by Matthew Caverhill

Created on: January 01, 2010

The world of dating can be a tricky one, so savvy suitors have been increasingly turning to technology to help them find potential dates and perhaps even mates for life. With such a demand for these services, there have been increasing number of sites online catering to this audience, and with so many choices, one needs to weigh their options carefully to find the best fit.

If you are considering using an online dating site, you should ask yourself a few questions. For instance, what do you want to get out of the experience?

Some sites are better designed to help people who are looking for long-term relationships, while others are better suited for those seeking shorter-term romances or even casual encounters. A general rule of thumb is that the more a site is like a social network, the more likely it is going to benefit those looking short-term relationships. These are the kind of sites that allow users to browse a lot of different profiles looking for people they find interesting, but there is not a lot of value-added perks to the system. People just put up their profiles and mingle in the community, with the site not doing any real matching.

If you want additional help in finding someone for a long-term relationship, well, there are sites that are designed to do just that by actively helping you find a match. A lot of dating sites are based on algorithms that require reams of information which is usually derived from answering a lot of questions. These answers narrow your potential mates to people who have answered in a similar manner to yourself. Any site that claims that it makes matches based on a scientific method is likely this kind of site. In some systems, this process goes even so far as to make it more difficult for you to find or contact people who aren’t a good match by the algorithm’s standards. For some people, this is not an issue, but for others, having their options limited in this way is a real turn-off.

You also have to decide if you willing to pay to use some of these services. To some people, paying for a site that matches you with potential mates may be antithetical to their way of thinking, but for others, the idea that other people have also paid to be a part of a service, and are thus are more likely to take finding a compatible partner very seriously, is a major selling point indeed.

If you are considering using a pay service, be sure to look at comparable free sites and see if you really

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