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Our Favorite Dating Sites |
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Top Dating Categories |
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AmericanSingles: Full Review |
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Pro Rating :
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User Ratings :
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Avg. Rating :
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About AmericanSingles |
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URL
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Year Started
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1999
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Location
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United States of America
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Languages
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English
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Short Description
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is owned by MatchNet, a company that operates, among other sites, . It's obvious that they are putting more resources behind than some others they own, which makes this a respectably active, enjoyable site. They purchased in 1999 and have upgraded the quality of the content considerably.
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Number of Members
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8,000,000
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Overall Rating
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A 3; is an average site that may be moving up the scale if MatchNet continues to follow through on its promises.
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AmericanSingles Categories & Features |
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Relationships
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Friendship
Pen Pals
Romance
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Religions
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All
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Ethnicities
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All
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Other Categories
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All
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Finding Your Match
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Automated Matching
Live Matchmaker
Online indicator
Photo Gallery
Search (Advanced)
Search by location
Search (Quick)
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Contacting Members
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E-mail
Instant messaging
Online Chat
Private messaging
Virtual kiss (Icebreakers)
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AmericanSingles Dating Service Review |
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The Company
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MatchNet seems invested in producing a better product with than many other niche websites, but they have a ways to go to broaden their offerings and keep it reasonable.
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Site Navigation
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Relatively easy navigation, very good links and a crisp, bright presentation.
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Site Response Speed
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Fast
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Sign-Up Process
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does offer an unusually wide range of payment options and several ways to pay, which makes the sign-up process easier and paying for your membership a breeze. Other dating site operators should consider going the same route.
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Breadth of Services
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While there's a good membership base at , the services are restricted to the basics, including emails, chat rooms and IM for members. They've issued releases about future travel adventures and singles city events, but these remain to be seen.
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User Base
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Mostly casual daters frequent , with some who are looking to eventually establish a long-term relationship. Respectable membership, skewed toward 20-somethings rather than an older clientele. It's full of hip, fun-loving people who tend to have very active lives.
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User Experience
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Aside from the frustrating search criteria, 's articles and surveys are great fun and, on the whole, the members are interesting and enjoyable. The membership isn't quite as active as it is at some sites, but with an average of 15,000 members online at any given time, you're bound to find someone to chat with.
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Customer Service
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Helpful tech support is available online via email or by toll-free phone 24/7.
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Customer Service Hours
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24/7
Telephone: 1-888-854-3803
Email: comments@americansingles.com
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Registration Options
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FREE to register
Quick registration
Online help
Tips and examples
Send photos by mail or email to other members
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Additional Services
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Automatic renewal
Hide profile option
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Long Description
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is a fun, flirtatious site that focuses on dating over long-term relationships. Most members seem to be open to meeting a variety of people and the articles focus on enjoying dating and the single life. "Teases" are cute, flirty one-liners you can send to other members to get the ball rolling. You can send up to 60 of these each month and you can respond to any of them that you receive. There are the usual safe dating guidelines posted, and some additional information regarding how to evaluate members that you chat with. This last section offers helpful suggestions for checking the accuracy and intentions of the members you're exchanging emails with.
' free membership offers personals, dating tips and more
Once you've signed up for the free membership, the homepage will display a variety of members so that you can immediately see recent matches. Under the "What Singles are Talking About" section, there are lots of articles that are entertaining and informative. The quality of the writing at is top-notch, with a friendly, personal tone that you'll enjoy. There's also plenty of humor, with mini-surveys (dog or cat person?) and "he said/she said" debates on things like "Why do men read in the bathroom more than women?" Bright red-and-white pages and individual boxes for each topic ("Make It Happen" has advice on moving forward with online dating; "Happy Endings" posts success stories) keep things tidy. The colors are reminiscent of a valentine and lend a bit of romance to the overall look. A counter shows how many people are online at any given time, a typical number being 15,000 members.
Chat rooms and emails are for paying customers only
You can be a trial member (or a non-subscription member) at for as long as you like, but you won't get much action without signing up for a paid subscription, since you can't send your own emails or use the chat rooms. You can, however, respond to emails sent to you.
Excellent online dating response tracking
The searches at , like most for sites owned by MatchNet, are area-specific, which limits you somewhat if you are willing to establish a long-term relationship. Sure, you could re-run the search several times using different states and area codes each time, but if online dating is supposed to be a time saver, what's the point? You'll be notified by email when you receive mail at , but you will have to go there to read it. Your homepage does have a very nice summary feature that shows you at a glance how many people you've emailed, how many have emailed you, whether you've been HotListed by anyone and how many people are on your own HotList. The "Top Ten" questions section gives you good, solid information on how works and what is available. Their help section is also extensive.
events just taking off
announced their first event (a New Year's Resolution Ball in Boston) a few months ago, as well as soon-to-be unveiled travel opportunities for members. When you visit the site, however, there is no information available on either of these subjects. Even if new events or trips aren't planned yet, should have some information and an indication of whether they are moving forward with this, especially since the premium membership sign-up mentions invitations to events and travel opportunities. It seems a worthless extra if you can't find any information on what those invitations might be. Hopefully, this information will be available in the next few months. If that is added, the quality of will move up considerably.
Geographic limitations on your personals searches
provides location-based matches that are relatively accurate and if you are a paying member, you can improve your online dating matches considerably by narrowing searches by interests and several other criteria. Since you can only search a limited geographic area at one time, though, make sure you save each search under a different heading (i.e. San Diego area, Northern California, area code 617....) because you'll have to run more than one search to cover more than 120 miles at a time. Unlike the help section in many other sites, the one in outlines what you do and don't get with a membership, each option clearly illustrated by a snapshot of how it looks on the page.
Limited database of international daters at
Although has options to search any number of foreign countries, these aren't really workable for most areas. For instance, I did a search of several countries such as Korea and China that were included in the drop-down menus, but even with very broad parameters selected, I got no matches. MatchNet may be using a standard drop-down feature for all of its websites; if so, it's misleading in this case. The one exception was England, where there are quite a few members.
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AmericanSingles Pros & Cons |
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Pros
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An attractive, fun, user-friendly site with a consistently upbeat and cheerful feel to it.
's membership is right around 8 million and the site's parent company, MatchNet, is investing in improvements and upgrades.
members are mostly professionals and all seem to be open to casual dating, which is the focus of this site.
The articles and advice sections are well-done with topics of real interest.
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Cons
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's biggest negative is the narrow search criteria that requires you to search by region. It's limiting and irritating, especially if you are interested in finding pen pals across the country or around the world. The search engine just doesn't support that option very well.
It's also difficult to see how your region stacks up against others in terms of quality or quantity of members unless you repeatedly run searches for different areas of the country.
The free membership version is more limited than many sites, including a restriction on any access to chat rooms until you become a paying member.
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AmericanSingles Plans Offered |
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Pricing
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1 month for $24.95
3 months for $59.99
Monthly renewal at $19.99/month with initial 3 month membership
Automatic renewal kicks in as soon as your membership expires for constant, no-overlap coverage.
Full access - you can email any member and begin IM sessions yourself, being proactive rather than reactive, which allows a lot more control over who you chat or correspond with.
Access to the chat rooms
Blocking features
Invitations to possible future events and travel adventures
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Site Freebies
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's trial membership is available for an unlimited time and enables the visitor to add photographs and the ability to browse and send "teases."
Recent matches appear on your homepage when you log in.
Access to the advice section, helpful articles on dating and online relationships and all of the "What Singles are Talking About" essays.
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