Every so often something pops up on our radar which just makes sense, either because its time has come or it meets such an obvious need. So when Matt Connolly sent us details of his new My Lovely Parent site we had to take a look.

The concept is simple and yet blindingly obvious. Provide a place where adult children can post details of their single parent, to help them meet someone new online for friendship, marriage or just companionship. Yes it’s a dating site of sorts, but all done in the most impeccable taste.

The genius of the idea is that a) it makes use of the younger generation’s familiarity with technology and b) it is non intrusive in that no details are given except a profile crafted by the submitter and the subject, plus their first name. The service started out offering match up services for children and a parent, but it has since expanded to include other relatives like uncles and aunts, as well as single friends ‘of a certain age’.

You can’t sign yourself up to the service, it has to be done by someone who knows you, and no emails are ever divulged. What’s more, any account can be deleted completely from the system via a Cancel button in the account management dashboard. The service has only been open a few months and already it’s growing at a clip, although according to Matt there are quite a few more ladies registered than men at the moment. Definitely one to watch.