Speed dating: It’s not just for singles anymore.

Taking a page from its social dating network, Zoosk is launching a new approach to speed dating that is designed especially to help entrepreneurs and startup companies make contact with and match up with venture capitalists willing to invest their money. This new concept debuted in San Francisco in early May at the Web 2.0 Expo, and the idea behind it is both unique and potentially a gold mine.

The approach is simple. Startup companies register with Zoosk for the event, during which they will have the chance to “speed date” with several venture capitalists just as singles do during speed dating events. Each startup is guaranteed to receive at least three minutes of uninterrupted, undivided attention from the venture capitalists in the hope of capturing their interest enough to convince them to pursue potential funding agreements in more detail.

Is it going to work? We’ll have to wait and see what kind of results come out of it, but early indications are this unique approach to matching startups and venture capitalists was extremely popular. If nothing else it’s a clever way to latch on to the online dating model of operation and put it to use in an entirely different way. And who knows, maybe the event will produce a profitable “match made in heaven”!

News & Views Dating Business, Facebook, Zoosk

There’s a new player in the arena of matchmaking and connecting singles using Facebook. Littlehint is a startup company that claims to have a new and better way of collecting your Facebook friends, sorting them according to which ones might be best matched for dating, and then making it easy for those folks to connect with each other.

If it sounds a bit like Thread.com you’re right because the basic idea is the same. What’s different, though, is the Littlehint is setting itself up with more detailed questions to answer as part of your profile and is also working feverishly to allow users to submit their DNA profiles as well. DNA matching for singles is the hottest, newest, and most unproven method of matchmaking in the business right now so it’s not clear if this is really a selling point for Littlehint or not.

The way Littlehint describes its process is that they ask a series of questions to determine your sociological characteristics, assess your personality and psychological tendencies, and then use a function called “degrees of separation” to connect you with friends via your Facebook page. The catch? Your friends need to fill out a Littlehint profile, too, for the whole thing to work.

Is this the wave of the dating future? Who knows. But one thing is for certain, we’re going to be seeing more of these types of online dating tools so you need to stay as up to date as possible if you want to make the most of online dating opportunities.

News & Views Dating Applications, Facebook, Matchmaking, Personality Testing

Online dating has come a long way since the first real mainstream online dating site, Match.com, came on the scene in 1995. Over the last 15 years online dating has transformed from the perception of being the place where “losers” go to meet to the more modern and correct perception of being the place where singles of all kinds can connect with others. The change has been dramatic indeed, but that doesn’t mean the pace of change is slowing down at all.

Just the opposite, in fact. Online dating continues to transform and change, in some cases literally before our very eyes, as new technology and a new generation of tech-friendly singles comes of age. The tremendous growth of social networking web sites such as MySpace.com and Facebook.com has rapidly started to blur the lines between traditional online dating services and newer ways to connect and find interesting singles to date and get to know.

Many younger singles are shying away from traditional online dating sites and instead focusing their efforts on the social networking sites. Why? Because they feel social networking sites allow them to combine a number of activities all in one convenient place (staying connected with friends, sharing information, dating, etc.) rather than having to access a separate dating site for that activity alone.

What are the traditional online dating sites doing about this phenomenon? In most cases they are actively embracing the social networking aspects of online dating, offering specialty applications for both the social networking sites and mobile phone use as well. For example, Zoosk and Datepad are among the more popular facebook dating aps, though there are many others.

Look for this trend to continue into the future as more and more young people turn to technology and the internet as integral parts of their daily lives!

News & Views Dating Trends, Facebook, Match.com, Social Networking, Technology