The days of swiping right will soon be a thing of the past!  Welcome to 'PASS' or 'INTERESTED'!

Forget about those 'Like' buttons as it appears that now Facebook is all about true love. Or is it?

Yes, that’s the new blow you away couple of options and buttons to press when deciding on who could become your potential future partner! 

‘Pass’ and ‘Interested’ are the absolute best a billion trillion company can come up with as part of their new dating service they plan to launch. 

As if Facebook hasn’t hijacked enough of your time and life, now they want to take over every aspect by getting involved with your romantic life?

You may be surprised at the timing of this decision, given the amount of personal and sensitive data that comes with this territory, especially in light of Facebook's data crisis involving Cambridge Analytica which has angered users and prompted government investigations.

Apparently, what got the gears turning goes back to 2016 when the company seriously started to consider adding a dating service after the man himself Big MZ posted a photo of a couple who had met on the network via his Facebook page!  And guess what?  Thousands of people who have nothing better to do with their lives responded to his post with similar stories about meeting their partners on Facebook – ahhh sweet!

So why now Big MZ?  What made you decide to put Match and Tinder out of business?  Just generally pissed at recent events?

By launching this dating service, Facebook is asking users to trust it with their most intimate pursuit: their dating lives in the wake of its scandal, even though it assures us it’s been designed with privacy and safety in mind which following the biggest data breach in the company’s 14-year history it’s good to be given that detail!

This is quite a challenge and big fulfilment as a dating service represents a potentially challenging situation especially if Facebook can't fulfil its promise to offer dating services in a privacy-protected and safe way!

However, for a man who can date anyone in the world by any means – would this be the case if he didn’t have millions in the bank?  By introducing this dating service, it could be game over for the dating industry, given FB have a distinct advantage in its vast number of users which could make it daunting for future dating startups and therefore the online dating marketplace could shrink even more!

Facebook’s push into online dating demonstrates how mainstream meeting people online has become as it attempts to matchmake millions of people on the world's largest online social network and nudge them into spending more time there.  The service could help rebuild its popularity among younger consumers and make people visit the site more often so it’s a triple whammy if all goes well!

It’s called – wait for it – drum roll - ‘Dating’

Isn’t that an insane and genius name that must have taken many a meeting, brain storm, thought shower and suggest fest to come up with that one!  Good job I was ‘Sitting’ down as wasn’t prepared! 

A prototype showed a heart shape at the top-right corner of the Facebook app (again I am loving that whole heart – love related icon – who is responsible for the creativeness – could shake their hand!).   If you press on the heart it will take people to their dating profile if they have set one up. 

The initial functionality looks relatively basic compared to those offered by its competitors, but as they have only been thinking about it since 2016 its unsurprising and they have had other things to be concentrating on along the way!

In principle how it will work is that users who feel like sharing  even more of their personal information with Facebook will be able to set up separate "Dating" profiles on the site where, instead of updates from people they know, they will be able to swipe through potential matches using the 'pass' or 'interested' buttons.

Users dating profiles will be distinct from their Facebook profiles and what people do within the dating feature won’t be shared with any of their friends or through the news feed.

This new opt-in dating feature designed for the 200 million Facebook users who describe themselves as single wouldn’t suggest matches between friends, but would show which single people were attending events near the user mirroring the way people date, which is usually at events and institutions they're connected to potential matches will be recommended based on dating preferences, things in common and mutual friends.

The messaging system for the dating profiles text only private messages as unsolicited nude photos are a recurring worry on dating services will be independent of Facebook’s Messenger app or WhatsApp.

It’s going to be in the Facebook app but it’s totally optional and straight from the horse’s mouth (Mr MZ) that it is going to be for building real long-term relationships, not just hook-ups – really?

There has been no confirmation to whether the service would be free, but Facebook doesn’t offer any paid products currently.  However most dating apps are free to try, but then they offer extra services for a fee. Some make money from subscriptions or rolling out premium paid features, so that’s a watch this space…...

Facebook's entry into the growing online dating market sent shares of industry leaders tumbling.  A dating service could increase the time people spend on Facebook (is this possible for some who live their whole existence already through this social media platform) and could be a big problem for competitors.

Would the world would lose if Facebook went away?  Mr. MZ says yes, but that’s after making billions from it and yet more in the bank to come so would he say any different?

I think it would be most excellent if Facebook just disappeared as quickly as it arrived – what would people do?  How would they live?  Who would they tell they bits and bobs of insignificant information to?  Who would they show pictures of food to?  Maybe don’t take it anywhere it would be too tragic to watch!

But as mad as it may seem I too am launching 'Going Out' it’s a revolutionary new social concept which I want to run past you in which people get to know other people in person and they doing something called 'talking'.  It is immense, and I am sooooo excited!  You’re never going to believe it but it’s available everywhere where people are, and it is absolutely free!  Let me know if you want to give it a whirl!