Regular pagination vs. infinite scroll

I'm currently making a dating site, my choice for pagination is between the traditional:

[<< Prev] [1] [2] [3] [Next >>]

vs

[ Load More ]

The 2nd is the "load more" bar or button that is on a couple of popular sites now like twitter and facebook. Either way the results will be delivered via ajax without page reload.

Being a developer and not a ux person I was wondering what you guys think would be more appropriate and user friendly for a site like this? Basically there is a search form with lots of filters at the top of the page and when the user chooses their options and hits submit the results and pagination will appear on the same page underneath the form.

If I do go with the load more type pagination, would it be better to make it auto loading (i.e. when the user reaches the bottom of the page more results load without them having to do anything) or load more only on click?

I personally find auto loading annoying but I have no idea how the majority of audiences feel about it.

Answer

[ Load More ] is certainly more "friendly" than a set of pagination links, but, importantly, there is no indication of how much more data there is that could be viewed. So you would need to add something else that gives that information - assuming it's available.

If you don't know the total number of matches (thanks @Erics) then [ Load More ] is ideal.

If you know the total number of matches [ Load More ] plus an indication of the total number of matches would be OK, as people are usually only interested in the results from the first few "pages" of matches (Google search results spring to mind here).

You need to answer the following question: Is it important for the user to know that there are 3 (or 5) pages of possible matches or will they be happy to keep clicking [ Load More ] until they either a) find a match or b) get bored?

If it's the former then you need this total and to use pagination, if it's the latter, then go for [ Load More ].

Ultimately I think whether you use auto loading is a personal preference. Personally I find it annoying as I expect to scroll to the bottom of the page and see an indication of how much data there is still left to view, but your users might not.