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PerfectMatch.com Review: Online Dating |
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| Designed for those seeking committed relationships, combines elements of matching and searching, personality test is less informative | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Editor's Note
For a limited time, PerfectMatch.com is offering NextAdvisor.com readers a buy 2 months, get 2 months free discount. To take advantage of this promotion, simply click any PerfectMatch.com link on NextAdvisor. He Said/She Said Ratings
We took two volunteers, a man and a woman, and had them sign up for each online dating site, fill out a profile, look at their matches, and then give us their impressions. Here's what they thought: 
He said: "...the experience leaves me a little cold, there's just something a little robotic about the whole thing. Or maybe I just wasn't excited about my matches... almost all of them were from other cities, and the things they matched on, these personality traits, didn't seem quite accurate for me, even though I answered the questions as well as I could. The site really highlights their matching engine, instead of what people say about themselves too. I'm not a very black-and-white person, and I feel that answering these detailed questions with true/false answers didn't really capture my character." 
She said: "...the Perfectmatch.com profile quiz was interesting. Just as eHarmony seemed to be skewed toward asking questions about religion, Perfectmatch.com seemed to ask a lot of questions on my views on the environment, like whether I could be with someone who has opposing views on this issue and how often I recycle. And although the quiz was thorough, when my matches came back I discovered that only the standard text from the quiz was included under their profile. So I really didn't get any experience of hearing them "in their own words." This detracted a lot from the process I thought, since it pretty much canceled out any way to get a feel for personality before actually contacting someone. Also, it appeared that the only categories we were matched on came down to surface stuff (level of education, sports participation, smoking preferences) rather than any sort of core values. It would have been nice to know if the matches I browsed were introverts or extroverts, close with their family or not, adventurous or cautious, etc. Overall, I felt Perfectmatch.com was too vague, not giving me enough detail at all to help me decide if I wanted to pursue any of these people." Site Details
PerfectMatch.com is similar to Chemistry.com and eHarmony, in that it relies on a lengthy personality test in order to generate matches based on compatibility. While some members may find PerfectMatch.com's Duet Total Compatibility System effective, many will be disappointed by the website's limitations and the number of inactive members. Profile Creation
To create a free PerfectMatch.com profile, you'll provide basic information about yourself by answering multiple choice questions or selecting from checklists or drop-down menus, and you'll answer true or false questions about your core values, your attitude toward love and money, and your relationship tendencies. You'll write a brief personal statement and answer several short questions in your own words, and then upload up to three photos if you are a nonpaying member or eight photos if you're a subscriber. Finally, you'll take the Duet Compatibility Test, which consists of more true or false questions designed to measure your "romantic impulsivity," "personal energy," "outlook," and "predictability." The questions tend to be fairly specific and detailed, making them difficult to answer with a simple true or false. Your Duet Analysis uses one set of four letters to predict personality types that will be similar to yours, and another set of four letters to predict personality types that will compliment yours. These letter codes resemble those generated by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, but their interpretations are less nuanced and more difficult to comprehend. Because PerfectMatch.com profiles consist almost entirely of answers to multiple choice or true or false questions, they tend to be rather formulaic, which makes them less engaging than those on other dating websites. On the main profile page, your picture is very small, and your personal statement and short answers are inexplicably buried at the bottom of the page and hidden by default. Since the "In My Words" portion of the profile is deemphasized, many users do not fill this section out at all, which makes it difficult to get any sense of a potential match as an individual. Many PerfectMatch.com users also fail to post a single photo. Matching & Searching
You'll receive suggested matches based on the results of your Duet Compatibility Test. PerfectMatch.com provides fewer matches than Chemistry.com or eHarmony, but once you subscribe, you'll also be able to search for matches on your own. You can do a quick search by age and location, a compatibility search based on the various factors measured by the Duet Compatibility Test, a custom search for particular traits, or a keyword search. These tools are not quite as sophisticated or easy to use as those provided by Match.com. For example, the keyword search does not allow you to select for age or location, which makes it fairly useless to most users. Communication
Once you have subscribed to PerfectMatch.com, you can indicate interest in another member by sending an icebreaker consisting of up to four pre-written questions to find out more about your potential match and initiate conversation. As your exchange progresses, you'll be able to choose from a second set of pre-written icebreaker questions that are more personal, before you move on to email. PerfectMatch.com tracks and stores your icebreakers and responses in one place, to help you gauge the potential of many matches at once. If you prefer, you can skip past the icebreaker questions and go directly to email communication. Like eHarmony, PerfectMatch.com includes a section dedicated to dating and relationship advice, but the advice is somewhat simplistic and generic. This section is unlikely to be particularly informative to most users, but those with less dating experience may find it helpful. Bottom Line
PerfectMatch.com stands out by combining an in-depth personality test with a decent array of search features. For those who wish to take advantage of a matching system designed to predict compatibility as well as basic browsing tools, this may be the best of both worlds. For those who want more matches to choose from, or who are unwilling to rely so extensively on the Duet Analysis when evaluating potential matches, one of the higher ranked dating services might be a better choice. Discounts
Visit PerfectMatch.com Website | Compare to Other Online Dating Sites |
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| Cost/Month: | $24.98/month See All Discounts |
| Relationship Type: | Relationship Seekers |
| User Base*: | 11 million singles; 45% male / 55% female |
| Matching Method: | Matches suggested based on personality test; search by age & location; custom search; keyword search |
| Features: | Open communication; email & IM; winks & flirts |
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