Dating Services Reviews

A large amount of online daters misrepresent themselves. Whether they post misleading photographs or create an idealistic profile, a lot of people unknowingly sell themselves short when attempting to find love online. Unfortunately, many of these people have already sold themselves short the moment they chose a dating web site.

Certain dating service users are seeking a deep, analytical process through which they can find a factually proven "match." Other users, however, are only casually seeking love and might be browsing the sites for a profile to pop out at them. Each dating service online is catered to one of these two styles of online dater. Yahoo! Personals, one of the largest and most popular dating web sites in the world, is definitely fit for the casual dater looking for an overflow of profiles.

Signing Up
Getting registered at Yahoo! Personals was quick and simple, one reason they can acquire so many profiles and maintain such a diverse database of people. The reason it was so quick, however, is because we were already signed up for a Yahoo! account. If you are not signed up for an account with Yahoo!, you will need to before exploring Yahoo! Personals.

When you first arrive at the Yahoo! Personals web site, you will be greeted with a form to fill out. This form will only ask you if you are a man or a woman, whether you are seeking a man or a woman, your age, and your location. Once you submit this information, you will receive a page of results. Although you will be able to briefly view a profile or two as a sample, you will next need to fill out a profile in order to explore your possible matches. To create a profile, you must already have or create a Yahoo! account which includes an email address.

Profile
The profile creating process at Yahoo! Personals can be as detailed or broad as you would like it to be. To simply submit it and avoid filling out extensive information, you can just complete the initial basic information and start browsing profiles.

There are only three steps to profile creation at Yahoo! Personals. The first step, "About Me," will ask for information about your appearance, home life, personality, and lifestyle. The second step, "About My Match," will ask you for the same information about the person you are looking to meet. The third step is to submit your profile. Obviously, the matching system in Yahoo! Personals is much more simple than those of its competing dating service sites. It seems that it relies on a search engine to match the preferences of one user to the preferences of another, a very basic way of connecting people for long-lasting relationships based on compatibility.

This is not necessarily a drawback to the site, as many sites don't even allow the users to browse other available profiles in their own database. Yahoo! Personals is designed for the casual online dater looking to browse. Many people enjoy online dating because they have the opportunity to choose from literally hundreds of thousands, even millions, of available partners. The possibility of communication in multiple forms is there, so why not take your time to pick someone you think is perfect? Much like the popular site Match.com, Yahoo! Personals is attempting to gain success through a massive database of profiles and a very accessible and refined search engine to navigate that database.

Completing the Yahoo! Personals profile should expose enough evidence to serious daters that it isn't the most complex service for matchmaking. With other dating services available offering scientifically proven questionnaires that have shown to successfully match compatible partners, more serious daters should avoid Yahoo! Personals and look elsewhere. The online dating community more interested in casually exploring their options should definitely explore the available services from Yahoo! Personals.

Features
The most well-designed feature of the Yahoo! Personals web site is the search engine. To navigate the site, users will utilize a search tool that allows them to explore profiles according to many different criteria. These criteria, which can be edited anytime, includes anything from appearance and education to income and general lifestyle.

The search engine is very clear and easy to use. Aside from the ability to narrow down searches by specific criteria, there are other free tools to increase your chances of finding that special someone. You can sort your search results by overall fit, activity, age, distance, date modified, and even by who is currently online. Unfortunately, old and dated profiles will often show up as well. Once you are happy with your search results, you can adjust to a "photo view" which will make the page display your results with the profile thumbnails. You can also utilize the "One-click Match" feature which allows you to search using two different approaches. The "We Match" approach will search for other users who have the most identical preferences and interests as you and display the results. With the "I Match" approach, a search will be done for people searching for your profile preferences and interests. This way, you can decide whether you want to search for someone to match your own interests or for someone who is looking for a personality like yours.

One nice feature Yahoo! Personals can offer you is the "Matching by Mail" service. Each day, Yahoo! Personals will match your profile with others that seem compatible. These results will then be delivered directly to your email inbox. You can decide to receive these emails either once or three time each week. Also available are "Activity Alerts" that will notify you by email when somebody sends you a message or even if someone you are interested in posts a new photograph.

Yahoo! Personals also provides free access to the "Mia Bella Profile Salon." This well-designed but content-lacking sit will guide you through different aspects of improving your dating profile. Even though Yahoo! Personals sponsors the site, the information can be utilized at almost any dating site. The Profile Salon provides information on the best types of photographs to upload, what to mention in your personal descriptions, and how to write a headline that will work. Even the Yahoo! Personals site provides an extended amount of articles on dating and relationships in general. The Profile Salon offers other features like ongoing blogs and forums on different subjects, articles pertaining to online dating, and even online dating questionnaires. While the Profile Salon does offer some helpful information, it definitely doesn't compare to the high-quality search engine and the features available to narrow down your results.

Pricing
Yahoo! Personals does a decent job of offering multiple free services to users who sign up for a free profile. While certain tools do require payment, the paying members are basically paying for access to the emails of other users as well as the ability to send messages through the Yahoo! Personals system.

When you find someone that sparks your interest and click to email them, you will be directed to paid-membership sign-up form. To email other users, you must be a paying member. For a one-month membership, Yahoo! Personals will charge you $29.99. For a three-month membership, they will charge you $19.99 per month. To become a member for a six-month period, they will charge you $15.99 per month. Yahoo! Personals offers a six month extension of membership to those users who have used the service for six months and were unsuccessful in finding a match. You may also be able to receive one week for free when you sign up, just to try it out and see if you like it.

The price for Yahoo! Personals is slightly lower than the similar Match.com, depending on the time commitment made, but it doesn't seem like enough. Even though Yahoo! Personals has many millions of users and a massive, diverse database of users, it doesn't provide enough helpful tools to actually aid users in finding love for the price it charges. Its closest comparable competitor, Match.com, provides better, more in-depth service for a very similar price. For a casual dater, however, Yahoo! Personals may be the open-ended, casual dating experience they are looking for.

Other Reviews
Yahoo! Personals receives generally favorable reviews from both critics and users alike. The user reviews will generally be lower since most people will only submit a product review if they do not like something about it. Even so, the user reviews for Yahoo! Personals are higher than the user reviews for both Match.com and eHarmony. Unfortunately, Yahoo! Personals only received a 1 out of 5 according to About.com.

According to the user reviews from DatingSitesReviews.com, Yahoo! Personals received a 3.5 out of 5, a rather high score on average. eDateReview.com, another user-based review site, gave Yahoo! Personals a 2 out of 5 according to its 438 reviews. Unfortunately, Yahoo! Personals only received a 1 out of 5 according to About.com.

Professional reviewers also gave the site middle-of-the-road rankings. At Village Matchmaker, the reviewers gave the site a 3 out of 5, while at About.com it received a 3.5 out of 5. At Online Dating Review, Yahoo! Personals received a 3 out of 5.

Conclusion
As always, choosing a dating site depends on the individual. While some people are looking to get married within six months, others look forward to years and years of casual dating. Whichever category someone falls into, they must be aware of the services available to them in order to choose the best dating site.

Yahoo! Personals is a fantastic site for the casual dater, but not as nice overall as Match.com. At Yahoo! Personals, anyone can explore the available profiles after filling out a quick and easy profile. Signing up is quick and simple, even for a paid membership, and you will be connected and communicating with other singles as quickly as you could anywhere else on the web.

Yahoo! Personals does have its drawbacks, including dated profiles and a mediocre matchmaking system. Those looking for an in-depth profile matching process and constant support should look elsewhere. If you want to explore millions of possibilities and take your time with dating, stick with it. When you consider the free week of service with sign-up, Yahoo! Personals is at least worth a free trial to see what they have to offer.