Singles Dating

Tuesday, 24 April 2012

Dating & Sex Personals

Date Hookup made it to Hitwise's top US dating sites in 2008, ousting many of the long-standing paid dating sites from their positions. And its not difficult to figure out why, considering Date Hookup is free, easy to use, and well populated.
Overview from Date Hookup



"DateHookup.com is a 100% free dating site (you knew that already right?). Why does that matter? Well, besides the obvious benefit of being free for everything, we can have a lot of great features that pay sites don't have. Pay sites are only concerned with one thing, getting you to pay. All we care about is you having a good experience using this site so you can tell your single friends to join!" - From Date Hookup's About Us page.

What a Date Hookup Dating Site Membership Includes

Date Hookup, according to their "About Us" page, tries to keep their website simple, straightforward and without too many bells and whistles to confuse users. With this in mind, the site provides exactly what it attempts to: a place for singles to meet other singles without having to pay a membership fee.

Therefore, all users have access to the same features: blog, customizable profile, forums, send and receive emails, custom search saving and a simple social networking option to 'friend' other users. There is no instant messaging feature on Date Hookup.

Details About Date Hookup

Potential users can peruse the entire Date Hookup site - including the date ideas and forums - without actually signing up for a membership. The profile process is quick and relatively simple, and doesn't have minimum character rules when it comes to the written part of the process - a nice feature when trying to sign up and look around right away, but not-so-hot when you want to learn more about someone that has piqued your interest. Mind you Date Hookup is free, so it doesn't take much to send off a quick email and learn more.

An interesting feature that works surprisingly well is the interests portion of one's profile; when you sign up, you're asked to make a comma-delineated list of the things that you enjoy. Whether you list one item or many, every person that shows up in your search results later will then have your common interests listed below their profile. As well, you can perform searches just to find others with similar interests.

The search feature in general works well, and there are many options to find other users that fit your specific criteria. Just make sure that you change the automatically filled-in details before you search the first time, or else you'll get a huge list of 18-30 year old women within 1000 miles of your own zip code - as I did the first time. Once I'd changed my search, I found well over a hundred eligible men in my geographic area, although I did note that even though I'd asked to be shown men within 100 miles of my area, I received a considerable number that were 100-150 miles away in my search results.

Date Hookup Membership Costs

There are no fees to join or maintain a membership at Date Hookup.

The Bottom Line

I recommend Date Hookup to anyone looking to add a free dating site to their arsenal. Its features are easy to use and the site well-populated with users. The only downfalls are that there is no way to determine what kind of relationship anyone else on the site is looking for (unless they've chosen to post it in their profile), and there is no instant messaging system to chat with someone anonymously should they be online at the same time as you. A solid choice.

DateHookup.com is a 100% free online dating site that was launched in early 2002. Most of the site’s members live in the United States and are primarily young adults and college students. Member profiles at Date Hookup have about 20 different attributes, with one of them being "I Party," which allows you to specify how often you party (from “Don't Say” to “Every Night”). One common profile attribute that is missing is the option to specify what type of relationship you are looking for. If you take the site name at face value you can assume most people on this site are here to "hook up" and are not looking for anything long-term. This is also probably why they allow up to 24 profile pictures, since most singles looking for a casual relationship are usually more into looks than anything mentioned in the profile. The site also allows many customization options for your profile.

In terms of site traffic, DateHookup is neck and neck with OkCupid at about one million unique visitors per month. This ties them for second place, with Plenty of Fish leading the pack of free dating sites by a wide margin (three times the traffic). If you are looking for a free dating site geared towards singles in their twenties, then this service is definitely one to check out.

Positive Features

A free dating site for young adults who can now spend their money on more important things like beer or the actual date
You can modify your profile page look and feel to create your own unique presence
Member blogs and message forums allow you to express your opinion
Negative Features

Too many ads on the site, which can interfere with your online dating experience
You must join before you can search the dating site, annoying and a cheap way for DateHookup to artificially inflate their membership numbers

by erectusplus at 01:46 |