Couple finds love online

The Rapid City Journal: "Couple finds love online
By Mary Garrigan, Journal Staff Writer

Newlyweds Steven and Cheryl Smart look a lot like a commercial for eHarmony.

In fact, the Rapid City couple could be one.

The Smarts are among the estimated 8 million people who have filled out the online dating site’s exhaustive 436-question personality profile in the past five years. More importantly, they are among the more than 90 eHarmony clients who now tie the knot on an average day.

According to new polling data from Harris Interactive, there were an estimated 16,630 marriages between eHarmony couples from September 2004 through August 2005.

Those numbers are proof that eHarmony’s patented Compatibility Matching System works, says founder Neil Clark Warren, a clinical psychologist and relationship expert who launched the site in 2000.

It worked for the Smarts. Their compatibility — discovered online and later proved in person — is evident as they talk about their online romance. They intertwine fingers, touch tenderly and smile constantly.

They met on eHarmony’s Web site in July 2004, nine days after Cheryl, the single mother of a 12-year-old son, registered with the matchmaking service. She had rarely dated in the eight years after her divorce, content at age 42 to raise her son, run her Rapid City hair salon and be single.

“My sister made me do it,” Cheryl explained of her first foray into online dating. “It was completely out of my comfort zone. Internet dating? It seemed so creepy, so sleazy.”

That negative image of Internet matchmaking is rapidly being replaced by the idea that online introductions are simply another way to meet people. Increasingly, Americans of all ages are turning to online dating services such as Match.com, Yahoo Personals and SeniorsCircle.com.

Two out of every five single people have tried Internet dating services, and its revenues are expected to grow to more than $640 million by 20"