Before online dating some of us remember a time when we had blind dates. I, like some of you who dated before Match.com became popular, may remember a simpler time when we couldn’t Google every bit of information about a person and actually had to get to know them, the old fashioned way… By speaking with them.

As I often tell people who have spent much of their adult lives on these services with no success, it seems a person we wouldn’t expect to like based on their profile, could sometimes be the best match of all. After going through all the form-filling of many online dating sites with their scores of questions and complicated computer algorithms which attempt to align Venus and Mars, it seems many just can’t find the right match.

And this is the reasoning behind the success of dating site OkCupid’s new Crazy Blind Date app which basically just connects you with a nearby member of the opposite sex after showing you a picture of you which is perhaps best described as discombobulated. Take a look at these pics to see what they did to me. Signing up takes a few moments and after you take a picture and enter your date of birth, you are presented with a few places nearby in which to meet.

Here are the before and after shots of me

In my case it suggested a number of donut shops which I tried not to take as an insult. Perhaps I thought – this isn’t a jab by the programmers hinting at my weakness for these delicious artery-clogging, saturated fat soaked rings of the devil. But I digress. Once you enter this info you are brought to a matching screen which looks for others to connect you with. You can also scroll through to see people nearby who would like to meet in places of their choice. Oddly, it seems the women presented all were able to choose restaurants and not donut shops but I’ll once again try to stay focused.

Technology and life in general has a funny way of repeating itself. Skinny ties, fat ties, skinny ties. Short skirts, long skirts, short skirts and now it seems the blind date is in vogue. The good news is the odds are the people you meet on such a service have at least one thing in common – they don’t like to fill out long and complex dating enrollment forms either.

Happy dating and good luck.

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