REVIEW
OKCupid review
Despite its relatively small size compared (2.5 million members) with industry giants Match and Plentyoffish, OKCupid has a deeply devoted following among artists, techno geeks, intellectuals and left-leaning, eco-friendly people. The site manages to telegraph immediately--far better than any other--acceptance of others. The GLBT community is as present on OKC as it's invisible on other sites.
OKCupid user profiles are often detailed and witty. Humor, even the self-deprecating sort, is not uncommon. OKCupid has many young members, but is also popular with people in their 30s and 40s. The site is definitely edgier than most and appeals to an indie crowd. If that's not you, don't waste your time here.
OKCupid's approach to matching people is unique in the industry: The company has a database of optional survey questions (more than 3,000)--most of which were submitted by users. These run the gamut from ordinary relationship issues, such as, "...how long do you generally date a girlfriend or boyfriend?" to ones about beliefs, for example, "Do humans and modern primates...share a common evolutionary ancestor?" to truly wacky ones such as, "In a certain light, wouldn't nuclear war be exciting?"
Users answer the questions for themselves and for their ideal mate, stating how important their partner's answer is to them (irrelevant, a little important, somewhat important, very important or mandatory). When a user who has answered a few hundred questions looks for a match, the database compares his or her answers with all other potential matches within a certain radius, returning the results as a match percentage. So, an 83 percent match literally means that you and your prospective mate agreed on 83 percent of the answers to hundreds or even thousands of questions. Probably because of the sheer number of questions involved, many users report that they become friends (if not more) with their highest matches.
Although busy (some might say cluttered)--with IM screens flashing in the corner and notices that someone you know just logged on--OKCupid is the quintessential Web 2.0 dating site. Users create virtually all the content: forums, journals, blogs and survey questions. For this reason, OKC has much more of a community feel than most other dating sites.
Founded by Sam Yagan and two classmates from Harvard, OKCupid employs 10 full-time software engineers and web designers in its New York City offices--far more than other free sites. The results show in the quality of the product.
Rate OkCupid:
|
Our Rating:
|
|
|
Your Rating:
|
|
|
|
|
RSS Feed
Facebook
Twitter
MySpace
Digg
Reddit
Google
Yahoo
StumbleUpon