TIME -- Jan 19 -- HonestyOnline takes the lie out of online. "It's an extra layer of protection to determine if a guy is Jack the Ripper with three wives," said William Bollinger, EVP National Background Data, a database used by HonestyOnline. At iDate 2007, vendors demonstrate ways to meet, court, virtual date and even marry without ever leaving home. OmniDate can place you in a virtual restaurant with an animated date. On Mobilove, I scrolled through profiles and sent text messages. Already 500,000 Americans have posted their pictures and mini profiles on their cell phones, and users are growing by 20% every month, according to Mobilove VP Nils Knagenhjelm. Thanks to Vumber you can get many numbers with only one phone. If the person dialing one of the numbers turns out to be a less than desirable caller, poof! the number disappears with a few keystrokes. "You can vanish without a trace," said Geoff Schneider, Vumber's EVP. Plenty of Fish, with 400,000 hits a day, was created by Markus Frind, who still runs it out of his apartment. He figured out people essentially exaggerate on profile answers. He follows a more sensible creed: actions speak louder than words. For example, Susie says she wants a solid, stable man who earns $100,000-plus but keeps clicking on profiles of muscle-bound bad boys. Plenty of Fish makes sure she meets plenty of underemployed weightlifters, and some of the stable ones she ignores. "People don't even realize we do this. They just know they are getting results," said Frind. Chris Walker is experimenting with behavioral matchmaking. An early innovator, he started in the 1960s with punch card computer dating. After years of matching people, he now focuses on how people choose to spend their time. "The personal touch still blows away everything else out there," says Paul Falzone, CEO of The Right One and Together, an old-school matchmaking dating service.
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