I am what you might call an online dating booster. A Chantellaficionado of modern and efficient dating. I am not alone. Investors also pay close attention to this $700 million-a-year industry.

I met the love of my life and now fiance on Nerve personals. Well, he was on The Onion’s version, part of the same network whose users share a sardonic, nihilist sense of humour.

Thus my good friend D came to me today for some online dating counseling. Within two hours she had IM’d one absolute zero but also exchanged three emails with an “artist/curator” who was busy painting his Parisian terrace. She was simultaneously nauseated and intrigued enough to start planning a weekend date.

The Personals network of Nerve and Onion fame is still up and running, as are the old guard: Plenty of Fish, Yahoo Personals, Match and OK Cupid. These sites are absolutely the best places to start because they have millions of users. (Note that Match and other personality testing intensive site Eharmony have been rocked with scandal. The New York Times has just published an examination of their love algorithm technique.)

But the dating vanguard has advanced significantly in the years since I fell madly in love. Now, you can use Facebook. Just let your F-book friends know your status and interest. But, if you are like I was, wanting to meet someone completely outside your meatspace social circles, it is not the best choice.

You could give Twitter a try too. I’m sure if you just sent a “Oh god I’m dying to go on a date to a snotty and enlightening art opening dressed in a miniskirt” Tweet every couple hours you’d get a response eventually.

Dating 2.0:

I’m in Like With You
I think this is the best bet for today’s singles. It has a nifty active interface. It’s more of a dating portal with love news and a busy little scroll with all the new log-ons. It works to make it less intimi-”dating” (humour!) by giving you stuff to discuss and other reasons to be on the site besides a desperate search for love and/or sex.

See also:
Lemon Tonic

Woo Me
Why leave home if you can video date? On Woome you can create and join speed-dating sessions of up to six people that last one minute. When we were on the site we got invited to two “sessions.” D was too uncomfortable with the idea of video chatting to go for it. She doesn’t use Skype or iChat/AIM, and this service is definitely geared for people who see their computer as part videophone.

See also:
Speed Date Say Hey Hey Just Say Hi Verb Date Hurry Date

Great Boy(orGirl)friends
The idea here is you get a guy (or girl) with provenance, with recommendations from former dates. For me it would have kinda taken the fun out of going on a date with someone who might be really freaky. If you feel your meaning of “great” is one that is widely shared than this is a good place to try. Especially for those extremely fearful of going on a date with someone who does stuff like hand you a penny and say “Here’s a penny for your thoughts,” and shows you glamour shots of himself naked on a Jamaican beach wrestling with a tiger. (Henry sure was a memory maker!)

Promising start-ups with smaller user base:
Wannago: Event-based dating.

Match Tag: Interest-based dating.

Pod Dater: Record Ipod/Iphone video profiles for mobile dating.

Wikia Personals: It ain’t pretty but it sure has nerd glamour.

For all you bankrupted, rural, cruelty-free, and/or black-lipstick’d daters:
Farmers Only

Gothic Match

Green Friends

Marry An Ugly Millionaire

Caveat:

Twenty-four hours after signing her up on most of these sites, D’s mailbox is overflowing with tempting menfolk inquiries. She’s had to enlist the help of a roommate to vet her potential mates.

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Posted on Monday, February 4th, 2008 at 10:06 am. Follow comments through the RSS 2.0 feed. Comment or trackback.