Looking for Love Online

It seems that everyone is looking for love in all the wrong places. If you believe the research from the LOGO Channel – and let’s face it, why wouldn’t you? – then you would know that 48% of gay men now find “love” online. That’s right, gone are the days when you actually had to leave your house to meet that special someone. Now you can just log on and click to your favorite site to find Mr Right or, in most cases, Mr Right now. The biggest trouble is deciding which site will have exactly what you are looking for. Sorry, ladies, I couldn’t find many for you all so this blog is pretty male oriented.

If it’s just a quick hook-up you’re looking for, Manhunt.net offers over 30,000 profiles and allows members to click through and find exactly what they’re looking for. Unlike traditional dating sites, such as Match.com and Eharmony.com, which create compatibility through a personality quiz, Manhunt asks questions about preferred sexual position, scene, and availability. Not exactly a great place to find the next love of your life, but in a sexual pinch you can get on, get together, and get off.

A lot of sites, like Adam4Adam.com are a little less overt about being a hook-up site. They allow the member to write a profile about likes and dislikes, and the reader is given some sort of insight into the guy they’re checking out. However, after the initial subtleties are dispensed with, you are left with headlines such as, “PNP and Fuck All Night Long” and “My Ass Your Cock,” as well as pictures that leave very little to the imagination. As a hook-up site Adam4Adam supplies endless opportunities, but if you were looking for something more substantial you’d probably be better off just hiring an escort.

Speaking of escorts, the saying that you can’t by love but everything else is negotiable seems to ring true when it comes to online dating. Rentboy.com, and Badpuppy.com are two of the most popular of hundreds of websites dedicated to finding umm….company….for the night. With thousands of profiles to flip through, you could have a friendly companion each night of the week, if the price is right.

So you’re looking for a sugar daddy? Well, there may just be a site for you! I recently saw an ad for the Gay Millionaires Club, and let’s just say I was more than intrigued. If you saw the first season of the Anna Nicole Smith show, and I know many of you did, then you’ll remember Anna went to a service that hooked her up with eligible – and often not desirable – millionaires. Well, now the club is not just for overweight, washed-up celebrities; any cute young gay guy can do it. Apparently, rich men need love, too, and this club provides the millionaires the chance to be connected with available singles. The “millionaires” – and I use the term loosely because technically you only have to be able to pay the service fee to be considered a millionaire – have in-depth interviews with matchmakers and a date is set up between their clients and the young schmoos who think that just because a guy has money he’ll be a gentleman. The site is not considered a place for hooking up, or a place to find fee-based exchanges, if you know what I mean; however, if you look at the ads you’ll notice that the millionaires are often coupled with some of West Hollywood’s finest masseurs or escorts that you can also find peddling their wares in the back of any gay rag.

For a more legitimate site with fewer full-on cock shots, Connexion.org may just be your best bet when you’re at least trying to put on the propriety that you are looking for something more than just a hot screw. Connexion was originally based in Denver, Colorado, and is about equivalent to a gay man’s Friendster. With lots of details in each profile, you can read a little bit about the person you’re gonna email, and most of the pictures actually show the person’s face!

And finally, the first and still the biggest site for gay dudes looking for love is Gay.com. Over the last few years this site has become popular with new guys to the web. The site was a little antiquated, but with its new ads asking “Are You Gay.com?” they’re making headway in trying to keep up with the rest of the online world. Now, if only AOL and Bill Gates could follow suit.

In cyberspace, it’s hard to tell the real from the flakes and even harder to find out if the person you’re looking at is thinking about a quick roll in the hay or that white picket fence. But for now, if you are looking for love, you may just have to take the chance. As bars become increasingly louder and more crowded, trying to find that special connection with someone becomes harder and harder because actually carrying on a conversation is almost impossible. Even though the web gives you a private place to get to know someone, it can be just as frustrating as a bar because, especially in the gay world, looks and hookups seem to be so much more important than actual compatibility. So if you find yourself asking if you can find love on the net, first ask if love is really what you’re looking for. BLOG HARD!!!

It’s always a business doing pleasure with you.

– Dylan Vox