Want to know where the happiest people are? Well, according to a report by ABC News, you can get a pretty good visual picture of where people are in the country.

New York artist and performer Luke DuBois used data from over 19 million online dating profiles to create a map showing how Americans in different parts of the country describe themselves when they’re looking for love.

The results offer some pretty interesting insight into how different areas of the country use different terms to describe their single status.

For example, women in West Virginia and men in parts of the Southwest are more apt to describe themselves as “kinky” than in other areas of the country. Women in Oklahoma, Florida and men in Texas often use the word “lonely” when they’re single.

DuBois then gave each town its own one word description, based on the word most often used by singles there to describe themselves. Washington DC is “interesting”, while Montgomery, Alabama is “conservative”.

The data brings to light how people use their online dating profiles to attempt to stand out from the crowd. DuBois mapped 20,000 different words in his research, which certainly proves that all online daters are not using words like “fun”, ” smart” and “free-spirited” to describe themselves.

News & Views Funny, Happiness, Personal Profiles, Personality

We certainly are a technology driven world. Today, it seems we use our phones for everything. Over the last few years many online dating providers have extended their services, for example so that people can receive text flirts on their mobile phones. Some even allow you to receive alerts about members near your current location. Sophisticated phone Apps are now going above and beyond this. The saying “there’s an app for that” is taken to new heights when we consider the many possibilities of using apps for dating.

Take, for example, the application called Ratio Finder. This app, which is currently only available in New York City and San Francisco, provides a real time map of locations in the city, showing the number of males versus females at each particular location.

Using information from WeePlaces.com and the social networking site Foursquare, Ratio Finder shows who has checked in at popular restaurants and nightspots. Pink dots appear to represent the females who have checked in, while blue spots appear for males. The bigger the spot, the more visitors of that gender at that time. So, if the pink dot is bigger than the blue dot at your favorite hotspot tonight, then there are more females there than males.

Another great application for singles who are looking for a way to plan a night out is Meet Moi. This application, available for iPhone and Android uses GPS technology to update your location information in real time and sends you alerts when potential matches are in a location near yours. To use the service, you sign up and set up a profile with the service, indicating what you’re looking for in a date. Then, when you’re out and about, and a potential match is nearby, you’ll both get a message. This is a cool service, because it combines the best of online dating with meeting people in person.

So, next time you’re feeling like it’s time to meet someone new, why not let technology work in your favor?

News & Views Apps, Mobile Phone, Ratio Finder, WeePlaces.com

If the claims of dating companies are to be believed, we are moving towards an age where meeting your significant other from behind a computer screen (or a mobile phone) is the norm rather than the exception! Facts and figures about the success of online dating services are not in short supply. For instance, EHarmony now claims credit for 5% percent of all new marriages in the US. Their main competitor, Match.com, together with research firm Chadwick Martin Bailey conducted a study which indicated that one in six marriages (17%) over the past three years was between couples who met via a dating website.

Just to put that into perspective, the findings of the Match.com study showed that twice as many marriages in the US took place between people who met online, than in bars, clubs and social events combined. Meanwhile, the world’s largest free site, Plentyoffish claims on its home page that 20,000 new singles are joining the site every day.

But just how realistic are these statistics?

Dating companies clearly have a vested interest in advertising the success and popularity of online dating. So just how realistic are these claims? Independent estimates of the numbers of visitors to online dating sites certainly seem to confirm them. With several thousand online dating sites in operation in 2011, and over 200 million active personal profiles, this means that about 1 in 5 (20%) of today’s internet users have a dating profile (excluding social networking sites which can also be used for dating).

However people have different motivations for joining a dating site. Not all are looking for a committed relationship, as a significant proportion of dating profiles are posted on adult oriented sites. Others sign-up because knowing other people still find them desirable makes them feel good about themselves. Even taking these cases into account, the findings of the dating companies do seem to be entirely plausible.

While internet dating is clearly a popular and growing phenomenon, we’ll have to wait a few more years yet before we find out how successful online marriages are in the long-term.

News & Views Dating Business, eHarmony, Marriage, Match.com, PlentyOfFish.com