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Making love a match on the Net
SANTA CRUZ — A couple of local entrepreneurs say they’ve boiled dating down to two elements: chemistry and compatibility.
As anyone with dating scars will tell you, chemistry is the tricky one. Without it, dinner conversations are about as romantic as a congressional hearing. But an excess can leave you too woozy to tell if your date has the brains of a legume.
Santa Cruz residents Aaron Lieben and David Sals hope their online dating service, Romantic Planet, will turn around the dating equation by giving compatibility a bigger edge in matters of love.
They also believe their matchmaking software vastly improves the chances of hooking up with a long-term romantic partner.
Dating services abound on the Internet. Most let users post their profiles and pictures free, but charge a membership fee for people who want to contact other users.
In addition to a written profile, users typically fill out a form stating likes and dislikes in everything from movies to religion. The service matches the likes and dislikes to help make a match.
But love doesn’t work that way, Sals said.
"If likes and dislikes are such a good way to match, then the ideal match would be yourself," he said. "How many people want to go on a date with themselves?"
Instead, Romantic Planet’s program learns from each user’s choices. If Rebecca sees Robert’s profile, and they end up exchanging e-mails, the program makes note of it and moves other members with Robert’s qualities to the top of her list. If she blows him off after one contact, Robert and others with his profile go to the bottom of the pile.
"Over time, the system will direct the right people to you, " Sals said.
Another feature unique to Romantic Planet is its DoubleMatch system, which will set up four people on a double date. Lieben says some members, especially women, feel uncomfortable going out alone to meet a man they met on the Internet. Having four people on the date also relieves the pressure to keep up a constant stream of sparkling conversation, he said.
For group dynamics, "four is the perfect number," he said.
Another feature is called Permissions. It lets users define who they will allow to see their profile — for instance, only people who match their profile, or those in a certain age group. It can even allow members to pick and choose individually who is allowed to contact them.
Like other dating sites, Romantic Planet provides an anonymous e-mail service. Each user’s e-mail is routed through the Web site, which removes the senders address but patches it through to the correct recipient.
Lieben and Sals are promoting the service in the San Francisco Bay Area, figuring that people typically will date within a 50-mile radius — a circle big enough to include Santa Cruz.
The Web site is online now, with about 300 members, but will be officially launched Valentine’s Day. The address is www.romanticplanet.com.
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