Collegiate Times

A new Facebook application recently developed allows users to potentially meet people online who they are interested in dating.

The new application has the unique feature of anonymously clicking on someone's profile, letting them know you are interested in them, without having the person know unless they click on your profile as well. The application was developed by IamFreeTonight.com, and is currently the most-used dating application on Facebook.

Cliff Lerner, CEO of IamFreeTonight.com, said the application is simple and easy to use.

"All you do is type in your information such as your country and state, and basically we'll just show you pictures of people and where they are located," Lerner said. "You can just click whether you like them or you don't and you can do that anonymously or you can tell the person. If you click it anonymously, then they will not know unless they click you too."

The application has been out for two months, has over two million people signed up and has over 200,000 people logging in every day to actively use it. The application stemmed from the popularity of the full-fledged dating Web site. The Web site is much more in-depth versus the Facebook application.

"On the Web site, you can put more information on your profile than you can on the Facebook application," Lerner said. "It's better advanced searching and you can search down within your zip code, college, ethnicity, religion, interest and all of that."

In addition to the Web site enabling users to have more information on each other, the Web site also has two features that no other dating Web site has.

"One concept is called Date Now. This is for people who are not so into e-mailing back and forth for days or weeks and they would rather just post when they are free to go out and then other people can just contact them when they are free to go out that night, too," Lerner said. "It's kind of like a calendar. You can check off the date you are free and then you fill in the activity you want. Then you can go to a separate part of the site where you can search for the day of the week that other people want to go out, too."

Jennifer Litt, public relations representative for IamFreeTonight.com, says the other feature, called Wing man, is especially useful for college students. The Wing man feature allows users to ask friends online to be a wing man. You can then search for people who want to go out on double or group dates.

"I think the number one reason the Wing Man feature is so beneficial to college students is because you are able to meet people through groups on the Web site, which other Web sites do not have," Litt said. "There is always safety in numbers"

Jenna Nichols, sophomore communication major, thinks the application is a good idea.

"Facebook is used to socialize anyway, so this is a good feature because it just gives people easier ways to do it," Nichols said.

Students can find the Facebook application by going to the directory of applications on Facebook and searching for the "Are you Interested?" feature, as well as by typing http://apps.facebook.com/yesnomaybe into their browser.