Idea: Social Web Dating
Problem: I've tried a lot of internet dating websites out there and one of the best is http://www.plentyoffish.com/ . It's free, I get the best responses from people here, and it works. The only problems I have with the site are sometimes the girls pictures are very mis-representative (the classic "myspace pictures") and its difficult to build common ground before a in person date, I don't know if we have any friends in common, interests, etc.
A really good company trying to change this is Thread.com one of the fbFund winners. They want to connect dating with your facebook profile so you an see your friend connections and introduce each other to potential dates, think match making.
My only problem with this site is its not explicit that the people on there are looking for a date and I'm not sure if I'm comfortable introducing someone looking for a date to my friends.
The Business idea: So the idea is to create a site very similar to Plenty of Fish but to connect it to your facebook profile to populate all the information quickly and be able to see shared connections etc. But the catch is other users on the site won't be able to see your full profile until each person agrees. For example if I see a cute girl on the site I'll send her a message saying I would love to get to know her and ask if I can see her full facebook profile.
I already do this already, when I see someone on Plenty of Fish I want to get to know more I ask them to friend me on facebook. Then we can both see our shared connections and interests, chat on facebook, and if we both click we can go on a date.
The site would explicitly feature people looking for a date, unlike thread.com, and take advantage of all the social network features faecebook connect has to offer.
That’s the rough concept. If anyone is interested in taking this on I’d love to brainstorm with you about it and share more about the concept. Send me an email if your interested chris.r.mccann [at] gmail.com