The first time I remember seeing Tickle was in a New York Times banner ad, where you has to pick the next object in a series of pictures. I clicked through and found I had picked the wrong one, and I was hooked. I spent a few weeks taking a lot of Tickle tests, which in hindsight feel like the empty calories I get from voyeuring around Myspace. Fun, but I could have been doing something more productive.
Then Tickle wanted to be a dating site, so it launched LoveHappens, which Monster spun off after acquiring Tickle. To this day, LoveHappens just isn’t happening for me.
Fast forward again to OKCupid, which is making inroads as a serious contender for the title of “#1 test-driven free dating site.” The sheer number of tests at OKCupid make the eHarmony’s mind-numbing questionnaire seem like a walk in the part. The big difference is that you don’t have to take any tests at OKCupid, but then what’s the point of joining?
In response to the rise of OKCupid, Tickle has now added member profiles. I thought they had this all along. Now Tickle is more like LoveHappens, which is similar to OKCupid, which is like PlentyofFish, but with tests.
The casual dating market is chaotic to say the least when compared to the calmer waters of the serious dating sites. That’s the difference between free and paid sites in a nutshell these days.
