By Jen Nelson
With the click of a mouse, Internet users, besides buying cards, candy and gifts for their valentine, can find one, too.
The number of people logging onto online dating Web sites, which allow singles to get to know other singles via the Internet, has increased greatly, according to a Yahoo! Finance report.
“[Online dating] brings in more revenue than any other category of legitimate paid Web content — more than digital music or business and investing advice,” according to the report.
The Internet’s top online dating Web site according to the report, FriendFinder Inc. (www.friendfinder.com), reported 11.9 million visitors in 2003. Since it was founded in 1996, over 62 million have joined the Web site, with over 20 million members still active today.
Friend Finder allows singles to meet other potential matches in their area, based on users’ criteria. Specific sections based on religion, ethnicity, age and sexual orientation allow singles to e-mail other singles that fall within their critera. Use of the site is free.
Yahoo! Personals, second on the report’s list with 6 million visitors in 2003, allows users to make free profiles for themselves and view profiles of other potential matches. If a user wants to make a connection with another user, however, a paid subscription is required. A monthly subscription costs $19.95.
Among the many online dating Web sites, are sites made especially for college students looking to meet other college students.
Campus Hook (www.campushook.com) is a free site that allows college students to register and make a profile for themselves. Users can then search for others based on school, zipcode and musical taste. Thirty-eight different Northeastern students are listed on the site.
Web sites that allow students to rate pictures of other users allow another opportunity to find dates online.
Web sites such as Hot or Not? (www.hotornot.com) and Face the Jury (www.facethejury.com) both offer options allowing contact to be made with potential love matches.
“One of my friends told me about [www.facethejury.com], and a bunch of people from my town were on it so I would just talk to them and then I would talk to new people,” said Ryan Waskewich, a freshman computer science major, who has dated girls he originally met online. “I usually don’t talk to anyone I don’t know, just girls I know or friends of friends, like girls my friends introduce to me online.”
While online dating may be convenient due to the availability of the Internet, some say it might not be able to replace other common ways of finding dates.
“I think [online dating] is kind of scary, actually,” said Tarek Mokhtar, a senior computer engineering technology major. “Most people who use it have time and are probably nice people, but they don’t have the personality to go out every night and meet people.”
