Zoosk is a fun and simply way to meet others in your area. Members can use the service on the website but they also has their own Facebook application, and if you choose, you can sign up to Zoosk through your Facebook account. Facebook will offer you the choice of passing your email to the site, or you can skip this step and enter it yourself on the registration page.

Just provide your email and password on the first page, followed by your location on the next. After completing this step, you’ll be asked to provide some personal details and a Zoosk username. Some of this information is visible to other members on what’s called your “Date Card”. You can add as much detail as you like to your Date Card, including your likes and dislikes, your favorite music and films and who you would like to meet. You can also pick from a list of pre-set “ice breakers”, which are questions that will appear on your Date Card. Simply click any number of these, and anyone contacting you can give you their answers. You’ll also need to upload a photograph. Your profile will be active without a photo however you won’t be able to email other members without one.

If you choose, you can also invite your friends to write testimonials about you. By doing this, your contacts from your Hotmail, Live or Gmail email accounts will be sent a message asking them to write a testimonial for you. To complete this step, you’ll need to provide the password to your email account.

There are two levels of membership on Zoosk, free and premium. Premium members pay a monthly subscription fee, and can access all features on the site and communicate with others without any restrictions. Free members have some basic privileges, can send winks and flirts, and browse profiles. Free members can earn (or purchase) Zoosk Coins. These allow the purchase of certain things on the site, such as gifts, or they can be used to grant chat and email privileges (unlocking e-mail messages for example).

Coins can either be purchased directly with a credit card, or they can be earned, for example, by getting your friends to join to the site. Premium members will only need Coins for special purchases such as gifts, or special delivery emails.

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Badoo is a rapidly growing social dating site. Badoo originated in Russia in 2006 as a social networking site, and it floundered for several years, gaining a little popularity in France, Italy, Spain and Latin America. But, in recent months, Badoo has taken off.

Badoo is free to users but members can pay “micropayments” to boost their profiles in rankings and for other little niceties. So far it has worked quite well, as their membership levels are reported to be over 140 million right now and they are planning to IPO for about $2 billion.

Just a couple of weeks ago, Badoo’s application for Facebook was Facebook’s fastest growing, with more than 3 million daily users.

If you haven’t tried Badoo, now might be the time to get on board. The design is somewhat like a chat room, making it easy to meet people. And, with the record number of people joining Badoo each week, you’re sure to find someone to talk to. Badoo seems to have promise to be one of the most widely used sites for making friends and finding dates over the next few months. So, if you’re looking for a new dating site, hop on over to Badoo.

Reviews Badoo, Facebook, Social Networking

Google Plus is launching and anytime a new social media site hits the market it begs the question “Will it be a good site for dating?”

You probably realize by now that to join Google Plus, you have to receive an invitation. So far, about 88% of Google Plus members are men. So, theoretically, Google Plus is a great dating site to check out if you happen to be a woman, and you happen to get an invitation.

If Google Plus succeeds, the gender balance will have to correct itself over time. The main question that remains regarding Google Plus as a dating site is one of privacy. Google Plus touts itself as the more private alternative to Facebook, which may mean that it doesn’t envision itself as being a dating alternative. Facebook’s main advantage as a “dating site” is that you can so easily see the profiles of the people your friends already know. When you see someone who looks promising, you can connect with them based on your mutual acquaintance. If Google works really hard to ensure privacy, making those connections might not be possible.

So, I guess we’ll have to give Google Plus a little longer in the marketplace before we can really assess its possibilities as a dating site. Now, if I could just get an invitation…

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