Match.com is one of the leading online dating tools available on the internet to
men and women looking for a successful long term relationship companion
- whether you're seeking a same-sex or heterosexual partnership. They have many offers and you can get a free trial for 3 days as well.
It is one of the most advertised and marketed sites, thus attracting thousands of people to join the database. This alone, creates a higher probability of meeting someone through the site, backing up its claims as the most successful online dating facility in helping people to achieve love and compatible relationships.
To use the site, you are required to register your basic details and then answer a series of questions to build a profile of yourself. Your profile is used in two ways – to be seen by other possible mates who may wish to make contact with you and to develop a picture of your requirements, preferences, wants and needs from a relationship, so that the website's database can seek out ideal matches and alert you to them.
To ‘make love happen' as their slogan states and to start communicating with others, you'll need to subscribe to the site for six months. This subscription agreement is flexible. For example you could try out match.com for 1 month for £29.99; 3 months for £20 per month or 6 months for £12.99 per month. The site is so confident you'll find love within six months, that if you do not, you'll receive another six months absolutely free of charge.
Due to the sheer volume of people on the database, the site has a multitude of tools to narrow searches of possible matches based on personal preferences. Some of these tools are extremely helpful. The communication features of the site include the usual winks and smiles similar to that of Facebook and other social networking sites, to get people connected and communicating which is useful in breaking the ice.
However, the site is very ‘photo heavy'. While most people like to see a photograph at some stage during the communication, displaying photo's before communication has begun encourages individuals to make choices based on appearance rather than attributes, values, ideals and intelligence – features commonly important to a successful long-term relationship. The site aims to combat this with claims to ‘hone in' on such details beyond the norm of age and interests, but the reality is that there are stronger competitors on the net in this area. It also does not allow for individuals who may not wish to have their photo's posted on the internet for everyone to view. For example, without even registering, one can simply go to match.com, conduct a basic search and see hundreds of photos of individuals. Many of the photo's are a little silly which does nothing for the site's image to be a serious dating site. Other dating sites have learned from these issues and have adapted their clients' profiles to show photo's once both parties have given permission and made an initial contact as well as focusing on other attributes before physical appearance. They also vet images and adapt them to a standard size to keep the site looking tidy and professional.
The functionality of the site is very good with lots of options to add to your profile and adapt it as you wish at anytime during your subscription. The site will send emails directly to you on an immediate basis, to alert you of new matches, new registrations and any communications you may have received. You can also see who has been viewing your profile even if the other party has not contacted you and build a list of your ‘favourites' as well as being able to block others from making contact and viewing your profile.
The look and feel of the website is user friendly, bright, positive and fairly professional, though not elitist. On the contrary, this huge site has a mainstream image for a broad audience and for those reasons you'll need to invest a lot of your own time creating a profile that will utilize the sites' tools in order to narrow your pool of options.
In summary, this is an excellent dating site for newcomers to the online dating scene who want something that is user-friendly, easy on the eye, and quick to navigate. You can register and create your profile for free and then subscribe if you wish to make or receive contact from potential partners – rather like a try before you buy function which is great. It is also ideal for people who put physical appearance of great importance as almost everyone's photographs are available to view. The guarantee of six months free after an unsuccessful subscription is also fairly appealing. However, for those who are looking for personality profiling tools of greater depth than ‘interests and hobbies', or just something a little more professional, there are better sites out there.
