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Search

Themost basic feature of all dating sites is the search. You specify a set ofcriteria, and the site shows you a list of all the members who fit yourcriteria. Usually, you will see a small picture (or thumbnail ) of each member, along with the member’s screen name andheadline. Many sites allow you to choose the way the search results are sorted.For example, you can specify that the newest members or the members who havemost recently logged in show up first. Most sites also allow you to hide yourown profile so that it doesn’t show up when other people search.

Match

Matchingis much like searching except that instead of specifying the criteria at thetime you do the search, matching uses the preferences you specified in yourprofile. In addition, matching only shows members whose preferences aresatisfied by your profile. In other words, people who satisfy your criteriawon’t be shown if you don’t satisfy their criteria.

Sowhy would you ever search when you can match? You may wish to look for anarrower range of people than what’s specified in your profile. For example,you may be willing to date someone 30 miles away, so you indicate that in yourprofile, but if you prefer someone who lives closer, you can specify that inyour search. Conversely, if there aren’t enough people who exactly match yourpreferences, you may want to search for a broader range by specifying fewercriteria in a search or else try your luck with people whose preferences don’texactly match your profile.

Personality Match

Somesites claim to be able to use multiple choice questions to assess yourpersonality and automatically match you with compatible members. eHarmony isall about personality matching, and Yahoo Personals offers it as a premiumservice. Personally, I’m skeptical. None of these sites really explain how thetechnology works or cite any studies to defend their methods, so you just haveto trust their marketing spin, which I don’t.

I’mnot saying that you can’t meet people on eHarmony and similar sites. Manypeople have, so the technology must work to an extent. The question is whetherit works better than the “old-fashioned” method. As TR aptly puts it, How would you rather assess someone’spersonality: by knowing you picked the same answers to a multiple choicequestion or by seeing what answers they came up with themselves? It’s hard tobelieve that these sites could know you better than you know yourself .

Chat

Theonline chat or instant messaging feature was not offered by most dating sitesuntil a few years ago, but now it’s pretty standard. If someone is online, youwill see a little available to chat indicator next to the person’s screen name. If you click it, that person willsee a message indicating that you would like to chat. If he or she accepts yourrequest, you can send instant messages back and forth. Some sites also offer chat rooms for more than two people.Some sites also offer video chat, but I’ve never tried it.

Hotlist

Mostsites allow you to add profiles you like to a hotlist , so you can go back to it later. Some sites includefeatures that allow you to see who has hotlisted you or that send you a messagewhen someone you have hotlisted has also hotlisted you, i.e. mutual hotlisting.

Wink

Thisfeature goes by various names, including wink , tease , and smile . Normally, non-paying members are prohibited from contactingpeople who have not contacted them first, but most sites offer the wink featureto allow non-paying members to get in touch. The catch is that winks do not allowyou to write your own messages, and the people at whom you wink can only respondif they are paying members. Some sites used to allow non-paying members to winkback, but they must have figured they could make more money by prohibiting thatbecause I don’t know of any sites that still allow it.

Voice/Video Messages

Somesites let you record voice and video messages with your profile. Pretty muchself-explanatory.

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