I think there needs to be a way to leverage a person's social graph. I'm in a three-year relationship that came about because a mutual friend played matchmaker.
By having the two parties connected to each other via mutual friends you also address some of the safety concerns - perhaps you require someone in the chain from person A to person B to vouch for each of them.
This may or may not tie into an existing social network - the problem with making it tied to Facebook is that not everyone wants to announce to the world that they're looking for a date, for fear of appearing desperate, or because they use Facebook for other purposes (such as business connections). Another potential downside is that a lot of people go online specifically to date OUTSIDE their current circle of friends.
(As an aside, I typed this and was reminded of what my little brother and his friends called the "Friendster game" in college - going through acquaintances' friends to score who had the hottest friends.)
By having the two parties connected to each other via mutual friends you also address some of the safety concerns - perhaps you require someone in the chain from person A to person B to vouch for each of them.
This may or may not tie into an existing social network - the problem with making it tied to Facebook is that not everyone wants to announce to the world that they're looking for a date, for fear of appearing desperate, or because they use Facebook for other purposes (such as business connections). Another potential downside is that a lot of people go online specifically to date OUTSIDE their current circle of friends.
(As an aside, I typed this and was reminded of what my little brother and his friends called the "Friendster game" in college - going through acquaintances' friends to score who had the hottest friends.)