Love on the Run: Online Dating Goes Mobile

By Leslie Meredith

We all know The Online Dating Rules: Wait 24 hours to respond to emails, don’t IM, and don’t log in from Friday through Sunday afternoon. Today online dating sites are offering mobile service, and the temptation to break the rules is overpowering. You’ll know immediately when you get a response to your email, but will you be able to wait? Replying within seconds just looks a little too desperate. But hey, enjoy the moment, just don’t respond.

Mobile dating has been around for nearly a decade in Japan, and it shares top honors with India for having the largest number of mobile daters according to a new report released by Jupiter Research. The report projects global users will rise from just over 40 million in 2007 to 260 million by 2012. The consensus is customers will use mobile dating in addition to their online dating service. Several of the big online dating services, including Match.com, have responded to this international trend and now offer mobile dating features.

In its simplest form, online daters can receive SMS (Short Message Service) or texts from their online dating service to their cell phone. With a web enabled cell phone and a compatible online dating service, online daters can search profiles, and send and receive messages—all of the functions offered by the dating service without the restrictions of computer access. In Japan, all major Japanese mobile service providers have branded dating sites, and they outrank online dating sites in popularity.

Here’s a sample of what you can do on several sites from TopTenREVIEWS’ Online Dating Service review when you choose to take your love on the run:

• Match.com, TopTenREVIEWS’ top ranked site, offers matchMobile, which will send wink and email alerts to your mobile number, allow you to send and receive emails, and search for a date right from your phone.
• Jdate, the largest online dating site for Jewish singles, offers free text alerts to your phone. You decide the types of alerts you want to receive including you’ve clicked with someone, new E-card received, new flirt received, new email received, and someone hotlisted you. American Singles, an affiliated site, offers the same text (SMS) service.

If you opt for full service on your cell phone, you’ll want to use a cell phone with a large, color screen and a keyboard—the better to view those profile photos, and of course, write and send emails. The Apple iPhone is a good choice and you can see others on the TopTenREVIEWS Multimedia Cell Phone Review.

Now you have more ways than ever before to find your perfect match, but remember, the purpose of online and mobile dating is to make a date. Find your service, choose your method and get out there. Soon you’ll be asking yourself, “Is it him?” and that’s a question your phone can’t answer.

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