© chrisdlugosz

A new domain you've discovered is offering a dating website and you're wondering who's behind the site and whether they're reputable. Where do you go to find out?

With the influence of the Web growing, transparency has become a major concern on the Internet. The ability to find out just exactly who is behind a particular website has become important. And being able to find important facts about a web domain (like revenue, traffic patterns, and speed, and contact info) can be important to you, either for business reason or just to assess the credibility of the website. Where do you go to get information like that?

I recently came across the philoneist, a wiki that investigates and tells you what and who is behind a domain name. And with out much effort I found valuable information on a couple of websites I use pretty much every day.

An entry at the philoneist will often give you a screen capture image of the site being examined. That way you know that the entry is really about the site you're interested in.

PlentyofFish has begun to look more like MySpace - complete with background themes.

Not everyone is happy with the new development. David Evans:

Do daters at the worlds largest free dating site want generic clip art on their profiles? We'll see. It may be worthwhile to note that these really aren't themes, they're background images, and I can't even see mine unless my browser window is full-screen. I picked the musical notes background, although I might switch it to the roses theme and see how that works for me. What I really want is a pony or a unicorn. Twitter lets people upload their own backgrounds, why doesn't PlentyofFish?

We'll see how events progress...

© suneko

My friend Cherie Burbach had an interesting post earlier this month on how to get a date using Facebook.

Facebook can be a great place to meet someone new. You'll get introduced to single people through your friend's profiles, and get to know them by posting on their walls or commenting on their photos. You can easily get a sense of someone's personality by reading his profile and finding out about his likes and hobbies.

One approach to forming relationships I hadn't really thought about: play the games on Facebook. It becomes competitive and social...


© AlishaV

A number of sources (TechCrunch, Online Dating insider,VentureBeat) have reported on a new service that lets you outsource all the stuff involved in online dating - for a mere $480 a month.

VirtualDatingAssistants.com will do the work of creating your profile and screening your possibilities. When you sign up, you get 007 Dating Assistant. Yep, that's really what they call them because of the undercover nature of their work. The company says the Bondesque dating assistant will spend 40 hours per month on your file, surfing through eHarmony, PlentyofFish, etc. and will find you a minimum of two dates per month. Or your money back...

ChristianCafe.com and Single Christian Network have merged into a single site, according to Online Dating Insider.

The merger is a logic progression of the relationship the two websites have always had.

The two companies have engaged in co-opetition since day one, helping each out with traffic swaps and other business-related activities like shared spammer lists.

Single Christian Network always kept the organization small, as online dating continued to become more competitive in recent years, they decided to get out and they called Sam to see if a deal could be done between the two friendly competitors.

The companies have been working to merge their databases for several months now.

My friend Cherie Burbach over at Suite101 had a piece recently that looked at reasons why you might still be single, and how to address those reasons. They all have to do with attitude...

If you're single and looking for the right person, perhaps you need a change of attitude. This is especially true if you have a history of failed relationships and you're not sure why things went astray. Here are a few reasons why you may still be single. Fear not, however, all of these can be remedied.

Cherie looks at bad attitidues, fear of online dating, unresolved issues from past relationships, and the possibility that you're neddy or too picky.

© pedrosimoes7

© WordRidden

I've been contributing over the last few months to the content of a vibrant and growing site that points toward the future of the Internet and has profound potential for users interested in online dating. The site is NetworkingForPros.com.

When I look across the web at the moment, it's clear that the Internet of yesterday (static pages where you could find information and news) has been replaced by an interactive, social Internet that is about people instead of facts and figures.

One of those people is you. Today the Internet is about you, and about me.

Who are you? The old model of the early Internet allowed a handful of writers and bloggers to publish information about people. Most of those people that info got published on were the stars - the Madonna, Mel Gibson, Mylie Cyrus, and the like. Who where you in that mix? Probably nobody, because they didn't write about you at all.

NetworkingForPros.com is part of a trend that is changing what the Internet is about. It's helping to make the Internet more about you and less about Tom Cruise and Oprah Winfrey. And the best part is that you can even help control what gets said about you. Using a wiki format, NetworkingForPros.com lets you enter your own information. You can write about yourself and about your friends or colleagues. Like with any wiki, you can comment on and contribute to the pages that other people have started. It's an interactive space focused on providing information about real people. People like you. After all, just because you're not Madonna or A-Rod, that doesn't mean you shouldn't be on the Web.

NetworkingForPros.com is also the perfect place to write about those significant (and not so significant) others you met at PlentyofFish or eHarmony.

Find yourself and find your friends at NetworkingForPros.com. And if they're not there already, put them there…

The Online Dating Insider recently reported that Ning (a social network service provider that lets you create your own social networks) had developed a speed dating app that can be embedded onto Ning pages.

The app is called Speed Dating 2.0.

Based on the same concept as traditional speed dating, you'll get the chance to video chat one-on-one with other singles. Five dates, three minutes each, back-to-back.

If you have a Ning page, you may enjoy the app. And if you're not familiar with Ning you should take a look at it. Ning is a growing player in the social networking world.


© guspim

Mashable had a piece a few days ago that pointed out a new Twitter-focused dating site, Flirt140. As Ben Parr and Jennifer Van Grove point out, you can use Twitter to help with the laundry, so why not use it to help you find a date?

Flirt140 is surprisingly similar to traditional dating websites like Match or Plenty of Fish in that it offers the ability to wink at those that catch your eye as well as direct message them. In addition, you can see who viewed your Flirt140 profile. This can be disconcerting for some, but is a standard practice on most dating websites.

The drawback? What goes on it public - just like everything else on Twitter. If you're okay with that, you may like Flirt140.

© Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

The incredibly popular microblog site Twitter is evidently growing a few dating applications. Online Dating Insider recently pointed out a few of the new apps for Twitter dating.

A glimpse at the available Twitter dating apps leaves me with the impression that it could resemble five minutes speed dating, or something. Dating profiles in 140 characters? Sounds shallow, somehow. But Twitter seems to make anything it touches turn to gold. I suppose it wouldn't be surprising to see twitter eventually make big inroads into the online dating market.


© respres