In the past we’ve written articles on Datepad about taking a good picture. At the end of the day standing out on a dating site with millions of members isn’t easy and having a lousy picture only makes things worse. In these articles we’ve made mention of the fact that many of us have decided to take a picture of ourselves rather than having a friend do so. Why? Maybe embarrassed to say where the picture is going to be posted or maybe it’s all about convenience.

Well today there is a camera that could be designed specifically for this crowd.

The Samsung ST500 has a screen not only on the back of the camera which is traditional, they have also placed one on the front of the camera so you can see what you are shooting (which is most likely you!).

For more info Techcrunch has done a nice little writeup about this new product.

Disclaimer: Most of us have at least one friend that annoyingly takes photos everywhere you go.  While annoying, this same person is probably quite good at taking a great photo of you.  Save the money on the camera and get them to do the hard work. Maybe they even know how to work Photoshop?

A relative newcomer to the online dating industry, DatingDNA was launched in December of 2007 and bills itself as ‘Social Networking’s Free Dating Service’.  Incorporating a Facebook application and a recently launched IPhone app, DatingDNA allows its users to ‘integrate all their dating information across the web with one 9 digit number’.

Visually the home page is gorgeous!   The PacMan ripoff logo notwithstanding, the home page layout is extremely easy on the eyes and very well laid out.

The whole point behind DatingDNA is the compatibility score which is a number between 0 and 10 that’s generated when two Dating DNA numbers are compared.  The higher the compatibility score, the greater the likelihood for compatibility between two people.  And therein lays the catch.  The questionnaire that must be completed prior to being assigned a Dating DNA number is monstrous!  Seriously, it can take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour to complete this thing and is very similar to the Eharmony sytstem!

The questionnaire is also used to create your ‘compatibility threshold’; again a number from 1 to 10 that each user sets for themselves and which defines the level of compatibility that other members must meet in order to view your complete profile and communicate with you.  Which is actually not a bad idea!

However, where the whole questionnaire things falls short is that you can actually go back and change any or all of the answers on your questionnaire.  Which basically means you can tweak your profile to your heart’s content in order to increase or decrease the number of matches that the system generates for you.  And so can everyone else!  In other words, if you’ve spent an hour filling this thing out, only to find that there are just a handful of matches for you, with a couple of quick fixes – presto chango you’re a ‘new’ person with a whole new set of matches!  It also explains why someone could show up on your matches one day, and be gone the next.

The questionnaire takes the place of the search function found on most other dating sites, and no such function exists on DatingDNA, although there is a basic search function available from the home page, placed there for non members to get an overview of the site.

For all of the company’s talk about bridging dating and social networking, DatingDNA’s Facebook application is an exercise in frustration.  Despite loading the app and specifying my Facebook profile URL on my DatingDNA profile, and having a friend do the same, this thing just plain doesn’t work. It’s full of bugs and doesn’t load more often than it does.  It’s really nothing more than a redirect to the website, and not a true application.  I expected better!

While I didn’t have access to an iPhone during this review I was able to view a short video demonstration of this application. From what I saw the iPhone application works much better than the Facebook app and appears to be well designed.

Aside from user profiles, the site offers its members four areas for discussion; three forums; Users helping Users, What’s New and Site Suggestions and Feedback, and a Chat Wall where you can post to your heart’s content about anything.

There is currently no advertising on the site, and it is free to join and free to use, for now.  A quick look at the FAQ’s reveals the following ‘using advertising or charging fees at some point can’t be ruled out.’  Fair enough, we all have to make a living!

Overall, the developers are on the right track in their approach to integrating dating and social networking.  The execution however requires further tweaking in my opinion.

Do you find it annoying when a married member tries to contact you or maybe you aren’t interested in having kids, wouldn’t it be great if you could stop other users from contacting you based on a list of preferences?

Datepad now offers all users the ability to maintain a communication requirements list and today we are starting with 4 main requirements. If you select any one of these the user will not be able to chat, message or nudge you. We are starting with 4 and will grow the list based solely on user feedback, today you can block a user if he/she is married, a smoker, has kids or is only interested in an intimate encounter.

You can access these requirements by visiting your preferences page when logged in.

As mentioned we are looking for user feedback on the expansion of this list, please add a comment with your suggestion.

As always we are busy adding new features to ensure Datepad is the best free dating site available.

When you run a popular internet dating site like Datepad.com from time to time we receive some rather unusual support requests and comments. Below is one we felt inclined to share with the world.

Here are a couple of things to note while reading this comment, while this gal believes so highly in the sanctity of marriage our ads only appear on other dating sites??

Our ads have never contained nor will they ever contain nudity, in fact Google whom we exclusively use doesn’t allow anything of this nature!
I hope you enjoy the read as much as our team did!

(Please keep in mind this is a true cut and paste, we didn’t change a thing!)

Abuse Type: A profile (content)
Screen Name: all sexual vugarity to me! my family!!!! other people in the world!!!!!!!!!

Webpage: all my websites! it’s like no matter! where I go your ad’s are there! or some connection! it’s sicking!!! match.com yahoo personals,date match! that’s fine! for single people! but what about ones that aren’t???

Everything! pictures comments!!! it’s all sicking!!! and it’s ruining!!! My marriage! My life! My husbands!!!!

We have our 24th Wedding,Anniverary! comming up in May! And,all wev’e been doing, is fighting!!!! Over your stupied! ad’s!!!!

And Emails that you keep sending us! in our Emails!!!! “Meet Sexy… Singles” in Your!!!! Area! Come! People!!!! I am sick of it!
And it’s Never! Men!!!! It’s always!!!! “Women” Little chovistic isn’t it? And the way, you Expolit! Women!!! is humliating!!!!! to me! Me as a Woman!!!! Do I not have any right’s??? I don’t CARE! IF, it is! what, the public! Want’s?…. “The world???…. What about! morrals?

And, God???? I have a fourteen year old boy! at home!!! that, I can’t hardly let use!!! are own computer! “Now, that’s not right!

I keep trying, to block your trash! but, can’t! Feel, sorry! for Me???? No! Because, you people make to much! Money!!!! Off, of what! you do! By slutting… other people! It’s a disgrace! to our! country! and, Nation! And People, wonder! Why? their’s so much, Anger? fighting.. killing!!!! Because, of website’s like these! your breaking and taring down the family wall’s and, unit’s

How can people share love? When their hidding, secerts in their in boxes??? or mails??? hmh? You tell me?
ALL your doing is killing good people! By telling them “It’s Okay!”…. TO LOOK! NO IT’S NOT! OKAY! TO LOOK!!!! THAT’S LIKE GIVING A SMALL CHILD,A REAL GUN!!!! “AND, SAYING… NOW, DON’T POINT THAT AT ANYONE! ‘joey!” DO YOU! GET IT?

YOUR CORRUPTING THE WORL WITH THIS BEHAVIOR!!!
WHEN YOU MARRY! SOMEONE! YOUR COMMITTING! TO THAT PERSON! NOT ANOTHER DUMB BLONDE! OR BRUENETTE! WITH HER LEGS SPREAD! SO FAR OPEN! SHE LOOK’S LIKE A PEACH! OR HER ASS! WIDE OPEN!

IT’S DISGUSTING! WHAT! YOU PEOPLE! DO!!!! AND, BY GOD! IT’S TIME!!!!! YOU KNEW IT!!! AND i GUESS, I HAVE TO BE THE ONE! TO HAVE THE GUTT’S TO STAND UP!!!! AND SAY SO! ENOUGH! IS ENOUGH!!!! AND TO STAND UP! AND SAY! WHAT I THINK! RATHER,IT MATTERS OR NOT! YOU PEOPLE ARE LIKE CHILDERN! YET WORSE! BECAUSE, EVEN SMALL CHILDERN KNOW WHAT’S RIGHT! FROM WRONG!!! AT THE AGE… OF WHAT? IS ONE? TWO??? OR FIVE?

i JUST HAVE HAD ENOUGH! OF YOUR WEBSITE! IT SHOULD BE CLOSED!!!! DOWN!!!! ALONG WITH MANY OTHER’S! YOUR A DISGRACE TO THE HUMAN RACE!
DATING? THAT’S FINE! BUT YOU DON’T HAVE TO SHOW NAKED OR HALF NAKED PEOPLE TO ADVERTISE! ALL THAT DOES, IS MAKE YOU LOOK THAT MUCH WORSE! AND WHY WOULD I WANT TO LOOK AT IT?

I AM MARRIED! AND SO IS MY HUSBAND!

I am guessing most of you are completely unaware that there is a new movie out called Internet Dating. This movie was a straight to DVD release and I am also guessing that you will have a hard time trying to find it. This film tries and fails miserably in its attempt to portray the internet dating world. The movie is based on the site “hitusup.com” which, sadly, is available for sale through godaddy.com. That in itself speaks volumes about the movie as the producers didn’t even bother to register the domain for any type of internet promotion.

I was expecting the movie to show more about what it would be like to either run a dating service or actually use one. This movie fails utterly in both departments.

Internet Dating stars Katt Williams, a fairly well known standup comedian, and Master P who, among many things, has built a rather large record empire. In fact Master P was once on Forbes Top Ten Celebrity annual income list with an income over 50 million dollars in one year. Master P also had a short career in the NBA before becoming a musical and entertainment entrepreneur. His career success and the generous amount of philanthropic projects he is in involved in makes you really wonder what he was thinking when he decided to be a part of this movie. He was the producer of this film and I really question whether or not he actually viewed one single screening. Had he done so my guess is he would have cancelled the project.

On top of what I already said about this film, it insults in many other areas. Women are referred to as “bitches” so right off the bat they lose most of the female market; really smart guys! Then there are the annoying cartoon captions that remind you of the 1960’s Batman shows with Adam West. I am also sure that there was no script and if there was it was written as though it was improv and very poorly at that. The guys from “Whose Line Is It Anyway” could have easily made a 60 minute movie about online dating that would have made more sense and of course have been much more amusing. Then there is the sub shop were the majority of the characters work. During this entire film, even though they are constantly making sandwiches, there isn’t even one single customer that comes through the door.

I don’t write screenplays for a living and normally, regardless of whether I like movie or not, I do have some respect for the talent and time it take to put a screenplay together. That being said I’m positive that in my spare time I could easily put together something much more interesting than this horrible film. Avoid this movie like the plague and save yourself the 70 minutes that the movie internet dating stole from me.

JDate is owned by Spark Networks Limited, a subsidiary of Spark Networks Inc., a company that operates a number of internet dating websites. This particular one is a niche site aimed at Jewish singles and is available in English, French and Hebrew.

My overall impression of this site is that it’s okay, however there are some things that definitely need attention. Whether an online dating site requires a fee or is free to use, it’s incredibly annoying when you can’t check it out fully without having to register for an account. Guest users of JDate are limited to viewing only one page of the search results. In order to view more, you must register. I wanted to view more, so I registered. Ughh!

The site design is fine, although I found it a bit strange that a site aimed at Jewish singles had Christmas related advertising, but maybe that’s just me! Navigation is easy enough. I found it annoying that on my wide screen LCD monitor, JDate shows up on the extreme right hand side, I kept looking for a scroll bar to center it, but no such luck.

To hear JDate tell it, there’s quite a bit you can do with your free membership; post a profile and photo, search and view profile, receive and reply to IM’s when you’re online (but not send), but the biggest downfall of a free membership on this site, like so many others, is that you can’t email anyone. Even if you are a paid member, there’s no way of knowing if someone else is a paid member, so you run the risk of emailing a lot of people who’ll never read your stuff and have no way to reply to you.

This site is expensive. There are two membership plans; Standard and Premium. A Premium membership plan includes a highlighted profile and inclusion in the Member Spotlight. A standard membership gets you lumped in with the rest of the cast of thousands. Standard plan prices are 39.99/month for a one month membership, $33.33/month for three months and $24.99/month for 6 months. Premium will cost you $49.99 for one month, $41.33/month for three and $30.99/month for six.

There are no prorated memberships, so if you pay for three months, you can hide your profile but you ‘ll be out the $$ if you decide to cancel before your subscription runs out.

The sign up process takes a bit of time, although you can skip the fields where you describe yourself in detail and fill them out later.

Unless you opt out of receiving notifications, you’ll find your email inbox overflowing with JDate emails to the tune of three or four PER DAY. That’s just way too many. Even though I asked to be contacted twice a week, I received daily updates about who’s viewed me. I guess that’s one way of drumming up business, but in all honesty, it just ticked me off that they didn’t do as I requested.

And after spending all that time filling out my profile, including the fact that I’m interested only in men between the ages of 50 and 60, I was emailed “matches” with men who were 10 years younger! May be good for the ego, but does nothing for the site’s credibility.

A feature that I did like was the ability to create a “custom list” ie “interesting but lives far away” or “talked to on the phone” or “never again in a million years!”. You get the idea. It goes beyond what a lot of other sites have, and if you’re heavily into internet dating with this particular site, I can see it being a handy little “black book” so to speak.