Dating Online’s risky connections

Let us therefore address only the aspects of the situation that relate to Internet dating. While undeniably making it easier to meet great numbers of people looking for romance, it has, as you say, made an always risky venture even scarier.

Meeting through introductions from those who knew both people never precluded such unfortunate misconnections. But it does offer certain protections.

One is reputation. The go-between, knowing something of each person’s character and history, is able to vouch for them — and, if wrong, to damage the reputation of anyone who behaved badly. The online equivalent requires accepting the testimony of people who are equally unknown, and being able to warn only other prospects, without reaching the offender’s own circle.

The other protection is deniability. People who frankly declare they to be looking for romance are bound to encounter different interpretations of what may loosely be termed romance. But those who meet socially need not seem ridiculously — if not fraudulently — coy if they make up their minds about prospects slowly under the guise of mere acquaintanceship. They may plausibly become indignant at crude advances. As a bonus, they lack the paradoxically unattractive aspect of someone who is “looking.”

Popularity: 21% [?]

Dating binge began on a whim

Mr. Tjong, a 26-year-old associate at a major New York law firm, was coming off a breakup and wanted to play the field. Out of curiosity, he said, he signed up with an online personals service and posted his photograph — an artsy profile shot in which he resembled a brooding Johnny Depp — In just a day, he got e-mail responses from a dozen women. ”It was a great ego boost,” he said. ”I was amazed it could be so easily done.”

Mr. Tjong began checking the online service Nerve.com several times a day to see how many responses his ad had generated. He posted more ads — and more Johnny Depp shots — all of them slightly varied, Pretty soon Mr. Tjong was going on dates — lots of dates. ”In the first two to three weeks I was meeting people every night,” he said. ”Sometimes more than one date a night.” In just a few short months, Mr. Jong said he went out with around 70 women — usually an after-work drink with the option of an easy escape if things didn’t work out.

Popularity: 21% [?]

A roaring business-online dating

THE battle in the online dating service business has become as competitive as the contest among looking-for-love singles angling for that final rose from ”The Bachelor.”

Market leaders like Match.com, a unit of USA Interactive, and Yahoo Personals, are now turning to well-known creative shops and significantly increasing marketing budgets. Their ads are now showing up in prime time on shows like ”The West Wing” and ”Joe Millionaire,” while promotional efforts have paid off in placements like Match.com’s on the six-part series on dating appearing on ”Today.”

As the stigma of online dating eases, the business is booming. Last year, the industry’s revenues doubled, to $304 million, according to Marketdata Enterprises, a research firm based in Tampa, Fla.

The online services contend they are changing the way people date, becoming a perfectly respectable way to meet other singles. While that contention has yet to be verified by social scientists, the statistics that can be mustered in its defense are impressive

Popularity: 25% [?]