where do I find mr or mrs right?

'where do you find a partner for a possible relationship?'  I used to ask this of myself & others & many of my friends & clients still ask me this continually?  Where is the Place to find someone?????   My daughter & I went to Lisdoonvarna Matchmaking Festival in Ireland on the weekend.  You have to hand it to the Irish that they actually have a place (or should I say places, as there are other less well known matchmaking festivals around Ireland) where this modern day dilemma can be solved.  This festival/gathering has at its core the main goal which is to match couples.  Farmers from all over Ireland come down for the weekends & consult or don't with the resident matchmaker, Willy Dunne.  If you are a woman & are not with a man at this festival, then you are fair game.  As my daughter said (we were two women by ourselves) it was predatory!  I didn't feel comfortable at all being the prey either so we didn't stay long.  However everyone was having fun (the Irish word is craic) & dancing at all the hotels.  There was definitely a spirit of celebration in the air & the alcohol was flowing steadily everywhere & that was in the middle of the day.  I'm sure everything was even more lubricated by the time they had gotten into full swing in the evening.....

In today's world the main areas where people meet or look for partners are online dating sites & social networks.  I am interested in how these sites are for supporting real relationships.  I discovered a poll on DatingSitesReview.com .  They ask: 'Which dating site would you recommend for the 2007 Dating Sites Reviews Single's Choice Award?' & the results of their poll are as follows:

1. eHarmony.com     78 (17.22%)
2. Date.com     27 (5.96%)
3. FriendFinder.com     44 (9.71%)
4. LavaLife     59 (13.02%)
5. Match.com     105 (23.18%)
6. PerfectMatch.com     37 (8.17%)
7. True.com     30 (6.62%)
8. Yahoo! Personals     73 (16.11%)

So Match.com scores highest in this poll!

There are probably smaller niche dating sites that are effective in matching couples?  Let me know below in the comments, if you have any feedback on these sites or others you've found work well.

Mashable has a poll on the social networks.  They ask: 'Which social network is the leader when it comes to what we euphemistically call “dating”?'  This is how they scored the 'Luckiest network?':

• MySpace 141850% of all votes
• Facebook 79628% of all votes
• Friendster 723% of all votes
• Bebo 793% of all votes
• YouTube 502% of all votes
• Xanga 241% of all votes
• hi5 602% of all votes
• Multiply 140% of all votes
• Stickam 281% of all votes
• MyBlogLog 80% of all votes
• Twitter 301% of all votes
• LinkedIn (!) 301% of all votes
• Digg (!) 813% of all votes
• Other (add in comments) 1325% of all votes

Total Votes: 2822 Started: April 24, 2007

So MySpace won the battle of the social networks in this poll.

Mentioned in this poll is Groupware who quotes way back in 2005: ""How will this software get my users laid" should be on the minds of anyone writing social software (and these days, almost all software is social software).  "Social software" is about making it easy for people to do other things that make them happy: meeting, communicating, and hooking up."

Valleywag mentions in a post about Twitter & quotes: 'Twitter's real-time intimacy may seem suited towards building new relationships, but it's not. It's best for the loose ties that lead to casual sex.'

Mashable recently did another post 'Is a Social Media Friend Really a Friend?'  They group people into the following groups:

1. Friends & family
2. Information sources
3. Connectors
4. Prospects
5. Groupies

The post finishes with this statement: 'would you trust a social media friend with something that’s precious to you? Trust is not a default – it needs to be earned. Maybe that’s the best test to use when trying to figure out if your friends are really friends, online or offline.'

Would love to hear your opinions or feedback about the possibilities of the different sites so that I can tell all those who ask me, where to go for a relationship.  Also any feedback about where not to go & what doesn't work would be brilliant!

I'd like to leave you with a funny video about online dating.  Enjoy.....

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