Communications of the ACM
Online Dating Sites Are a Treasure Trove For Scientists
Appearances count. Meet someone before you make up your mind. And on that first date, don't give away too much.
Database diving into online dating sites, researchers at UC Berkeley's School of Information are providing statistical proof of, well, pretty much everything our grandmother told us.
Romance doesn't lend itself to yardsticks and calculators. But the proliferation of online sites like Match.com, PlanetOut.com, and FarmersOnly.com give social scientists unprecedented opportunities to study who likes whom, and why.
"But I'm not sure we'll ever find the algorithm that eliminates the need to actually get to know someone," said one of the new field's leading researchers, UC Berkeley's Andrew Fiore, who met his girlfriend through a flesh-and-blood friend. "I hope we don't."
From San Jose Mercury News
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