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Kizmeet.com: Less Creep, More Meat
Kizmeet, the first site solely dedicated to finding missed connections, was launched in Toronto this week. The latest incarnation of the interwebs as cupid mixes serendipity and strategy: “With Kizmeet.com, you’ve already felt the spark –- you just need to find the person again.”
Searching online for a long-lost someone or nameless crush isn’t a new phenomenon — Craigslist and NOW offer this service, but Kizmeet differs by filtering posts through nine categories according to location and a keyword search — a boon to the ambitious narcissist in us all. The appeal is undeniable: these sites garner a tremendous amount of traffic, and a large part of this is arguably from people more interested in whether they’ve been surveilled than those actually searching for someone.
While the internet has proven itself to be a useful tool in finding a mate (however you define that), Kismet, as a concept, demands reciprocity. A read through Craigslist’s “Missed Connections” reveal posts that go from cute and seemingly benign to absolutely terrifying (one in particular requested help in finding the address of a Toronto bartender, since the object of affection hadn’t responded to the postee’s declaration of love).
To Kizmeet’s credit, safety is of particular concern. This makes the site a better option, especially for women. It has a list of common sense tips for safe navigation, and repeatedly recommends using an email address that doesn’t reveal personal information (an initial post is anonymous, but any subsequent contact is through email). It also has the option to flag something particularly offensive or creepy, and according to Kizmeet’s co-founder Mark Jaffe, they would consider deleting a post if the intended recipient is made uncomfortable. Another benefit is its emphasis on a post’s textual specificity: as of yet, you can’t upload a photo, thereby helping to weed out the insincere and/or mentally infirm. For most, such disclaimers can be filed under “le, duh,” but a fire in the loins coupled with anonymity can breed stupidity, and Kizmeet appears to have taken this into account.
Photo by sandela from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.