Finding Love Online

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - If you're single than you know how hard it can be to find the right one, but hundreds of online sites are designed for just that purpose, and if you're open to a new experience, many couples say it could lead you to love like it did for them.

The internet is the go to resource for information, job searching, and now, dating, the word alone evokes emotion from single people of all ages.

"It's tough, it really is, its tough," "It sucks, I don't even want to date."

Meeting people at bars and clubs or through a friend seems to be the conventional method for most people but almost no one would argue it takes a lot of effort and time.

"If you look at the lives of professionals they're extremely busy, they're focused on working, they are involved in the community and most of them have families," says Felicia Carson, from Cupid.com

Before the internet there wasn't another option for singles looking for love, but now Felicia Carson whose worked with online dating site Cupid.com says over the past couple years the internet has changed that and opened up a whole new world for people to find their match.

"Since the club scene is not their cup of tea online dating has provided them with the opportunity to meet other individuals with whom they share the same interest with," says Carson.

But Carson says in the past there's been a negative stigma associated with dating online, which has deterred many people and though she says its gotten better, its clear it still exists.

"For me I feel like online dating is something that people, it's really like a last resort to me," says single Frank So.

Andy Dean is very familiar with that stigma; he met his wife Annette on Matchmaker.com ten years ago.

"Even after we got married people would say how'd ya'll meet and we'd say, ugggg we met on the internet, ha-ha, because people thought you were a freak, but it really wasn't bad at all ," says Dean.

In fact, Dean says it was better than conventional dating, with online dating a person posts a profile with pictures, likes and dislikes and personal information to help you filter who you want to communicate with. Dean says between staying busy running his own television production company, and tired of conventional dating, he found communication through email as a perfect beginning to a new relationship.

"We both found ourselves running back to our computers going wow, we got mail."

After months of phone calls Annette and Andy met and got married a year later.

"Its great and I always joke and tell people I got Andy for $18.95, ha-ha," says Annette.

Datingsitereviews.com lists Eharmony, Match.com and Yahoo Personals as the top three most popular sites, but there are also sites for a specific religion like Catholicmatch.com, even for hobbies like DateAGolfer.com. Membership ranges from free like Datehookup.com, to a monthly free of $60 on Eharmony.com.
But LeDonna Marie Grubb who used to run Meetfundates.com says there's also an option to browse before committing.

"Almost all these sites have free access for a week or sample type program so you can go on and filter out and see which one works best for you ," says Grubb.

The sites also range on how in depth they get. On sites like match.com people can browse other people's profiles to choose who they want to communicate with, whereas on eharmony.com there's a long question and answer test to take and they match you anonymously with people you have similar interests and values with.

'"If you wanna date someone whose looking for marriage looking to have children you can put that down specifically and they will match you with someone who is also looking for marriage, looking for children ," says Grubb.

Many singles who date online say it filters out people better than meeting at a bar.

"Online dating seems to be much easier you can communicate a little better and actually get to know the person before you meet them," says single guy, Don Cipriani.

This day in age social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook are also creating love matches. Tired of the bar scene, Jeff Amidei searched on MySpace and found his wife Carolina.

"It is an easier way I knew so many things about her just by going and looking at her profile," says Amidei.

They started with emails and chats, then phone conversations, then finally in person.

"When we met it was like love at first sight, ha-ha," says Carolina.

And two years later they got engaged, and are now about to celebrate their one year anniversary. Not that they both didn't have their reservations about meeting someone over the internet, and Scott Augenbaum with the FBI Cyberdivision says people do need to be careful.

"You don't want to meet someone online and give them your name, date of birth, home address and have them come to your house because you really don't know who it is ," says Augenbaum.

Augenbaum says you shouldn't be afraid to ask your match for proof of employment and identity. he says its a good idea to meet in a public place on your first date and to use common sense.

"One of the comments I say is if its too good to be true it usually is," says Augenbaum.

Of course online dating isn't for everybody.

"For some people maybe but not for me maybe for couple other people just because I think the emails they get lost in translation sometimes and sometimes the pictures are a lie," says one single gal.

But for couples like Andy and Annette Dean, they say internet dating was a leap of faith that led to love!

"It kinda opens your world up to a larger area, not just dating people on your city but you know there are options out there and if you're willing to move you can find something wonderful," says Annette.