Zoosk Dating Site Review
Pros
- Strong mobile app
- Good for looking for less than serious relationships
- Facebook connect
Cons
- Might not be ideal for serious matrimony seekers
Overview
M So what makes Zoosk different? Besides the large dating pool on offer, Zoosk provides people with a system using their “Behavioral Matchmaking™” called SmartPick™. The site doesn’t make you fill out questionnaires and surveys if you’re not inclined to. It’s certainly available to you, but the power in their system is they take a user’s patterns throughout the site to determine who that user is most suited to romantically or sexually. This general outlook on the site lends itself more towards people wanting a more casual dating experience.Starting Out
Zoosk offers a few ways to approach the site. You can use their smartphone app, directly use their website or even connect through Facebook. All are options for a quick and easy signup process which probably attributes to all their large membership numbers. For the purpose of the review, I went directly to the website. There’s a quick form to fill including your age, gender and preference, and email and password. After which, you are directly to a tutorial on how to message other’s using their proprietary chat interface. It continues by urging you to flesh out your profile a bit more, but I’d say for the most part, members aren’t listing much more than their age and location with a cute headshot. When you’re done with that stuff you are sent right over to the search tab and shown a profile of someone in your general area. I like that they get you down to business right away.How To Find Your Match
The Search screen is quite straightforward and simple to use. Not a lot of useless fluff that you run into with other sites like this. It will initially display profiles that Zoosk deems appropriate to the information you provided on your profile. The profiles are presented to you one at a time, but there is a button towards the bottom that looks like a grid that will present a bunch of them in a tile pattern if you’re in a real hurry.
You can also edit your search criteria if you so desire, searches can be based on lots of factors like age range, location and distance, height, ethnicity, religion, education, body type, etc… When looking at profiles, Zoosk starts you off with a few details like the member’s age and location but is clearly focused on showing you the member’s photo, which will be the main attraction and factor on whether or not a deeper dive into a member’s profile is made. Buttons to “+Add” someone or “Wink” at them appear right next to the photo and if that member happens to be online you can message them too. If you’re interested, you can click to see their full profile to see more info regarding the member. These will include interests and the steps they’ve taken to verify their profile.
In my experience, a Facebook verification is common, but there are ways to improve the reputation of a given profile, like phone number verification, and photo verification. You want to pay attention to these verifications as there are cases where people might not be who they say present themselves to be. Fake profiles are a thing everywhere. Conversely, if this is not something you as a user are willing to provide, then your mileage will vary. I always recommend only being as open or as private as you’re comfortable with. In the digital age, the issue of privacy is something we all can understand and should be mindful of.Unique Features
Carousel is another fun feature on the site that sort of gamifies the process of seeking a mate. Zoosk shows you a series of Profile Photos and users are asked the question “Want to meet her?” The available responses below each picture are No, Maybe, and Yes. After answering for all of the photos, Zoosk chooses a best match for you. Sure, it’s a little shallow and for the most part, a snap-judgement exercise on the whole, it does add to their SmartPick™ system to cater to your specific preferences. And it’s kind of fun.Earning Your Place
Access to the site comes through two means. The first of these is through Coins, which you can pay for or earn by logging in and doing a variety of things, or by becoming a subscriber. Zoosk Coins offer a few ways of garnering more visibility to your profile. You can purchase a “Boost View” where your profile moves to the top of the search results of people interested in you. There’s also the ability to buy virtual gifts to send to other members which are really just little icons that can be displayed on a person’s profile, which I believe is really about demonstrating to other users how desired or popular they are.
A one month membership costs $29.95, and directly from their payment page, "If you do not cancel your subscription prior to the end of its term, it will automatically renew." A three month subscription costs $19.95 a month, billed in one lump sum of $59.85. A six month membership costs $14.98 a month, billed all at once for $89.98. Payment is accepted by credit card, check money transfer or PayPal.
