Update on the Dating Scene

One in 10 web surfers use online dating sites, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project. The market leaders, according to Hitwise, are sites like Yahoo! Personals, True, and Match. While you would think that social networks like MySpace would cut into the traditional web dating scene, these sites continue to grow. In 2000, a mere quarter of a million people logged on to dating site Match.com. According to Marketwatch, there are 3.2 million visiting Match from home each month; 4.9 million, if you include those checking out their prospects at work.

The envelope continues to be pushed with new, creative ways to find who you're looking for in the dating world. In the last few years, speed dating or predating—for those who want to plow through potential date lists in a more businesslike fashion—has evolved. Other sites concentrate on special niches, including sites like Married Secrets and Affair Match, catering to those who are already married and who, according to Married Secrets, make up 30 percent of the online dating market.

Other novel twists on the theme?

SearchPlates.com lets you send an email to someone based on their license plate number. Just jot down the plate number and enter it in the site to send a message. Of course, this is predicated on people registering their license plates and corresponding email with the service. This year you'll see "mocial," mobile social networking, combining GPS locators with dating preferences so you can confine your search to a specific geographic location.

And if you think online dating is going a bit over the top, so have the ways to track your conquests. MyBlackBook.org is an online diary/database that tracks your sexual activity and stores it on the web. Some things, I'm convinced, are still safer tucked away in the back of your night table drawer.