Mail-order bride service focusing on Russia and Eastern Europe. At the very beginning of the 2000s TelePersonals launches online and is rebranded as Lava Life with sections for cities across the United States and Canada. The gay section becomes its own branded service. Services in different cities around the Toronto area are launched. As part of an advertising program a selection of ads appear on the back pages of Now Magazine, the Canadian equivalent of the Village Voice. TelePersonals is created as a separate telephone dating system in Toronto, Canada from an earlier "Personals" dating section of a telephone classified business. Eventually people lost interest as BBSs lost out to the World Wide Web, and Matchmaker was superseded by. Matchmaker grew to 14 local BBSs throughout the US.
A bulletin board system for romance started by Jon Boede and Scott Smith. Matchmaker Electronic Pen-Pal Network launches. Messageries roses (pink chat rooms) launches chat rooms for dating (using the Minitel network) started by Marc Simoncini. There were also apparently other video dating services like Teledate and Introvision, but it's nearly impossible to find anything about them online. The service achieved some notability, but it never overcame stigma. Video dating service started by Jeffrey Ullman. Slater calls Cherry Blossoms "one of the oldest mail-order bride agencies". Ĭherry Blossoms' mail-order bride catalog launches. A "computer-dating company" started by James Schur. Questionnaire-based matching service started at MIT.
It was very important to be 'self-aware.' So you'd get ads like: 'Astrologer, 27, psychology student, desires to establish non-superficial friendship with sensitive, choicelessly aware persons who are non-self-oriented, deep, and wish to unearth real personness relationships.' " ĭata-Mate launches. "Everybody was letting it all hang out in other ways," said Raymond Shapiro, a business manager for the New York Review of Books, "so suddenly it was okay to display oneself in print. Slater writes:Ĭlassifieds made a comeback in America in the 1960s and 1970s, encouraged by the era's inclination toward individualism and social exhibitionism. The New York Review of Books personals column makes a comeback. "In one distribution of questionnaires, he drew eleven thousand responses at $4 each, or $44,000 in gross profits, about $250,000 in 's dollars." Used a dating questionnaire and Honeywell 200. "By the fall of sixty-five, six months after the launch, some ninety thousand Operation Match questionnaires had been received, amounting to $270,000 in gross profits, about $1.8 million in 's dollars." In the 1960s there still was no stigma about computer-assisted matching.Įros (Contact Inc.) launches. There was a $3 fee for submitting a questionnaire. Used a questionnaire and an IBM 1401 to match students. Started by Jeff Tarr and Vaughan Morrill at Harvard. Operation Match (part of Compatibility Research Inc.) launches. The first set of matchups was run in 1964.
Joan Ball started the first commercially run computer generated matchmaking company. James Computer Dating Service (later to become Com-Pat) launches. Used a questionnaire and an IBM 650 to match 49 men and 49 women.Įd Lewis at Iowa State University uses a questionnaire and an IBM computer "to optimize the meeting potential at dances". Started by Jim Harvey and Phil Fialer as a class project at Stanford. Happy Families Planning Services launches. Where there are similar services, only major ones or "the first of its kind" are listed. This timeline of online dating services also includes broader events related to technology-assisted dating (not just online dating).