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There's no perfect equation for getting laid in the Tinder age
Last July, I joined Grindr and things started off strong. I had a few good screws, a handful of hot dates and an intense summer fling. I saw more action in six months than I'd seen in the past three years. I was winning and a computer was helping me do it. Then, after an eight-day trip to Las Vegas this past January, all the action dried up.
Engadget editors on the highs and lows of online dating
Years ago, getting involved in a relationship with someone you met online was a bit of a taboo. Not only was it supposedly for weirdos, but it was also seen as a bit dangerous, since you couldn't tell who was on the other end. These days, however, online dating is not just mainstream; it's almost expected. Young professionals are often too busy to go to singles clubs and bars (not to mention these venues aren't for everyone) and it's just easier to use an app like Tinder than whip up pickup lines. It turns out that many of the staff at Engadget have quite a bit of experience in the online dating world. From those who met their significant other on the internet well over a decade ago to those who are still exploring this brave new world of digital courtship, we've selected a few stories to share with you. Check out our video above and read on below for more.
Online love with OKCupid and Tinder peaks at 9 PM
OKCupid might send out email blasts telling you to log in during a rainstorm because that's when the site's apparently busiest in any given location, but Nielsen wants you to know when the best time is to log in, period. For the dating website, the uptick starts at 6 PM, peaks at 9 PM and falls off sharply starting at 10 PM according to The Huffington Post. Those rainy-night emails? In my case, they arrive just after 7 PM. Surprisingly, the more fling-favorable Tinder is busiest at the same times as OKCupid in terms of unique audience, with over 50 percent of users beginning their swipe-fests during primetime.
Linked love: OKCupid offers options for polyamorous couples
One of OkCupid's biggest advantages versus other matchmaking sites is the seemingly endless amount of dating data its users provide voluntarily in an effort to find a compatible mate. The flip-side of that is OkCupid can use that information to tailor its site to emerging trends -- like offering the option for polyamorous folks to link their profiles to make finding like-minded people easier. Rather than awkwardly creating a joint account or hoping those 11 letters stand out among the rest of your profile text, The Atlantic writes that now those who list themselves as "seeing someone," "married," or "in an open relationship" can link their profiles (similar to Facebook) to eliminate any sort of confusion.
Tinder's parent company files for IPO
Match Group, the owner of Tinder and OkCupid, is going public. According to the filing, the company hopes to raise $100 million dollars. The mega-dating company states in its paperwork filed with the Security and Exchanges Commission that its advantage over its competition includes strong brand recognition (It's tough to think of a dating brand larger than Tinder right now) and the ability to scale. It currently has 59 million monthly active users and of those 4.7 million are paid. Most of its intended growth will probably be international. The increased funds from the offering will help it focus on product development, becoming more mobile, improve customer acquisitions and expand its portfolios with new products and buying up competitors. The company will be listed on the NASDAQ as MTCH. Of course all these numbers and talk of growth come down to love. Or at least the short-term "love" of hooking up. The Match Group's stated mission is "to increase romantic connectivity worldwide."
OKCupid test lets you choose nearly any sexual identity
If you don't conform to historical definitions of gender or sexual orientation, online dating can be tough. You frequently have to shoehorn yourself into a category where you aren't comfortable, and you'll probably get many unwelcome advances. OKCupid should soon have a fix, however: it's testing an update that dramatically expands the range of identities you can associate with your dating profile. You can declare yourself as gender non-conforming or pansexual, for example, rather than having to choose from binary options like male/female or heterosexual/gay. The site is only showing the new options to a subset of its users and hasn't said if or when they'll be available to everyone, but it might not be long before you'll have an easier time finding partners that accept who you are. [Image credit: Alamy]
What you need to know about the world of online dating
If a smoky, beer-soaked pub is the last place you'd go to find Mr. or Mrs. Right, online dating is a godsend. Ideally, it brings together like-minded couples in a non-threatening virtual space, so they can get to know each other before committing to a physical date. On top of the countless mainstream sites, there are specialized ones to help you find someone with the same religion, interests and sexual preferences -- whether you're seeking a friendly relationship, life partner or a one-night stand. There are serious pitfalls to avoid, of course: dodgy sites, "catfishing" and, worst of all, online predators. But despite the risks, online dating works. Most of us know at least one person who's met their partner online -- if you don't, I'm one of them. Nice to meet you! All it takes is some common sense and a pinch of savoir-faire.
'Siren' dating app wants to keep women safe from creeps
While Tinder solves a few of the problems women face with online dating -- like being smothered with lascivious messages from anyone and everyone -- there's still an issue of privacy that it fails to address. That risk of not being nearly as anonymous while looking for a mate as one would hope is what inspired Seattle's Susie Lee to create Siren. What sets it apart from every other dating app is that it keeps a woman's picture private until she deems it appropriate to share with a possible suitor. As Seattle Times notes, a lady can peruse the profiles of men at their leisure and if, say, she's into a guy's answer to questions like what their three magic-lamp wishes are, she can then show him her picture. The idea is to give ladies the control here and base matches on real-world personality, not a dry series of surveys akin to eHarmony.
Online dating leads to more break-ups than meeting in real life
Online dating has reached the point where it isn't weird to say you met someone via the internet anymore. Tinder is another story, but that's a digression for a different day. However, while sites like eHarmony and Match are quick to espouse their success rates (the former claims that 438 members marry every day) it turns out their data, much like OKCupid, might not be telling the whole truth. A recent joint-study (PDF) conducted by Michigan State University and Stanford found that people who met online weren't as likely to stay together for the long haul as their offline-matched counterparts. The separation and divorce rates for folks who'd paired up online was much higher than their offline compatriots, and more online-founded relationships tended to end within a year after the survey. Is Online Better Than Offline For Meeting Partners? states that those who met on the web were more likely to date than actually marry compared to people that'd met IRL, too -- by more than double.
OKCupid treats your love life like a lab rat
Facebook is perhaps the most prominent example, but the internet, whether we want to accept it or not, is a gigantic data-mining operation where every thing about us is monitored, measured and experimented with -- even our love life, should we choose. The folks over at online-dating service OKCupid (OKC) have recently detailed, among other things, how they futzed with the site's match-percentage system to see if it'd affect users' messaging habits. To start, OKC wanted to see just how much bearing system had on the likelihood of sending one message. When the service took two people who were actually 30 percent compatible and fudged the numbers by, say, 60 points, the amount of first messages sent naturally increased. As the OKTrends blog notes, that's exactly what was expected because that's how the site's users have more or less been trained; a higher number means a potentially better match. But, as anyone who's used the site can probably attest, one message doesn't mean a whole lot.
Apps for Valentine's Day
Image: Shutterstock Today's smartphones are, by their nature, quite versatile. It's impossible to guide every lover on Valentine's Day to the app for their particular needs, because despite the requisite "flowers, chocolate, *something*" expectations, we all do it differently. I tried to round up a few apps that might appeal to just about anyone who participates in tomorrow's festivities. Happy Valentine's Day, if that's your thing! Going out to eat If you're trying to get a reservation, one of the fastest ways to check and make a reservation is with OpenTable (hopefully your area's restaurants are on-board with their system). If you're out and looking for somewhere to eat, I still use one of the first big breakout apps from the App Store, UrbanSpoon. Of course, you can always ask Siri, but if you don't have a 4S, try Yelp. Going out to find someone to love Personally I've had a great experience with OKCupid, probably the least skeevy of the online dating sites and its app is quite excellent. There's also Skout, which I haven't tried, but it has good reviews and features a location-based singles finder in the app. There are also most specific love-finding apps like Grindr for the gay community and Cupidtino for fans of Apple stuff. Buying a gift Don't know what to buy your sweetheart? Apps like El Gifto, and Thoughtful (not yet available in app form) will help you answer that question by asking a few background questions first. You can use Red Laser to comparison shop (you hopeless romantic, you) or Giftiki to pool your money with friends -- the gift that says "I love you enough to beg our friends for money." Setting the mood Yeah we've all heard of Pandora by now, but lately I'm digging the DJ-powered Slacker Radio for less repetition and a wider set of music. Slacker also has several romance-themed stations set up, like this one called Love Songs. If you subscribe to Rdio or Spotify, you can build your own playlist for all-night romance without commercial interruption. My personal preference is Rdio, but it'll be fun to see all the romantic songs being played in Spotify on the night of V-Day thanks to Spotify's in-your-face social mechanisms. Having fun Spending a night at home? Try Scene It? Romance Movies for some lighthearted fun -- although it could be embarrassing if you never watch romance movies. If you want to reminisce about the times you had together and snapped with Instagram, check out Lovestagram, which will bring up all the pics of you and your loved one taken using the social photo service. iKamasutra is the App Store-approved Kama Sutra for the iPhone. You could just as easily buy the real deal in ebook form, but the app provides easy navigation to all your favorite, um, love pretzels. Got any other apps you recommend for Valentine's Day? If you need to call a florist, I'd suggest Google or Siri -- and that you do it fast.
OkCupid: iPhone users have more sex
I've been a huge fan of social dating site OkCupid's OkTrends blog for a while now. They're constantly sharing data (anonymized, of course) from their social site about what people find attractive and interesting in each other. The latest post has some fun information about cameras -- specifically, the perceived link between what type of camera OkCupid's patrons use and successful relationships. All of the data is fascinating (as usual), but there's one little note of potential interest to iPhone fans. Apparently, when compared to users who post pictures from other smartphone brands, users who reported using iPhones for their profile pictures tend to identify more sexual partners over all. As you can see in the chart above, male and female iPhone users (at age 30) report higher numbers of sexual partners to OkCupid. In fact, across all ages, iPhone users reported having more sexual partners than those who used Android or Blackberry smartphones to take their profile pictures. Of course, OkCupid is just having fun here. Maybe iPhone users are actually more inclined to lie about their amorous conquests, or maybe there's a higher likelihood that Android or Blackberry users have reason to report a lower number. But then again, we already know that iPhone owners tend to be rich, engage in vigorous activity, and like to be outspoken about their buying choices and preferences. And aren't those the kind of people who end up going home with the girl (or guy) from the bar anyway?
OK Cupid advises Panasonic cameras, iPhones for lonely nerds
While the kids at MySpace are hiding out in their top secret lab, hard at work on that portable media player, and the Facebook gang is busy looking for ways to make easy money off your personal data, the oft-maligned OK Cupid organization has one goal and one goal only -- to help bitter singles find love. It's a noble mission, and a daunting task, to which end they've pored through the EXIF data of over 500,000 of their user profile pics and came to a number of conclusions, including: Panasonic camera users are "hotties," while Nikon users are "notties" iPhone users are "doin' it" around twice as often as Android users Using a camera flash adds seven years to your picture There's more to the survey, and we definitely have our doubts as to the veracity of its conclusions, but we think we can all agree on one thing: make sure you remove the EXIF data from your pics before you go looking for a mate in cyberspace.
Cupidtino will help you meet your iSweetie
I'm surprised this hasn't happened sooner -- Cupidtino is a brand new site that promises to hook you up with a fellow Cult of Mac member for romantic entanglements. That's right -- they claim to be the first "Mac-inspired dating site," destined to bring single and like-minded Mac fans together. Trying to meet someone at the Genius Bars can be so expensive and time-consuming, and all of those boys and girls on OkCupid just don't get it when you try to explain why the Unibody MacBook is such a great step forward and why the iPad isn't just a big iPod touch. Enter Cupidtino -- the site was started up by three San Francisco tech developers, and while it's only in pre-launch mode right now, you can sign up for a closed beta (and don't worry, as one of TUAW's only available bachelors, I did -- let the hilarity ensue). When you sign up, you're asked which Macs and Apple devices you own, and so far, those are the only qualifications. But if my potential lady friend owns an iMac, that should be good enough, right? I can already picture us, having a romantic dinner at some local Italian place, charming music playing in the background while we share a bottle of wine, talking quietly about our favorite customized Automator services. Ah, sweet romance! [via TechCrunch]
