Social21 Launches - Social Networking Meets Dating

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Social21, which launched quietly last week, is a new social network crossed with a dating site. All users must be 21 or over and it's limited to the US and Canada for now. The site is the product of AHS Ventures, creators of the singles communities HoustonConnect, DallasConnect and SanAntonioConnect - what's more, all the sites are interconnected. As a result, a lot of the users are from Texas.

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Social21's standout feature is the search function, which provides three ways to find a match. First, you can conduct an advanced search with fields for gender, height, age, looks, occupation, education, interests, location and many more. Second, you can conduct a reverse search - entering your details and finding a member who wants to meet someone like you. And third, you can hit the "Automatch" button, allowing Social21 to match you up with another user automatically. What's more, your searches can be saved for later reference.

Social21 is an extremely strong entry into the dating market, and it's hard to find fault with it - there are neat little features all over the place. The ability to customize your profile would be nice, and the ads are very irritating (particularly the "tags are sexy" banner) - just like Motortopia, this extra stuff detracts from the content. Those things aside, it's a nice attempt. The challenge now is to attract more members, especially from outside Texas - even the most fully-featured sites can't survive without a critical mass of users.

Attention Social21 Users!

Mashable's Social21 profile is here. Assuming the profile doesn't get deleted for being non-human, feel free to add Mashable to your friends list. And if you know a cute blog that Mashable might like, be sure to hook them up. :)

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