Editors' Review
When you Google “date,”
Date.com appears right there near the top of the search results. And one thinks, hmmm, well that couldn’t be more appropriate, I just happen to be in need of a date. So you click through and by gosh by golly it says it’s free. It looks as if the karmic gods are smiling upon you and your Saturday night. The site has been around since 1997, so one would guess all of this is old hat to the founders of the site, in the US and abroad. The site seems pretty straightforward at first, with all the standard tabs for your profile, email, chat, favoriting and finding out who is currently online. Their years of experience have not, however, led to any great innovations or advancements in the realm of internet dating.
Profiles & Matching
The profiles and matching are the basic multiple choice for personal descriptions and personal preferences with a decently sized space for your personal essay. As with most sites, the matching preferences you punch in spew out a list of potential dates based on your selection for personal and physical characteristics, distance. They do include a keyword search, which I think is a handy feature, and especially useful for people that have an unusual hobby or play an unusual sport. Their quick search function is more convenient than most sites and in addition to allowing you to view who is online and who has viewed you it also allows you to search for people who have a birthday coming up and featured member only search.
Communication
Communication beyond indicating interest is NOT included in the free membership, I thought that one was too good to be true. All of the usual suspects are here, the indicating interest without sending email, then email, then chat—with video for those that are webcam ready. All of the functions are extremely easy to use and very intuitive.
Demographics
Date.com membership leans a little older than a lot of the sites with the vast majority of the subscribers being over 30. The educational level is slightly lower than that of either Match.com or Eharmony, but is above the national average and is mostly college graduates. That’s the good news on demographics. The bad news is the site only has 2 million members worldwide. This means that even in a well populated city of 1 million or so, a lot of your matches may be quite surprisingly far away. The site proclaims itself that it is focused on metropolitan markets, so if you are outside of a major metropolitan area there are probably a wider variety of matches available on other sites.
Features
While the site does not have its version of a Dr. Phil or other PhD dating advisor, it does offer an advice section. A few of the articles are quite basic, but helpful. A few are more in depth, lengthy and entertaining. But the main thrust of a lot of the ideas in the articles seemed to come from the “pickup artist” sort of dating mentality.
Summary
For the annual price of paying one year up front for those that are looking for casual dating in a large metropolitan area the ten dollars a month will give you access to probably a good amount of dates. The ease of use of the site is a big plus, and many times simpler is better. If, however, you are outside of a large city then what you end up spending in gas and time could probably pay for acquiring a fascinating new hobby. If you were to pay by the monthly plan and fork over $30 a month for the site, I would say it would probably best be spent elsewhere if you are interested in really meeting someone near because the subscriber base is just not wide enough for most areas.