By Myles Tanzer 10/12/12 1:49pm

Grind It

A gallery of potential "Jewboos"

The Grindr for Jews as Reviewed by Its Target Demographic

The guilt that a Jewish mother imposes on her own children can knot up your stomach worse than fasting on Yom Kippur. And nothing brings out that motherly nag like the institution of marriage, specifically their matronly desire for Jew on Jew marriage–the holiest of holies.

Luckily there’s now Yenta, a location based dating app for young Jewish singles, straight or gay. Upon starting up it tells you to “find your Jewboo.” It’s like Jdate on wheels, or Grindr in synagogue. Tara Palmeri from The New York Post put the app to the test on Thursday. However, as a gay Jew with an iPhone, who’s ready to meet the culturally Jewish husband of his mother’s dreams, we feel better qualified to assess the neuroses that happen when two Jews connect. The app doesn’t expressly promise that it will get you hitched, but we’ve decided to include that as a factor since it’s the endgame for all Jewish singles–or so their yentas hope. Read More

By Kelly Faircloth 9/06/12 12:51pm

XXX in Tech

"Push" his "buttons." (Photo: Badoo)

Badoo CEO Swears His Social Network Isn’t Just for Boning

Badoo–which you might recognize from the aggressive New York ad campaign–is a “social meeting site” with 150 million-plus members. It’s intimately tied up with mobile: You log on and immediately see a list of people in the area you might want to meet, many of them young and relatively attractive. According to VentureBeat, the social network’s sweet spot is single users 24 to 28, especially in France, Spain and Latin America.

Now, what’s the first use case that comes to mind? If you said anything other than hookups, your pants are on fire.

However, founder Andrey Andreev will not have you reducing his service down to the smoosh:  Read More

By Jessica Roy 3/29/12 3:42pm

Modern Love

When the apocalypse comes, you may or may not need this book. (flickr.com/jronaldlee)

Introducing Survivalist Singles: Online Dating for the Doomsday Set

Sometimes it seems like the eligible pool of people on dating sites like OkCupid and Match.com just don’t understand how close the apocalypse looms. Some of us are more interested in gathering wood than sexting pictures of it, if ya know what we mean. A dickpic isn’t going to keep us from freezing to death come the End Times.

Luckily, for rapture rooters and those convinced economic collapse is nigh, you don’t have to face the apocalypse alone. Survivalist Singles, an online dating site for “preppers”–a subculture of people preparing for future large-scale disasters–is here to find you a similarly minded partner with whom you can face the future. Because nothing says “I love you” like a garage full of water bottles and plant-friendly manure created with your own shit. Read More

By Ben Popper 6/28/11 9:55am

Data Dating

Computers Have Helped New Yorkers Find Dates Since 1965

To kick off a fascinating and lengthy piece about online dating in The New Yorker this week, Nick Paumgarten looks at TACT, the Technical Automated Compatability Testing service pioneered by an I.B. M programmer and an accountant from Queens after a visit to the 1964 World’s Fair in Queens.

For five dollars, customers got the chance to answer hundreds of questions where they offered their like, dislike and philosophies of life. Men got to choose their favorite hairstyle, women their favorite scene of a man at work. These answer were transferred to punch cards and fed into an I.B.M. 1400 Series. It got 5,000 subscribers in the first year. Read More