because you value your soul

Meet the latest trend of finding love, Dating 2.0. The best thing about online dating is the ability to choose from hundreds of potential dates freely. It’s even better if you didn’t have to spend a single cent on memberships or annual fees. Now here are 19 FREE online dating sites that you and I would want to join. Why pay when you can get it free? =)

BookOfMatches



Book of Matches is a 100% free dating site that offers simple search features by gender and age. Book of Matches allow members to rate each other and ‘hot’ rated members are listed in the ‘hot’ section. Another feature worth mentioning is the ability to give testimonials. What the site needs is a better search system where members are able to further narrow down selections and a less confusing interface.

BreakfastDate



Main features of the site include

• Standard search features like searching by location, zip code, age, with photo, etc.
• Message boards to participate in.
• Real time chatting through multiple chat rooms by topics.
• Internal messaging system.
• Ability to send winks.
• Own a personal private list of friends and admired members.
• Ability to ban by appearing invisible to losers.
• Photo galleries.
• Events calendar, keeping track of dates like birthdays and anniversaries.

Pretty much what an online dating site should be.

ConnectingSingles



A user can select to search local or international profile listings. Standard features include an option for sending flowers, bookmarking, blocking and know who viewed you, a forum and blog postings. Navigation around the site is pretty ok.

Consumating



What began as a joke between friends about online dating has grown a lot since its simple, snarky roots. Ben Brown and Adam Mathes found Consumating in 2002. The social networking website uses tags as a way for members to interact with one another and an online popularity contest to rate each other besides contests for photos and texts.

Despite the bold slogan of ‘a new way to find people who don’t suck’, Consumating focuses on matching people with similar interests by using tags, location, gender and age. The thumbs up / thumbs down options on user profiles will determine the popularity ranks in terms of points. Thumbs up adds 2 points while thumbs down removes 1 point. Start conversations like how you do it in forums. Choose any topic you want, respond to any topic you want.

Every week, users get to participate in 2 hot contests.

• New every Monday is the ‘Question of the Week’.An user is allowed one random or serious answer for each question. Users get the ability to include pictures. Answers are ratable.
• New every Friday is a contest for users to upload a picture depicting the topic selected by Consumating’s owners. Usually it is a self portrait. Others are allowed to rate the pictures which contributes to an user’s overall popularity.

Limits are

• 10 new messaging contacts a month
• 5 uploaded pictures
• One discussion subject per user at a time

Consumating is also a big supporter of its members meeting in person, usually in large groups. These meetings, termed Consumeetings, are publicized on the website’s front page to help promote the various locations at which meetings occur.

Google Base Personals



Google Base is still in it’s Beta stage. The online database allows anyone to add almost any kind of content. Sounds a lot like a classified ads service, something like Craigslist.

Users enter personal detials such as gender, marital status, sexual orientation into profiles highly targeted towards dating. Additional details like a short description, location mapping and anonymous email are includable. Wanna know how to use Google to hook up with chics? Here’s Damien Mulley for you.

IamFreeTonight



Launched in the first half of 2007, IamFreeTonight offers a unique online tool for singles to meet, find and schedule dates in a fraction of a minute. Since then, over 2,000 dates have been posted by its members.

‘Date Now!’ is the feature that conveniently lets users mention when they’re actually free to go out on a date as well as the activities that they look forward to doing. Members get to select from activities for their dates such as concerts, dinner, or even a drink. After filling in the necessary info, users simply wait for responses and select the ones they’d like to go out with.

Simple and easy, in the sense that you get to go on dates without going through the hassle of exchanging messages and contacts. If you have an extra ticket for a game or concert, IamFreeTonight becomes helpful. Free, unique and different.

The Impersonals



The social networking site that does not play ‘popularity’ games. Everyone is included, popular or unpopular, geek or not geek. Easily create a profile, answer about 6 questions and that’s it. The limit for sending messages a day is 3. If you and another person mutually bookmark each other, you’ll see a ‘match’ logo pop up. The strength lies in simplicity and minimality. There are

• No lengthy questionaires.
• No complicated ranking systems.
• No exclusive referral system that restricts membership.

Just post a witty comment together with your profile and see what you’ll get.

JustSayHi



Still young, JustSayHi is fresh out of the oven with loads of new faces and fresh members. The site has the standard features of an online dating site like internal mailing system, match lists, who’s online, community boards and the ability to block users. The site received a lot of backlinks through advertising sites like PayPerPost and creamaid. If you’re North American, give it a try.

LifeKnot



Lifeknot maintains the personal intimacy found at online dating sites by connecting people through shared interests in common activities. Besides they cater for the general by also including singles. The social network results in focus on making friends and sharing passions in interesting activities. No pressure to date is involved, though you may be looking for one. LifeKnot is also accessible from the 182 million cellphones in the U.S., allowing members to find activity partners anywhere they go.

LoveHappens



Going by the motto of ‘Help your friends find love’, LoveHappens aims to help people all around the world find love through introductions and recommendations. Not only singles, but married people are also able to participate. That’s right, you can either be a looker or a helper or both. A ton of committed users join LoveHappens to introduce single friends and write stories for them.

MatchTag



Still in its Beta, MatchTag sets you up on a date even before the introduction. Users choose respondents that they like most from activities posted in their area by tags and carry out the activities. Features include adding buddies, rate user reliability, targeted invitations and admirer alerts.

MatchTag’s founder, Jeremy, told of how he wanted a service for meeting activity partners to have fun with. He also pictured meeting with local people while traveling and finding out happenings around town from locals instead of wandering by himself. And so, MatchTag was born.

MingleNow



Founded in 2006 by BlueLithium Labs and headquartered in San Francisco, promotes both online and offline gatherings. Allows users who are attracted to the same places to meet each other. From that, you can discover places in other cities and areas that attract the type of people and have the type of vibe you’re looking for.

The places focused are mainly bars, clubs and restaurants. For example, if you attended ‘$2 Tuesdays’ at Club NV, San Francisco recently, you can check out the profiles of people who like that venue and maybe approach a guy/lady that you were too shy to approach.

Easily import MySpace layouts to profiles and post widgets like YouTube. It also allows event calendars to be shared over other social networking sites and blogs. There is a cool photo sharing feature, ‘clink’, where members post up a picture of themselves drinking together. Earn VIP points by inviting friends to join and you can exchange for stuff like free drinks. The strong content focus on photos and media sharing will keep you browsing page after page. Gives you life beyond the keyboard.

MySpace



On 8th September 2006, a news site claimed MySpace to have 106 million accounts with an average growth rate of 230, 000 users per day. For those who realize, MySpace actually acts like an online dating site, unofficially. MySpace will pull through easily because

• they have the users. Over 100 million is no joke. The No.1 value to any dating site is people. Even if the site has the latest technology, a low network of daters won’t cut it.
• it has a relaxing environment. Of course, dating sites give the impression of ‘I want to date you’. MySpace on the other hand represents a low pressure environment through it’s motto of ‘a place for friends’, which may also double as a place to try your hand at dating.
• there is trust. I would be more likely to reply to a girl’s response if she were connected to one of my friends. I can not only see profiles, but also comments of friends. You’ll get to also read what people say about themselves, about others, an what others are saying about them.

Personals Wikia



The idea is to create a HUGE repository of personal profiles for others to search based on fields like language, religion, etc. At the time of viewing, Wikia Personals is still yet to be fully developed. Check out TechCrunch’s interview with Wikia CEO Gil Penchina.

PlentyOfFish



The free online dating service that has been frequently compared to paid dating services like Match.com, eHarmony and Meetic. Revenue is based solely on advertising alone and the company is only the size of 1, its founder Markus Frind. Plenty of Fish got plenty of exposure when Wall Street Journal wrote about it on 23rd May 2007.

The site uses individual member locations and message filters to determine viewable profile matches between people. There is a chat feature, rating system and forum discussion group. Like any other dating sites, members get to receive and send messages, match lists, edit profiles, upload images and add other members to their ‘favourite list’.

PodDater



A video oriented dating site. Users video profiles or shared across the site and they even allow them to be downloaded. The benefits include getting a better picture of the person cause there’s sound and movement, instead of meeting someone who might have looked different cause they used their previous 8 years’ photo in their profile. The free membership includes video voting rights, comments, tagging and syndicating search preferences. If you’ve found someone that you admire, you could just message them or admire them afar by subscribing to their RSS feed. Check out the contest section.

Prescription4Love



Special conditioned people’s dating website. And by special, I mean people with STD, obesity, HIV, deafness, etc. It really does help narrow down selections and members get to enjoy better matches. It allows a more open and warm environment for members to participate actively without worrying about their conditions. I believe with honesty in place, members will be able to progress further and faster than if they were to join other dating sites. You’d be more comfortable in most cases.

RateOrDate



A meta dating search engine which features include

• Single Events

Google Maps is utilized to further help users find single events in their areas.

• Online Dating

Narrow down your selections by religion, ethnicity, orientation, etc.

• User Reviews

Here, listen to what other users of dating services have to say. Pretty informative to help select a dating site that most closely fits your needs.

• Forums

Discussion boards for members to interact and support each other.

• Crowd Matches

Rate a pair of pictures, based on if you think they would make a good couple, or not.

At the time of viewing, the site looks a bit imbalanced in the sense that while some areas are focused on, other areas are left out in the corner.

VerbDate



goes by the slogan ‘Where People Speak Before They Meet’. Launched in March 2006, VerbDate focuses on voice to add stimulation to the online dating experience. Other cool features include Flickr photo albums, initiating Skype calls when mutual ‘winking’ happens. Lots and lots of interaction is involved. The good thing about Verbdate is the ability for users to speak safely.

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