American Singles has a nice system in place to communicate with other members. It currently has an instant messaging system built into it that lets you talk to a person if you ever see them online. If you browse the website, you can see that there's a section for "Members Online" to see who's there. In addition to that, it has a flashing "Let's Chat" icon for people that are available for instant messaging. In addition to the 1-on-1 instant messaging, you can enter chat rooms. They usually are filled with people, and if you need to, you can create your own room. Finally, like all other online sites, you can send messages.

However, the only complaint people have about messages is that you're limited to a maximum of 1,500 characters. People may have problems with that but personally, I think it's fine. If you've read Chapter 2 of my Online Dating Squidoo e-book, you should know by now that people don't like to read long messages. Instead, people should be moving it to instant messaging or phone ASAP! But if you still want to write a long message, then this will be a problem for you.

American singles has a host of great features that will help anyone with their online personals.

For one, it tracks people quite well. It keeps a record of who you've viewed in the past, who has viewed you, who has teased, etc. Basically you'll be able to see anyone that's interacted with your profile in the past.

It also has two different ways of expressing interest. The two ways are "teasing" and the "hot list." Teasing is short one-liner that you can send to people that shows you're checking them out. It's the equivalent of a "flirt" on other websites, except this time it comes with a cute message. It also has a hot list. Think someone's interesting? Add them! It's basically like bookmarking their profile. You can view them whenever you want, and you can categorize your hot lists (such as "Golf partners," "dog lovers," etc).


Another feature that I liked about American Singles is its centralized message center. That's where everything takes place. You can send messages there, manage your hot lists, and sift through your teases. One nice addition to the message center is its security features. This site encourages people to learn a lot about internet safety. The message center allows you to monitor and block emails that you don't like, you can report people for improper conduct, and you can even remain anonymous if you don't feel comfortable about showing who you are.

There are a few other minor features that are useful in American Singles, but I won't go into detail about them: An advice section (people help you with things, such as picking good photos), photo galleries, astroscopes, E-cards, and American Singles events.

Last but not least, the Search Engine. They use a pretty decent search engine; It's improved over the years and now there's more functionality to it.

Their search engine searches quickly and allows for quick communication if you see someone online. In addition, it has various filters if you want to search for specific people. It has the usual age range, location search (you can search for zip/postal, telephone area code, and state), and profiles with or without photos. In addition to the standard search filters, you can search for other singles dating by adjusting your personal preferences and differentiating the levels of their activity and popularity.

American Singles has a lot of features that make it a good website to use. It makes communication much easier for both people, and has a great community to give advice, help with safety, etc. With such a large group of subscribers (over 4 million), you will find a large variety of people to date or form friendships with.

My final grade for it: 7.5/10

The website has a 7 Day Free Trial so it's worth giving it a shot! The pricing structure for American Singles is found below. If you don't like it, you can easily switch to another online dating service. So what are you waiting for? Give it a try! You might find your next love within that 7 day trial!




Pricing:
1 month = $24.95
3 months = $59.95
1 Year = $149.95
7 Day Free Trial



Appendix B: Reviews of Internet Dating Services: MatchMaker.com