overall rating – 2.9
I think I was hooked up enough with Datehookup and take out a leaf from BookofMatches. It is again a 100% free dating website and they do not ask for your credit card.
Registration process is easy even if they make the claim “Create a profile in 30 seconds”.
Registration and creating profile took more time than what they indicated.
Look and feel of site is very cute with nice color combination, and again like Datehookup, you can customize the color combination of your profile to create a unique presence. However, at first site it seems to be crowded with too many options.
The site has all the common features of sending mail, instant messaging, adding as crush/friends and blocking other unwanted users.
The main feature of the site that stands it apart is it’s video chat function. Features like bulletin board, writing essay, uploading a video from YouTube or creating a playlist from Playlist.com adds a touch of social networking.
The site has excellent privacy options – like blocking mails, and manage your contacts which makes this an exciting site to use. There are also free games section where you can actually play flash games. Games like packman, blastbilliards and ninja gives the impression that you are on a genuine gaming site.
Ratting a picture is an uncommon feature added to this site but not sure why it didn’t show presentable faces to me.
Like the other free dating sites, this site also has features like the forum which is almost always available on other dating sites.
From a possible score of 5, the rating for BookofMatches.com are shown below;
Ease of registration process – 3
Look and feel of website – 2
Set of features – 3
Profile creating and completeness – 3
Searching pattern and getting results – 2
Overall rating – 2.5 + 1 (This is for extra features added) = 3.5
What do the old traditionalists think about the proliferation of online dating sites that are now available in India
India’s history dates back over 5000 years, and is rich in culture and tradition.
One of the strongest traditions relates to marriage and how couples are brought together. Marriage is arranged by parents in about 80% of the cases.
Parents first look for a suitable match. After they choose one, the boy and girl are made to see each other.
Among most Indian Hindus, the hereditary system of caste is an extremely important factor in arranged marriage.
Arranged marriages, and parents, almost always require that the married persons should be of the same caste.
Sometimes inter-caste marriage is one of the principal reasons of familial rejection or anger with the marriage.
Some of the factors in order of priority may be taken into account for the purpose of matchmaking are reputation of the family, profession of the boy and the girl, Wealth, Horoscope, Height and Age. Some Other factors are City of residence, education level, and Language etc.
Arranged marriages vary in both nature and duration of time from meeting to engagement. The parents may only introduce their son or daughter to a potential spouse.
From that point on, it is up to the children manage the relationship and make a choice. There is no set time period. So, in the case of arranged marriages, dating starts after the parents fix the marriage.
According to old traditionalists they accord great sanctity to virginity. Almost as a rule, while it is desirable for a boy to be a virgin at the time of marriage, a girl must be a virgin.
In love marriages also, therefore, the girl has to be cautious to marry the same boy whom she dates. As the importance placed on virginity, dating boys and girls are free to move around, but not go to bed.
Going to bed before marriage is prohibited. In fact, it can be said that the concept of dating in Indian culture takes an altogether different meaning.
Contrary to the Western world, parents form an integral part of the “Indian dating” process.
With the proliferation of online dating sites in the last five years that are now available in India, Matrimonial websites have become new buzzword in the world of marriages in India.
Parents of marriageable children have now have created an account and recorded in one or another wedding portal. There are many specific communities and Matrimonial websites in general, marriages that facilitate interaction between two people and families together.
This Matrimonial websites has been able to gain credibility among Indian families normally conservative. So it is clear that in India Matrimonial websites are getting preference over dating sites.
Dating does not exist in India as it does in other Western Countries .In Western countries, dating is encouraged from the teenage years itself so that one can find the best possible match.
Spending some time with each other traveling together, visiting each other’s homes, and living in with each other for years and even having kids before they take the important decision of marrying each other – all these form a part of the dating routine there.
If this is dating, then it is evident that India has a long way to streamline this into its culture.
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Tags: dating cultures, online dating, Worldwide
