74 percent of singles look for love online.  Isn’t that a staggering number????  Is it because people can’t communicate anymore in person?  Are our friend’s rubbish and don’t introduce us enough to their eligible single friends?  Do people not meet at work, at bars, while doing charity or just out and about anymore?  The fact that 74% of people look for love online is crazy to me.  I have been doing the online thing for years and have in fact been to quite a number of weddings of friends who met online –  obviously not my own!   It is really just not the way I want to meet someone, but if 74% of people are doing it then there is only a tiny other 26% who meet someone in other ways.  So, if you can’t beat them you join them – right?  Ugh.

I was watching Nightline last night and they were talking about a site called okcupid.com. I have actually never heard of this site before so took a little look. The site was created by a group of Harvard math geniuses.  Their success is partly that their site is free but more because they have a unique way of looking at things – or so they say.  It seems like a free eHarmony to me, only a little more risque.  I obviously cant truly judge without knowing more about it.  It is just amazing how many sites are dedicated to meeting that special someone.

Here are some other interesting facts about online dating…

■       113 million people visits online dating sites a year – crickey!

■       In 2011 the online dating world is expected to gross $932 million.  How does one get into this business?

■       There are literally 10s of thousands of dating sites worldwide!

■       Men who start messages with “howdy” have a 40% more success rate than those who start a message with “hey”.  Well, howdy partner 🙂

■       Women who show cleavage in their profiles have 79% percent more success than those who don’t!  I am just not sure I could bring myself to show my cleavage online.  Maybe just a little sneaky peak?

■       And… iPhone users have twice as much sex as Blackberry users.  Huh?  Well that is where I am going wrong!  I am a BB user!  How on earth do they know this stuff?

okcupid.com does have a rep for a being shallow, according to Nightline.  With using math they worked out who is in whose league.  Apparently, they tracked user reactions to profiles and worked out if you are 1, 2 or 3.5 out of 5.0 attractiveness, and depending on what you are then you shouldn’t be “shopping outside of your price range.”  Hmm, not sure I want to be rated on my attractiveness?

In looking at okcupid.com, just briefly, the site may be geared more towards the younger crowd but maybe if I have a few hours to indulge in really looking at it, I might give it a try.  I did see a lot of the same guys as those that were on Match.com.  To be honest, I found the thought of doing all this again completely overwhelming so I closed my computer and made a cup of tea to enjoy with a biscotti instead.  Now I am happy.