I hope everyone has recovered from the shocking news about Boston Maraphon bombing, and now it’s an appropriate time to take a look around the Internet and find out what is happening in the online dating industry. The main event of spring 2013 was the release of a newest feature-rich version of SkaDate Dating Software known for its advanced Spam protection and optimized performance, so if you still haven’t bought a license, you may do that right now.

Except for that, there was a lot of relevant news about online dating business trends, and I’ve prepared a short roundup especially for those who had missed something this week. Columbia University has launched a startup Date my School, which is supposed to reimagine online dating and target people who don’t meet on the computer, and religious online dating niche is gaining an incredible popularity, and Mary Elizabeth Coen wrote a book about online dating, and more.

Colombian University online dating startup:

Balazs Alexa, one of the founders of Date my School: “We looked at why more people didn’t use these services. It has the potential to make your life so much easier in the sense that you don’t have to wait years and years to find the one, and you can find them much more effectively and faster. Our site is geared towards students and alumni of over 2,000 two and four-year colleges, and because of that, we can verify that each person is who they say they are.”

Why more religious people are looking for love in the Internet:

Jen Spencer: “If I said I didn’t want somebody without a Christian background, I would be lying to myself, and wasting my time. With the tensions and conflicts that can exist in a relationship, the foundation of faith becomes an important unifying force.

A charming novel about pursuing happiness via online dating:

The main character of a book learns about love and life and the part that fate plays. “I thought I could meet the perfect man by spreading my net wide as Ella had suggested but it hadn’t happened. I now reverted to my original belief that there had to be an element of serendipity in meeting the love of one’s life.”

Beware of online fraud:

“After a few weeks, out of the blue, he tells me the ship he’s working on has run aground and he needed $50,000 to get it floated, that he was desperate. I was sympathetic, but suspicious. I decided to tell him I could offer him $5,000, knowing that if he was for real, that wouldn’t help, but if he was a fraudster, he’d jump at the lesser amount. He, of course, eagerly asked for the lesser amount, sent me his bank details. I cut him off”.

Psychological view on online dating sites:
Reis, sychologist: “Skimming over hundreds of potential mates can promote a ‘shopping’ mentality, in which people are excessively picky and judgmental. Also, many online daters correspond with one another for weeks or months by computer before ever meeting face-to-face, which has been shown to yield unrealistic expectations”.