A new Australian online dating website utilizes the philosophy of “six degrees of separation,” which we previously discussed in class. This idea proclaims that everyone in the world is separated by only six other people. Contrary to many other online dating services, this new site (MeetMyFriend) “allows users to introduce their single friends to the single friends of others.” Because the service will provide an easier and safer way of meeting and dating people (as opposed to blind dating), it has the potential to become a world-wide hit. According to the website, friends can “nominate” their single friends for membership or single men and women can just join without the help of their peers. Once a person has joined, one of his or her friends creates a profile, and then friends can link each other in their profile home-pages to form a “virtual social network.” From here, “they can set their friends up, recommend potential partners to each other, or add new friends to their new online social network.”

This concept has great potential because of its relative simplicity and innovation. In the past, many relationships were started when two people would meet through mutual friends. This idea has been combined with the popular and ever-growing online social networking scene to create this new online dating service.

Most online dating services used in the U.S. allow people to meet based on criteria searches or matches of similar interests. MeetMyFriend uses these same principles but uses them more effectively. As we discussed in class, if two separate friends, B and C, of person A each have similar interests with A, then there is a large possibility that B and C also share common interests. This is known as homophily, which says friends tend to have similar attributes. MeetMyFriend makes use of this network idea by connecting people to others based on similar interests and attributes. Unlike other online dating sites, however, MeetMyFriend allows people to connect with others through mutual friends as opposed to randomly matching one’s own interest/attribute criteria to those of others.

http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/story/0,26278,23208511-5007185,00.html