The largest dating service in the Friend Finder network, FriendFinder.com is an international dating site designed for everyone. The site has a very large membership base and offers members a variety of interactive features to make online dating more fun and interesting.

As an international dating service, FriendFinder.com has a very large membership database with over 1.6 million active members (as at Feb 2010) spread across the world. A large number of its members are based in USA, UK, Canada and Australia.

FriendFinder.com is not limited to a particular niche or age group alone so members on the site are a good mix of various age groups looking for friendship, activity partners, casual dates, long term relationships and marriage partners. Members can use FriendFinder.com to find opposite sex as well as same sex partners.

The site has teamed up with ConfirmID in an attempt to verify genuine site members and reduce the number of fake profiles and/or scammers. This is reassuring to some extent. However, the Friend Finder network of sites has recently been under fire for a number of fake profiles and bots on their sites so it is advisable to be careful

Creating an account on FriendFinder.com is very simple and the site is free to join. The basic profile creation process involves answering simple questions about yourself and what you’re looking for in a partner. It also contains several other sections such as ‘Personal Information’, ‘Physical Information’ and also allows members to upload video and audio introductions.

An interesting feature of profiles on FriendFinder.com is that you can create a ‘Personality Type’ profile. By answering a series of introspective multiple choice questions, your personality type is revealed. The site also suggests the most complementary personality types, making it easier for members to analyze their personality compatibility with other members on the site.

In order to make it easier for members to find compatible matches, FriendFinder.com profiles also feature a ‘Cupid Preferences’ section where members can specify what they are looking for in an ideal match, making it easier to search for the “perfect match”.

However profiles can take up to 48 hours to be approved. Gold and Silver members receive priority and are approved quicker.

FriendFinder.com is pretty user-friendly so members are unlikely to have much trouble when using the site. In addition to regular dating site features, the site has a number of other features as well such as member blogs, forums etc. These may be a little confusing for the first time user but are not hard to get used to.

Searching for potential matches on FriendFinder.com isn’t hard either and in fact members can search based on various criteria. Non paying members can specify basic search criteria while Gold and Silver members have access to more advanced search preferences.

Searches can also be filtered based on currently online members, proximity of members, VIP members and the like. Members can also search for new listings that match their ‘Cupid Preferences’ or browse profiles by country and city.

FriendFinder.com offers a number of communication options that members can use to interact with each other.

Apart from the usual chat, instant messaging and email features, FriendFinder.com has some additional communication features that are usually found on social networking sites. This includes the FriendFinder.com member blogs, the magazine (which includes forums and articles written by members) as well as local and topical interest groups.

You will often receive emails from members you have no interest in but replying to all of them is usually impossible. For this reason, FriendFinder.com has a handy quick reply feature with one line replies such as “I don’t think our personalities match”, “Thank you but I am not interested”.

In their attempt to evolve into a social networking site and not just stay limited to being a dating service, FriendFinder.com also encourages its members to build and develop their own ‘Friend Network’ which allows them to share albums, postings etc without making them publicly accessible.

FriendFinder.com has a comprehensive help section that covers a variety of different questions that members may have. In addition, members can also get in touch with the FriendFinder.com team via the online feedback form or postal mail. However there is no customer service hotline listed so if a problem isn’t solved by referred to the FAQ, members simply have to wait until they receive a reply to their email help request.

A basic membership is free on FriendFinder.com but it offers limited access to the site. It is a good way to “try out” the site but a membership upgrade is almost absolutely essential as most site features are available only to paying members.

There are two levels of membership on the site – Silver and Gold. Costs on FriendFinder.com are calculated on a points basis. Members can buy points and redeem them to upgrade their membership as well as to purchase other extras such as profile highlighting, private chat room etc. A 1 month Gold membership costs 4000 points.

Payment by credit card is encouraged and most major cards are accepted. Mailing in checks and money orders is also an option. Paypal is accepted as well.

FriendFinder.com is one of the largest online dating services. It is the flagship site for the Friend Finder Network and seems to be gradually metamorphosing into a social networking service. Being an international dating service, FriendFinder.com has a very large membership database but allegations of fake profiles and bots are worrying as members want to join a dating service to meet a real person, not a bot.

Even so, the site remains popular amongst online daters and its various features make the site attractive to a variety of demographics across the world.

*All prices are quoted in U.S. dollars