Love on the line: Web services popular way to find date

MEN and women in their late 20s and early 30s are most likely to use online services to find a date, according to research.

And such services are an increasingly popular aid to finding a partner, as one in three people in the 26-to-45 age bracket looking for a boyfriend or girlfriend claim to be using dating websites.

The main reason they take the plunge is either because a friend or trusted source recommended using a site to find that someone special in their lives.

Jill McGrath is managing director of MaybeFriends.com, which commissioned the survey.

“Online dating is definitely in the mindset of those aged between 26 and 45 years, and in a positive way,” she said.

“While a third of respondents are dating online, the others have definite ideas of what they do and don’t want from such a service,”

A little more than half of those questioned in the online research described people who use dating websites as shy, with one in four describing themselves as confident.

However, the latter description was chosen by a significantly higher number of people who had previously used these sites.

Ms McGrath said this reflected a positive experience and ease with the online dating process.

“The type of personality using dating websites is balanced — we have the shy, retiring type on the one hand and the outgoing, confident persona on the other,” she said.

More than four in five of those surveyed believe a profile photo is important, a chatroom facility was an attraction to dating sites for 26- to 32-year-olds and a blog facility was important for 40- to 45-year-old users.

MaybeFriends.com has more than 8,000 members and claims it has seen the numbers logging on doubling in the past five months.