Lavalife
www.lavalife.com

Pros: LavaLife bills itself as “America’s sexiest dating site.” You can choose between three different communities—Dating, Relationships, or Intimate Encounters—and create separate profiles for any or all three, including a private “backstage” area where you can post photos and videos that can only be viewed by the members you grant permission to. The service is ideal for singles that are looking for immediate gratification because it offers Web, voice, and mobile-based communication tools so you can set up encounters on the fly. You can do a basic search, view a portion of member profiles and send and receive “smiles” for free. After you fill out a basic profile, you can respond to any e-mails you receive for free though you can’t initiate an e-mail correspondence without a paid subscription.

Cons: The site pops up windows for almost everything you click on, which is irritating and confusing. When you first sign up, your profile is automatically slotted into all three communities, so you have to manually change your preferences if you don’t want your profile to appear in a particular community. It can be off-putting to see a member’s G-rated profile in the Dating or Relationships communities and then see the same member with a much more sexually explicit profile in the Intimate Encounters section.

Talent: A real mix of normal and creepy. Creepy examples: a photo of a guy who claims to be 46 (but looks older) emerging from the water wearing a wet unbuttoned white dress shirt and jeans a la the cover of a romance novel; a guy who claims to be 41 but has a photo of a multiethnic teenage boy on his profile.

Make it work: This site isn’t for the squeamish, prudish, or faint of heart. If you’re young, fun, open-minded, adventurous, and want to meet lots of different people, then LavaLife could be the right online hang for you. If you’re serious about finding a serious relationship, you might want to go elsewhere.

Need to know: LavaLife only offers two subscriptions levels: $18.99 for three months and $29.99 for one month. There’s also a LavaLife Prime for singles 45 and older.