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Ghost stories
To make matters worse, unscrupulous site operators sometimes stuff their databases with fake profiles maintained either by their own staff or by people they have paid. These "ghosts", in the industry's jargon, are used to draw in new punters and to help keep existing ones hooked. Last year Jetplace, an Australian company, admitted that it had been reunning more than 1,300 false profiles on a matchmaking service that it owned. Dating-site bosses maintain that such instances are rare, but detecting them can be tricky.

Even genuine profiles can be misleading: OkTrends, a blog run by OkCupid, reported last year that users routinely fibabout things such as their height and wealth in order to boost their chances of being contacted. Yet the prospect of a first face-to-face meeting provides a natural check on people's propensity to exaggerate. Some researchers have found that daters tend to come clean about any slight misrepresentations they have made before meeting a potential partner.

Dating sites' claims of matchmaking prowess also need to be treated with caution given that the data on which these are based come from research they have paid for themselves. Prominent sites have also been reluctant to submit their matchmaking algorithms to an independent inspection that would determine their efficacy. Gian Gonzaga of eHarmony, which loves to boast about its patented "Compatibility Matching System", ays the firm won't take such a step because it would reveal the site's "secret sauce" to competitors.

Even without such evidence, Dan Ariely, a professor of psychology and behavioural economics at Duke University, is convinced that the approach to match-making embodied by many dating sites represents a market failure. In a recent book, "The Upside of Irrationality", he argues that the sites treat human beings as if they are goods that can be fully defined according to a set of standard attributes, in much the same way that, say, a digital comera can be described by the number of megapixels that it has and other characteristics. But this cold, drearily functional approach to assessing compatibility fails to capture the indefinable spark that triggers romance.

Helen Fisher, an anthropologist working for Chemistry, a dating site owned by Match, says Mr Ariely's argument ignores the fact that although there is inevitably some magic to love, decades of scientific studies have shown that people tend to choose mates with similar socioeconomic backgrounds, shared religious beliefs and other things in common. It therefore makes sense to look at these factors, as well as exploring people's personality types, in order to narrow down potential matches. "We don't just fall in love with anything that comes along," she notes.

Ms Fisher has a point. But so does Mr Ariely. Even industry insiders acknowledge their models cannot deal with the notion that people from very different backgrounds sometimes fall for one another.

Part of the problem, says Mr Ariely, is that sites have been slow to embrace new ways for people to interact online, such as virtual chatrooms, which would help to foster more serendipitous partnerships.

The industry has also been slow to strengthen security measures to protect those seeking romance from falling into the clutches of frauds, cads and worse. A few agencies, such as True, an American dating service, refularly run background checks on their customers. But they are the exception rather than the rule. As well as weeding out crooks and sex offenders, True also uses official database to spot married people posing as singles.

Mr Evans thinks many online-dating services are reluctant to undertake through background checks because these could put off potential customers. But pressure on them to take action is likely to increase. Last month a new Internet Dating Safety Act came into effect in New York state, which among other things requires dating sites to post safety tips for users on their pages. New Jersey, which passed a similar law a few years ago, requires sites charging membership fees to make clear whether or not they conduct background checks when people sign up.

Portable passion
Safety will become even more of a sensitive question as the online-dating industry embraces what those who work in it see as the next big thing: mobile, location-based dating. Many sites already offer software programmes, or apps, that let users tap into their services via smartphones and other devices. But that is just the beginning of a bar bigger revolution in which people will be given technology that allows them to flirt with other members of a dating service in real time.

Already firms such as Skout and Flirtomatic let users send messages to other members inthe vicinity, whose exact locations are masket for safety reasons. Looking ahead, executives foresee a day when people no longer need to fill in questionnaires on several dating sites. Instead, their personal information will be held on servers in "data clouds" that will alert them automatically when a potential love interest is nearby.

Some dating services are also exploring novel ways to overcome the concerns raised by people such as Mr Ariely. Rather than proposing matches based soley on the results of questionnaires and personality tests, sites sucha as ScientificMatch and GenePartner are experimenting with "scientific" matching methods. By making genetic information the cornerstone of their matching techniques, they are betting that they can find true chemistry between potential lovers.

Such experimentation will no doubt fuel the fears of those who worry that cyberdating is commoditising intimacy and undermining marriages. It is certainly plausible that the Wal-Marts of the online-dating world, with their overflowing virtual shelves of potential partners, have created the impression that a new flame can be found (and an existing one discarded or cheated on) in a mouse-click. But again some scepticism is warranted. Rising divorce rates and a growth in casual dating were apparent well before the first online matchmaking sites came into being. And advertising for love is hardly new: there were classified ads and lonely-hearts columns long before the internet appeared.

It is also true that a site such as Ashley Madison facilitates extramarital assignations. But to blame the service for infidelity is to confuse cause and effect. Noel Biderman, the site's founder, says the idea for his business came to him when he heard people griping that a sizeable percentage of folk on mainstream dating sites were maried and masquerading as singles in order to find partners for affairs.

Some sites - notably in India - have been subject to a different criticism: that they entrench tradition rather than undermine it, by making it easier for people to find partners from the same background as themselves. But at the same time services such as Shaadi and BharatMatrimony have also facilitated numerous so-called "love marriages" in which people have found partners without the intervention of parents or official matchmakers. Like love itself, the world of online matchmaking is full of happy surprises.

しかしエコノミストに掛かると単に出会い系サイト記事も精神科医が出てきたり大学教授のお出ましになったり難解を極めます。

神経磨耗が著しいのと実力不足で解説は省略いたしますのであしからず。
(2011.01.07 20:15:17)

今年もよろしくお願いいたします。

難しそうですね。。。

そちらは暑いですか？(2011.01.07 20:17:05)

恵美子777さん
本当に難しいです。
何かを得ようとすれば何かを捨てなければならない。
たとえ独りになろうとも勉学に励んでいく覚悟を決めました。　はい蒸し暑いです！

(2011.01.07 20:30:16)

この記事は主にアメリカのだが婚活サイトの現状報告で肯定も否定もしていない客観的な立場をとっていて記者の個人的見解はほぼ入っていない、ここら辺りはさすがにエコノミスト、私情を挟まないで文章を書くというのは高い知性を必要とする。

解説などと言えるほど実力がないが婚活サイトを利用する点で記事からの注意点を述べてみます。

まず自己紹介情報だが嘘八百を並べたケースもしばしばあるようだ。　既婚者が独身と偽り浮気の相手を探すのもあるが極端な場合は犯罪者・性犯罪者が悪用することもある。

イギリスから多数の女性があるアメリカ男性に送金していたケースでは詐欺であったと発覚、プロフィールはでたらめであった。

婚活サイト側の会員数見せ掛け割り増し広告が見つかったこともあった。多数の会員が例えあっても実数はそれよりかなり少ないと見たほうが良さそうだし、アメリカ国土の広大さを考えると無意味の人が多い、50km以内で相手を探すのが現実的なようだ。

インドでも婚活サイト人気が高まっている。
常識的に見て同じような経済，教育，宗教などの背景を持った相手を選んだほうが良さそうだ。

過激な妄想や期待を婚活サイトに求めるのはやめよう！

当たるも八卦、騙されるのも八卦、婚活サイト！
(2011.01.08 07:27:20)

これは記事ではないが何かで読んだことでアメリカの刑務所である囚人に異様な数の差し入れが届く。

送り主は大勢の日本人女性，ネットか婚活情報誌で適当な嘘で騙されていたようだ。

イケメンの写真貼って，一流大学卒、身長180cm以上，コンサルタント経営で収入はミリオンとか嘘並べれば騙される女性はいくらでもいるらしい。

ので気をつけてくださいませ！
(2011.01.08 07:35:25)