Rebooting your love life with online dating

Feb 14, 2013 | News

Online dating the next big trend in dating.

Online dating the next big trend in dating.

By Tatiana Patterson

More than a million people in Canada have tried online dating, according to statistics in a report done by the University of Toronto.

This may not come as a surprise as hundreds of dating sites have been sweeping the web over the years, with Match.com and eHarmony among the many outlets available.

Julia Spira, author of best-selling book The Perils of Cyber-Dating and Editor-in-Chief at Cyber Dating Expert, told Humber radio that dating sites are commonly divided by cost and popularity.

“A site that has a lot of critical mass with a lot of members, such as Plenty of Fish, is going to be a very popular site,” said Spira. “They’re based in Canada, out of Vancouver, but have members connecting from all over the world.”

Spira said that there are websites for almost any preference, ranging from moustaches to older men.

“The best way for someone to be successful is to try more than one and see which one they like the best,” Spira said..

Toronto native and stay at home mom, Maria Davenport, unexpectedly found her match on Plenty of Fish.

She said she was persuaded by a friend, who found her husband through the dating site.

“At first I thought it was cheesy, I didn’t meet anybody at first,” said Davenport. “I was messing around and then I met Romeo one day. I gave him my number, spoke to him and fell in love a week later. It was amazing”

The 25-yearold said she knew of the risks associated with online dating, but didn’t let it stand in her way.

“I made sure I was comfortable with him on the phone first,” said Davenport. “I made sure that we met in a public place, like a local Tim Hortons.”

Prior to meeting her hubby, Maria said that she would receive about 150 messages from different guys each day.

Sam Yagan, co-founder of OKCupid told Nora Young on CBC’s Spark that the larger a dating community gets the more important the matching algorithm is that the site uses to surface the most interesting people.

“Think of it like google,” said Yagan. “The bigger the internet gets the more important your search engine is.”

However, Valentine’s Day is not the busiest day for online dating sites.

According to research done by digital marketers at iAcquire, the busiest time is between January, just after Christmas. Though dating sites do see a peak in activity around Feb 14.

The data was was published on ‘social media today’ today, in a series of infographics.

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