This is the startpage for HurryDate

HurryDate Speed Dating is an offering from the well known Spark Networks Inc. and as such it’s all very professional done, perhaps even a little impersonal for my taste. However, if you’re lucky enough to find your city, or a nearby one, among those where HurryDate is offering their services I believe it’s well worth a try if speed dating is or could be “your thing”. Personally I’ve had no chance to attend any of their events, since I live in Sweden, but from what I’ve heard they do a pretty good job.

For instance HurryDate have a guarantee whereby you’ll get your speed dating for free unless you actually meet at least 8 people in one night and your success rate should be decent since their individual speed dating events are kept very defined, ie you can expect to meet singles that are suitable and not find yourself 15 years older or the only christian etc.

HurryDate – Speed Dating Basics

You should check out their FAQ section for all the details but in short HurryDate is running a pretty standard speed dating event. You’ll get a chance to meet and talk to at least 8 suitable partners for 4-6 minutes after which you’ll enter a quick questionaire, sort of a score card, and then you’ll be matched and the next step can begin. Normally, unless you present yourself as a total schmuck at the speed dating event, you’ll get a chance to continue meeting/dating at least one or two of the people you met and from there anything can happen.

Here’s what they say themselves:

I’ll continue adding to this HurryDate review after having had a chance to research them further.

Click here to visit HurryDate for more information

Is it just me or doesn’t FriendFinder look a tad dated? Don’t get me wrong here, I generally prefer a simple site over one with too many bells, whistles and annoying flashy stuff or autostarting video clips on the front page, but still… In my humble opinion FriendFinder could do with a make over. ie better typography and disposition.

After browsing around for a bit I’m still not impressed by the design but at least you do find your way around the site fairly easy and there’s actually a fair amount of info available in their “Magazine” and member “Blog” sections. Not that you can access any of it before having signed up but still some good signs of an active community numbering several thousand articles available and no less than 25,034 blogs. Looking at some more interesting numbers there were 842 members online, at my time of visit, and 1,250,177 active members overall. Not too shabby.

FriendFinder Membership

Signing up at FriendFinder is pretty straight forward since they’re only asking for very basic information. Once confirmed and activated you get a chance to enter more details and add photos etc. The standard membership is free and allows you to chat, send instant messages, and browse through FriendFinder’s worldwide database of profiles. You also have access to their interactive Magazine, where you can post or answer advice questions or post poetry and articles. There are 2 more levels of membership (paid) giving you more possibilities and making the searching and dating process conderably easier. For instance seeing photos, saving search results and much more. Here’s an overview of available membership plans and their differences:

FriendFinder Conclusion

OK, so as you’ve probably gathered I’m not too thrilled by the looks of FriendFinder.com and it’s one of those dating services I find difficult to recommend wholeheartedly. It’s strongest advantage is that it’s been around for ages and does provide a quality service overall but for general purpose dating I wouldn’t bother unless looking for singles in the US, cause that’s where the majority of members reside. Still it just doesn’t have the membership base of similar general dating sites so personally I’d settle for their free membership, do some basic searches and use the free features. Unless I come across someone really great that way I’d simply move on to bigger and better.

I’ll revisit FriendFinder.com in the coming weeks and extend this review to include more details. Until then you may want to have a look yourself.

Click here to visit FriendFinder.com

DateTheUK is one of the largest internet dating sites for singles in the UK, boosting some 3 million members, and I do like what I see. Clean, crisp design and straight forward navigation makes it easy to get started and since DateTheUK is part of the huge Cupid Network it’s a safe and reliable service.

Browsing around the site you’ll find a good amount of information and basic tips to date safely online as well as all the necessary details about membership etc.

DateTheUK Membership

As with most sites DateTheUK is free to join but as usual you are limited in what you can do unless you upgrade your membership to either Gold or Platinum level. As a free member you will of course get a chance to fill out your extensive profile, including lots of photos, videos, lifestyle details, personality and also do some basic search, but if you’re at all serious you really need to pay. The following payment plans are available:

When / if you do upgrade the features are great including video chat, instant messaging, advanced search and much more.

DateTheUK is also well suited for mobile users with a complete mobile version available, including Android appa and more.

DateTheUK conclusion

With their large UK member base and awesome search functions DateTheUK is a very good alternative for UK residents serious about finding a date and ultimately a new partner.

I’m a little short on time right now but will extend this DateTheUK review further in the near future. In the mean time I suggest that you consider paying them a visit if you’re looking for love in the UK.

Click here to check out DateTheUK now

Alright, a “mission statement” for a site about dating services may seem a tad serious but I still wanted to give some background as to why and how Dateway.com came about. Also despite that this site is above all intended to be fun and informative there is a serious side to dating and perhaps you feel more at ease visiting and using our recommendations when you know a little more about it all so here we go.

Dateway.com is in my humble opinion a pretty good domain name and I registered it way back in 1999. Already then I figured a directory type web site dedicated to online dating services would be a fun little project to develop and at the time I had just left a computer hardware business (brick and mortar) and gotten into affiliate marketing, ie looking for profitable internet market segments.

Online dating had just started to take off and after some research it also appeared that I just might make some money promoting quality personals services. To boot I was single myself and figured that spending time and effort researching and writing about dating services could also benefit my own search for someone to date and ultimately for a partner for life.

No need for a dating services directory

I began a lot of different internet projects in many different markets during this period and it was a very exciting time since it didn’t take long to not only replace my income from running a computer biz but soon also exceeding by far what I earned before. Mostly from helping people with debt consolidation, learning about credit reports and from various health related products and services and when it came time to start developing Dateway.com I suddenly found myself in a relationship and boom, no need for any dating services and definitely no urge to dig into that industry. Still I did some very basic development and even made some money in the process but my heart wasn’t in it, something that is if not necessary so at least a big help when working with affiliate marketing.

Fast forward…

Single again but not dating online

OK, so several years passed and although the relationship ending my interest for spending a lot of time building a dating directory ended after a couple of years, I kind of forgot about Dateway.com, except at time of renewing it. Every year when paying the renewal fee I felt annoyed for not DOING something with the domain but again I never got around to it. Simply had no time in between developing other sites and also got involved with a long term consulting gig which meant less time doing fun stuff. Als my own dating needs got taken care of offline, so to speak.

However, things change and I’ll get back with part 2 of this background as to why Dateway.com – Your Gateway to Dating finally has been started.

I’ll elaborate further on this soon in a second installement.