POF Search
Finding love online using the Plenty of Fish search is easy. The POF search will allow you to find members within custom search criteria that you set. POF has multiple search options you can use but the advanced search is the most powerful and the default search option when you use the Plenty of Fish app. To get started using POF search you will first need to login. If you do not have a POF login you can sign up for free and start searching for men and women who are also looking for online dating. If you already have an account and are signed in you can set up your custom search now.
To get started from the website go to POF.com. The top menu will have a button labeled search. Click that option where you will be taken to the POF search area.
Within the POF search you are going to find 3 different options, basic, username and advanced. The Plenty Of Fish advanced search is going to give you the best search filters. This is the most commonly used search feature on POF.
POF Advanced Search
Now that we have selected the POF advanced search, it is time to put the search engine to work.
You are going to see a ton of different options. Do not be intimidated, these are going to help you find a date. This is where you can find the perfect date based on your requirements and who you choose to search for. The POF search will sort by the parameters you set without having to manually search through each profile. Some of the most important options to search by are setting the last visit. This will sort users by their last visit or you can view the newest users. Another useful setting if you are looking for local online dating is to set up the POF search to return results of users in your local area sorted by distance. You can set the maximum amount of miles you are willing to find love. The settings are from 5 to 200 miles away of your current location.
Other search parameters can be set to fine tune your results by almost every condition you can think of. Everything from religion to hair color can be set up here. You may or may not need all of these search conditions, but just in case you do they are there. The fields are not mandatory so feel free to search by whatever you wish to search by.
POF Search, How It Works
The POF advanced search and POF search have multiple fields you can search by. This is a complete list of all of the POF search fields you will find on the advanced search. If you have any trouble understanding what they do or how they work this list should help you out. These same fields apply to the POF basic search too.
I am a
This field is where you select whether you are a man or a woman. Registered POF users will have this auto filled based on their registration information.
Seeking a
Select whether you are seeking a man or a woman.
Age
Select the age range of the potential partner you are searching for. Remember PlentyOfFish only allows you to contact members 14 years older or younger than yourself.
From
The ‘From’ field is where you select the country you want to search for love in.
City or Zipcode / Miles
Zipcode searches will perform a search to query only users who are in a specified distance pertaining to the postal code you enter.
State
You can use this filter to search only a specific state for love.
Minimum Height
The shortest height your partner should be.
Maximum Height
The tallest height your partner should be. Using the height feature will search users who are in between the min and max height requirements you set.
Religion
If you have a religious preference then select the religion you want to include in your search. All major religions are included here. So if Christian dating or Muslim dating are important to you, adjust this field.
Ethnicity
If you have an ethnic preference then you can select which ethnicity you want to search for.
Pets
This field allows you to search whether or not your potiental partner has dogs, cats, birds or a combination of both.
Search Type
The search type field can be a bit confusing based off of it’s name. Selecting attributes from this field will let you find users who are only looking for ‘hang out’, ‘friends’, ‘dating’ or ‘long term’. This is good to search by if you want to attempt to locate someone searching with the same intentions as you.
Education
Here you can select the highest education level you prefer you partner to have. You can select anywhere from an education level of high school all the way up to a PhD. You can also select multiple combinations of any education level.
Family Orientation
Family orientation lets you browse members who have either a strong family centric, average or not family centric. If this is important to you then you do not want to skip this parameter to search by.
Self-Confidence
If self confidence is important to you this search field will let you select from average to above average self confidence.
Profession
The profession search field has a wide array of professions you can search from. Self employed to home maker are some of the options. You can mix these up and experiment with the type of people who will show up in your Plenty Of Fish search results.
Marital Status
When searching by marital status you can find a date who is single, never been married, widowed and even married.
Second Language
Do you want your partner to speak a second language? If you do then use this search filter. This wokes great if English is your 2nd language for example. If you speak another language fluently you can also use this search filter to add to your personal dating opportunities.
Ambition
Looking for someone ambitious or not very ambitious? Whatever your preference is you can find someone who fits your search criteria.
User Wants children?
This is probably one of the most important fields you can use to search by. A lot of people have already had children and do not want any more. Some people simply do not want to have children at all or can’t for different reasons. You can search profiles based on your desires here.
Smokes?
This field will allow you to locate people who either smoke or do not.
Does drugs?
Selecting options here displays users who do drugs or do not use them based on which option you select.
Display Type
Display type will determine how your search results will display. You can select from detailed to gallery.
Drink
Alcohol is not for everyone. If you prefer a user who does not drink you can find profiles of alcohol free daters. If you happen to want someone who drinks you can also adjust this search filter to find POF members who enjoy drinking.
Users With Children
The users with children section will query dating profiles based on whether or not the user has children. Select what your preference is and corresponding users will appear in your results.
Hair Color
If you have a hair color preference, select that preference here.
Sign
Astrology is not too important to most people, but if it is important to you this is where you can find the perfect mate based on what the stars say.
Eye color
Almost the same as hair color. You just select the eye color you want users who display in the search results to have.
Body Type
Body type allows you to display users based on the body type you prefer. Need someone with a few extra pounds? Maybe you want a gym rat to work out with.
Income
Here is where you search for users who fit in the income range you desire.
Easygoingness
Easy going people will want to use this parameter to locate their soul mate via search. Options are average and very easy going.
Openness/ People Dependent
Find your social butterfly here.
Intent
Intent is suppose to reflect the intentions of people who use online dating and their desire of what they are really looking for. You can search by the intentions of others in hopes that they match with you.
Personality
Personality has a bunch of different options from animal lovers to artistic. You can select multiple personality types.
Do You Own A Car?
Display only users who have a car.
Longest Relationship
Longest relationship can be important for some. If you happen to be in your mid 40’s for example and your longest relationship has been less than a year, this may or may not be appealing to someone looking for a long term relationship.
POF Username Search Also Known As The POF Name Search
If you happen to know the username of a POF member you can use the POF username search. This type of search is very simple and straight forward. Start out by once again clicking on the search button. Next step is to select the POF username search tab shown in the image below.
Look for the field that says ‘User Search’. Once you locate this field enter either the username or a partial username of the persons profile you are wishing to view. If you enter a partial username then any POF members with similar usernames will appear in the search results. Browse through them to locate the user you are looking for. If the user no longer has a profile or if their profile is hidden and you have never communicated with them through your POF inbox they will not appear.
The username search can save you a lot of time sifting through dating profiles if you are looking for a specific person.
POF search results
After filling out your custom POF search it is now time to see some results. At the bottom of the search form look for the button that says ‘go fishing’ and click it. Users will be sorted by their last visit to the online dating site. If you want to reset your search criteria, just hit clear. POF will retain your search information so you do not have to fill out the form each time you want to look for a date. This allows for easy tweaking and adjustments.
Your search results will return a number of users that may be suited to you. Browse through the profiles returned and when you find someone you might be interested in, click on their profile to learn more and see if you may be a possible match. If you are using a web browser a helpful tip is to right click and open the profile in a new window or tab. This way your search results are still displayed in the previous window or tab. You can continue to browse where you left off.
Conclusion About The Plenty Of Fish Search
The POF search is a powerful tool to help you find love. Sometimes you can find your match overnight and other times it may take a while. Whatever the case is, it is important to be patient and wait to find what you are looking for. There is someone for everyone if you search no matter if you are using POF UK or the USA version. Since new people appear on the dating site all of the time, do not hesitate to re query the Plenty Of Fish database for love. Some users search daily while others search one per week. Good luck with your POF search!