When I decided to research this topic of online dating and courtship, I had absolutely no idea how many sites there were to assist those looking for that special someone. Since there are so many, I decided to limit my research to only three: Match.com, Syl.com, and Eharmony.com.

Match.Com:
“Match.com has one simple mission: to take the lottery out of love. It’s been the idea that’s inspired us since 1995, when we first had the idea of using this new-fangled technology called the Internet as a better way for people to find each other.” When I read this statement from the Match.com “About Us” page, I was surprised to see how passionate the company seems to be about its mission. In addition, I did not know the company was more than 10 years old. In addition, the creators of Match.com claim that using their website is a lot more painless than having to take the chance of meeting someone by networking through ones' various friends and contacts.

Match.com claims to have created more than a million successful relationships; however, to save face for not having an exact number, they claim that no one was keeping track in the “prehistoric” days of 1995. But, these days, they claim to create more than 250,000 marriages a year. As of today, they claim to have over 15 million members. To ease the difficulty of searching through that many people, they have added many features that narrow down your search to you exact specifications. I suppose it is kinda like shopping in a store for ones’ mate. Also, they are “…as diverse as America itself, even though our members tend to be college-educated professionals.” Hmmm…is this supposed to deter people who are not “properly” educated? Can the website be that hard to figure out? I decided to find out for myself; after all, I almost have two Bachelor’s Degrees.

Unfortunately, my foray into the world of Match.com did not last as long as I would have liked. My initial searches resulted in finding no matches. Quite frankly, I did not realize how hard it would be to find people who shared my common interests. So, I continued to modify my searches so that I was not so specific. Well, despite this brilliant idea, I did not achieve success. After only including that I was female, my age, and geographical location, the search engine still claimed that I had no matches. It was at this point that I realized that until I created a “paid” membership, love would not be knocking on the door of my email inbox. So, I moved on Syl.com.

Syl.Com:
Syl Website: Send Your Love, also known as www.syl.com allows a person to search for others who share their interests for free. In some ways, sites like this are very similar to the newspaper singles ads. Instead of just reading what a person typed up and submitted, one is now able to actually see what the other person looks like. Of course, assuming that the picture is accurate, it takes away from the chance of being pleasantly surprised.

However, Syl.com’s claim to fame is that it provides the ultimate platform for dating in the new millennium. Here is the “mission statement:”

“SearchYourLove was found as a free online dating service at the rise of the new millennium. Ever since the beginning, the main goal has been to create the perfect dating website, to enable people of different interests and backgrounds to meet on our free online dating service, and enjoy each others company.”

After my foray into the world of Match.com, I was a little skeptical about the claims of Syl.com. However, once I entered the site, I was pleasantly surprised. Not only was I able to search for a mate, but I was able to receive dating advice from outside sources. At the time that I accessed the site, the creators were planning to post a catalogue with a list of offline and online dating agencies.

Basically, Syl.com offers a complete experience for dating. For this website, I decided to create a scenario. I wanted to pretend to be a recent divorcee who was looking to get back into the dating game. First, I created a user account; unlike Match.com, I did not have to pay to gain full access to the website. After entering the requirements of my search, I instantly found over 50 matches! By the way, I requested men ages 35 to 45, from any geographic region. This search even included people from other nations.

Next, after I made my selections (based on the pictures they provided), I moved on to finding out what to do on my first date. Since I was working under the premise that I had been married for 10 years and recently divorced, it would be safe to assume that I needed a little advice about how to proceed. Syl.com offers the following resources:

Travel Ideas
Health And Beauty Advice
People & Relationships

Business Talk
Singles Life
Dating Insights

Astrology and Stars
Horoscopes
Gambling Addiction

I am not too sure about why gambling addictions should be addressed while searching for new love interests, but I am sure that some users have made good use of it.

Overall, I think that Syl.com is the best resource for online dating. Not only is it free, but support systems (realistic) are offered while searching. And, an important aspect of their search engine is that it allows and even supports same sex searches. My next site, Eharmony.com, does not offer this feature.

Eharmony.Com:
I quickly found out that a requirement for membership into the world of Eharmony.com is a status of heterosexual. While one is picking out user names and inserting email addresses, you must choose between "woman looking for man," or "man looking for woman." Although I am heterosexual, I found this to be very discriminatory. Strike one.

Eharmony.com is probably the worst dating site that I could have found. After several pages of multiple choice “about you” surveys, I thought I was going to go crazy. So, like any other person working through a tedious inquisition, I started to bubble in random answers. However, this website is very sophisticated. The following message popped up:

“We notice that every question on this page currently has the same answer. This usually indicates that a user is rushing through our process, which has a negative impact on our ability to create compatible matches. After clicking CONTINUE at the bottom of this page, you will NOT be able to come back and review or change your responses. Please take a moment to review your answers on this page and complete the questionnaire as quickly, but accurately as possible. Once you have modified your answers, click CONTINUE to proceed.”

I was not happy. I could not help it if my answers were similar. Why did the system get mad at me for being so boring?! Although I wanted to find as many love matches as possible, I was not willing to sit through such personal and quite frankly, boring questions. I jumped ship. Eharmony.com should not be visited by anyone who hates multiple choice tests.