'Meet Me' is the world’s first 3G dating service, and makes us wonder if meeting random people over your phone can turn awkward singles into mobile valentinos in just a few clicks.
‘Meet me’, is apparantly the world’s first 3G dating service, and could be to mobile phones what tap beer has become to pubs. And although we may not quite be at the point of closing down the local watering hole just yet, the dawn of a new digital dating era may have the beer swilling punters video dialing each other well before a sleazy pick up line is even uttered.
The way we meet each other and more succinctly - the way we learn to take that first important step of going from sassy single to the perfect catch is changing, bringing a bustling list of digital match-making alternatives into our living rooms and now, into our phones.
A variety of mainstream and not-so mainstream dating options have burst out into the marketplace – whether it be the thrill of speed dating
for the time poor or workout buddies for the ultra fit. 3G Video dating is just another choice in the search for Mr or Mrs right.
Mobile dating
Mobile dating isn't entirely new. Plenty of services have long existed to take your hard earned money and you've probably seen the late night adverts on pay or free to air telly which indulge loveless souls to send SMS's to any mix of pie-in-the-sky schemes where mystics offer their sage advice to the faithful for $3.00 a txt - which is still probably cheaper than an Australian Idol ringtune. Go figure.
Online dating giant RSVP.com.au remains a virtual monopoly in the Australian online market, with few peers simply because it has many more members than its closest rivals. RSVP continues to expand and offers a range of tailor-made SMS dating choices and most of the big telcos, including the likes of Optus and Telstra, are already on board.
3G Video dating, on the other hand already appears to be well established in the UK under the creative guise of the 3G dating agency, even as the Australian Meet Me service delights in calling themselves first in the world. Regardless of who is really first or second, the idea still has its merits.
How 3G dating works:
Can love conquer all, including dodgy phone signals?
Upon registration at Meet Me, users are asked for their profile data - interests, hobbies, etc. This data is then matched by a computer system that tries to find the best match for each particular person. Potential matches will display a small photo of the user and either match is given the option to accept and receive these 'random' video calls based on the software results.
Meet Me uses an advanced 3G gateway platform called GravityFusion. IVVR (Interactive Voice and Video Response) adds video in addition to voice response technology and the menu looks spiffy enough by reasonable standards to give users the chance to interact without some of the common technological hurdles we've seen other video clients.
Although nothing is as simple as it may sound. Even though the concept of hooking up over your mobile may sound like tech bliss; there are a few things that might derail this sexy concept:
Potential technology problems:
Based on the working model we saw in progress, we're slightly dubious about how successful the initial take-up will be. The concept of anonymous video dating is neat, but the realities of the actual 3G technology, as we discovered in the demo, makes us think this might be still too complicated for some people to bother with for now.
The videos we saw were definitely 3G quality; the kind where the lighting is definitely of the ‘mobile quality’ level (don’t expect to look particularly photogenic in low lighting conditions) and the actual steps required to start chatting appeared to be go over the heads off the less techie-inclined in the room.
Privacy
If you’re not happy with the idea of displaying your profile to millions of random Myspace and Facebook drones and even less confident with the idea of plastering just the good bits of yourself onto the big online dating sites such as RSVP.com.au, then maybe this service could work for you.
At its core, Meet Me encourages instant and anonymous single satisfaction without the drawbacks of online dating apathy. Neither your number or name will ever be shown to any third party unless you decide to give it out.
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