There may have been a mutual attraction before,but both O'Neil and Stephano agree DateSitehurried the dating process along.

"I could just call her up [and] say we shouldgo out," Stephano says.

The say their date last Saturday was a success.After going out on a romantic dinner-for-two, thecouple caught a showing of "Shakespeare in Love"and ended the evening at a party in PforzheimerHouse. At the party, the couple ran into one ofDateSite's founders.

"I definitely told him he's a genius," Stephanosays. "[The date] was great and it's all thanks toDateSite."

The Dating Network

The online dating fever has spread, openingother options for lovelorn consumers. On Monday,the Harvard Computer Society (HCS) unveiled itsonline crutch for dating in the 90s, DataMatch.

In the site's fourth year, students can use thesite for free. They fill out a survey on the siteand on Valentine's Day will receive a list oftheir top 10 matches. Formerly a cooperativeproject between HCS and the Undergraduate Council,DataMatch is now completely automated.

The survey includes questions about a range oftopics, from views on relationships, "Who shouldpay on a date?" to personal opinions, "What bookdo you reach for when you go back to your room?"Survey writer Ashley M. Eden '02 says the team ofwriters tried to create questions that wouldreveal personality type.

"There are answers for the artsy people,computer geeks and heavy drinkers," she says.

Their unscientific theory is that the peoplewith the most answers in common will also make thebest couples. In past years 800 to 1,000 studentshave logged on to find their matches.

Bolen says the nearly random DataMatching doesnot have a particularly high success rate. Bolensays people rarely take action--the most he hasheard of is a friend who received calls from twoof the people on his list last year.

The newest addition to the on-campus computerlove industry is Cupid. Cupid, which workssimilarly to DateSite, is part of a satiricalsite, theSpark.com. Founders Christopher R. Coyne'99 and his roommate Eli W. Bolotin '98-'99 alsolaunched the site on Monday after spending morethan a month developing it. Coyne and Bolotin,however, were motivated by more than justmatchmaking.

"We wanted a college site that was hip andcool, and about dating," Coyne says. "But it alsohelps publicize the rest of our site."

The Cupid creators also rely on word of mouthfor publicity--with success. Cupid has had morethan 4,000 hits, and more than 500 people haveentered their list of crushes. About one personvisits Cupid every minute.

According to Coyne, one difference betweenCupid and DateSite, which Cupid's creators did nothear about until the day before they launchedtheir own site, is that everyone can use the site,not just students.