The giant pulsating brains over at OKCupid have launched a new site which promises short-notice blind dates.
Crazy Blind Date is a place where you can coordinate a date on extremely short notice. Online dating sites are cool but sometimes you just want to go out immediately, with reckless abandon. We understand it’s not for everyone, but it is for social, outgoing, and adventurous people. Oh, and it’s completely free.
Sam Yagan gave me a demo a few weeks ago and had this to say about Crazy Blind Date.
He’s been thinking about the convergence of online and offline.
Dating sites leave it up to individuals to meet offline.
Good for setting up a date down the road.
People want instant gratification.
Nobody has had the guts to take this on.
Crazy Blind Date launched in Austin last month. This week the service went live in Boston, New york City and San Francisco.
Potential dates get verified by providing phone and email contact information, which should catch many of the potential scammers. I can imagine people trying to set up dates with friends then blowing them off. Time will tell who and how people will use the system.
I like that my Crazy Blind Date and OKCupid profiles are linked together. CBD pulls info from my profile.
If you’re running late you can send a message Cupid saying I’m late. Cupid will relay the message to your date.
After the date you are both asked to provide feedback along the lines of did you show up and were you polite.
I believe that a double-dating feature is in the works.
The signup process
First you select if you want to go on a Solo Date, Double Date or Either.
Next, select the location day of the week you want to go out: tonight, tomorrow or some other time.
Then select the time you are available to meetup.
The next section displays a Google Map and series of neighborhoods to choose from. I was pleased to see that Charlestown is an option. Clicking it highlighted the area on the map. Unfortunately, the system responded that I need to select additional neighborhood, so I added the North End.
Next, the system asked me how often I check my email and how long it takes to get to the areas I want the date to occur.
The next page asks for a freeform description of your idea date. I like this feature, it gives you enough rope to either hang yourself or give the other person a thorough idea of what you are expecting. Creativity counts here. I’d love to see an anonymous gallery of what people write here.
Next up, select age range and gender of your date. Then you select the usual body type, ethnicities, religion, etc.
One final screen asking about other potential date nights and this:
Feeling good? Imagine all the nervous women in Boston right now, hoping for you.
The final step is to create a login so you can manage your date(s), rate past dates, and play with our matching system.
CrazyBlindDate gets smarter the more you use it.
The tongue in cheek fun and playful nature of the site makes you feel like you’re going on an aadventure, similar to a mashup of Meetup and a OkCupid.
I’m not sure how the system gets smarter the more you use it. Guess I’l have to go on a few and see what happens.
Rember, I have no idea what the woman is going to look like. It’s an exciting feeling, and CBD did a good job displaying member photos throughout the signup which are blurred beyond recognition.
SMs confirmation comes next, almost instantaneous.
Then you are asked to complete your profile and upload a file, which is blurred to members until after the date. How frustrating! but it makes me even more interested. Who is going to use this? What women are adventurous enough to take the plunge?
Something tells me it’s going to be Craigslist wierd. If you don’t know about dating on CL, it’s worth going to the site and browsing the ads(probably NSFW).
For the final step of the process CBD asks you a very personal question. Mine was, “Under the right circumstances, would you allow a partner to lick your a..? That was a shock, but then again, this is a service for the adventurous.
CBD is definitely for the 20-something CL crowd as opposed to the Match.com masses. Whether or not it becomes popular is up to the marketing machine at OKCupid. Given the popularity of OKCupid, something tells me CBD is going to be very popular with certain niche demographics.
I’ll report back after my crazy blind date.
