July 21, 2008

Online Daters Learn "How Charming Am I?"

Who among us hasn’t wondered, “How Charming Am I?” Now, OmniDate lets online daters know the answer to that question.

OmniDate has just released a new feature on its virtual dating platform which it supplies to online dating sites. The feature, appropriately called, “How Charming am I?”, allows two real people to go on a date with each other in a fun, virtual environment, and then rate each other after the date is over. Daters rate each other on a one-to-five scale, in 3 categories – charming, interesting and funny.

The new feature is part of OmniDate’s overall mission to provide a way for daters to quickly get to know one another before investing time and money in a traditional offline date. In the OmniDate platform, daters choose from several venues such as a beach bar or hip club and then communicate through avatars who are able to laugh, smile, wink and even touch. Music and games are part of the fun and make the date as real as possible.

“We invented, ‘How Charming Am I?’ because we often heard from daters that they wanted to know how they could increase their chances of success in the online dating world,” says Igor Kotlyar, the founder and designer of OmniDate. “For some, our new feature is a confidence builder, while others get to find out that certain adjustments might be necessary.”

The system is built with protections for the person providing the rating. Since a user may only see results after 3 different dates have submitted a rating and the scores aggregated, feedback is provided while still protecting the privacy of each individual date’s rating.

The system also improves the dating community that is using it. “We see ‘How Charming am I?’ as a rewards system for the best people in the community,” says Kotlyar. “If a person’s score in any of the categories is in the top 20%, they are given an award, and other users can see this award when browsing through profiles.”

Singles also use the ratings to help find people who fit their wants and desires. As one user put it, “Since they put this feature on the site, I’ve only been looking for guys with funny ratings of 4 or 5. What can I say? I like a guy who makes me laugh.”

Many of us have always wanted to know how charming we are. Now that OmniDate can provide the answer, the question is, are we ready to hear it.

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About OmniDate

OmniDate utilizes the latest in virtual technology to create dating scenarios to introduce people to each other. The setting may be a lounge, a restaurant or a resort, with games to help further the mission of getting to know someone new. The goal of OmniDate is to take the dating experience from the small computer screen to the bigger screen of life. The company was founded by husband and wife team, Igor Kotlyar, Ph.D. and Ravit Abelman. OmniDate installs its application in dating sites in the US and Canada, and operates a test site at www.OmniDate.com.