Buckley said e-mail had enabled him to be more honest because he knew that if he wasn't, he would eventually get caught. Thirteen months after their first feverish exchanges, Buckley and Ms. Muir lied to their family and friends and sneaked away to Vancouver to meet for the first time. At their wedding one year later, at a winery in Oregon, they finally told the tale of how they had met to their 100 guests. More and more single people, used to finding everything else on the Internet, are using it to search for love. At a time when many people are staying single longer, busy professionals barely have time to squeeze in workouts and rules about sexual misconduct pose barriers to romance in the workplace, the Internet can be a fast and efficient way for single people to find each other, the creators of these services say.
Many singles say they post their ads on a lark, expecting little.
Will Knedlik, a lawyer in Kirkland, Wash., who specializes in suing traditional dating services for fraud, is optimistic about the potential for the Internet to accomplish successful matchmaking. The print personals don't work very well and the expense is very high, he added. With the Internet, the cost is so much less and the transaction time is shorter. One thing the Web has to distinguish it from more traditional personal advertisements is the size of the dating pool. The two companies will eventually be merged to chase after the 66 million single people in the country today who are not only looking for love, but tickets to concerts, said Charles Conn, chief executive of Ticketmaster Online-Citysearch.